THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Wednesday, April 17, 1996              TAG: 9604160091
SECTION: FLAVOR                   PAGE: F1   EDITION: FINAL 
COLUMN: Morsels 
SOURCE: Ruth Fantasia 
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   53 lines

FOR HARRIED COOKS, IT'S HARD TO TOP EASY GRAVIES

MAYBE IT'S MY own culinary inadequacy, but gravies and sauces seem to be the hardest things to make. They're either too thick or too thin, too salty or too floury.

Many nights I've wished I could make gravies like they do in some restaurants: Add a base, a concentrated gravy or sauce, to water and stir. Voila, 50 servings of gravy.

But bases have not been readily available to home cooks. L.J. Minor, a nationally known manufacturer for the food service industry, sold bases by mail order for a while, but the program wasn't successful.

Fortunately, two of Minor's customers, David and Heidi Seivers of Cleveland, couldn't take ``no'' for an answer. Because they could no longer buy Minor's products, they started Allserv Inc., a mail-order service for L.J. Minor.

Allserv has taken Minor's most popular products, converted the measurements for fewer servings and sold them to the public. Minor still makes the bases in restaurant sizes (an 8-ounce carton base makes about 2 1/2 gallons sauce) but the products last at least six months in the refrigerator.

Choose meat bases in bacon, beef, ham, pork and veal flavors; poultry bases in chicken and turkey; seafood bases in clam, crab, fish, lobster and shrimp; and vegetable bases, such as garlic and mushroom. Or choose from classic sauces such as Hollandaise, Alfredo and au jus, or Chinese sauces like sweet and sour or garlic and black bean. Most bases are available without added MSG.

Prices range from $4.75 for an 8-ounce bacon base to $17.50 for a 16-ounce shrimp base.

Along with your order you'll receive nutrition information, preparation tips and ideas, instructions for making less than whole container portions, and recipes.

For a catalog, call Allserv at (800) 827-8328. Tip for coffee lovers

Aside from beaches and sea breezes, java lovers have another reason for living near sea level.

According to a report from Knight-Ridder Newspapers, Michael Wilkins of Boulder, Colo.'s Allegro Coffee says ``it's impossible to make a great cup of coffee in Vail'' or other high elevations. The ideal coffee brewing water temperature, says Wilkins, is 206 degrees. Water boils in Vail at 196 degrees, not nearly hot enough to extract full flavor. by CNB