Here ya go John. This is how I put the recipe together from the beginning. I'll note the changes to it in a bit
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup AP flour
1 t black pepper
1/2 t salt
4 cups of milk
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Whisk in the flour, salt, and pepper until smooth. Cook and stir over medium heat until just starting to turn brown (about 10 minutes). Gradually stir in milk so that no lumps form and continue cooking and stirring until thickened. If gravy gets too thick, add more milk.
Ok...I've upped the pepper to about 3x as much and upped the salt just a bit. I'm also giving consideration to using buttermilk next time after the fantastic results I got with the mac & cheese. I'm also wondering if using a stick of butter instead of oil would be a benefit. I think it would and will most do that next time. In the batch shown in the pic, I also added about 1T of granular beef bouillon That REALLY added a deeper, richer beefy flavor and will be used all the time going forward.
Gotta run....pub is calling,
Robert