📊 Poll

How thick do you like your gravy?

The question that divides every dinner table.

Show results (3 votes)

Watery 33%

Gloopy 0%

Normal 0%

Dense 67%

Spreadable 0%

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🧂 Ingredients

Stocks, bones, onions, wine, browning, flour and everything else in the jug.

22 pages in this section

The fat that comes off the joint, and what to do with it

Dripping is rendered beef fat, skimmed from the roasting tin. It is the traditional fat for roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings and the roux of a beef gravy.

Roasted bones, long simmering, and the difference between stock and brown water

Beef stock is the base of most brown gravies. A proper one is made from roasted bones simmered for hours, and sets to a jelly when cold.

Stout and ale bring depth and bitterness — manage the bitterness

Dark beer makes an excellent gravy for beef, sausages and pies, but it must be reduced and usually balanced with a little sweetness.

The most useful stock in the kitchen, and nearly free

Chicken stock made from a roast carcass is the cheapest good stock there is, and the base for chicken, turkey and many vegetable-forward gravies.

The natural partner to pork, and the West Country's contribution

Dry cider deglazes a pork tin better than anything else, bringing apple acidity that cuts through fat.

Twice the thickening power, half the patience required

Cornflour is pure maize starch. It thickens fast, gives a glossy translucent finish, is gluten-free, and thins again if boiled hard.

Cream and milk in gravy

Richness, rounding, and the risk of splitting

Dairy softens and enriches a gravy, but it splits if boiled and should generally go in at the end, off the heat.

Dried mushrooms

Ten grams of porcini, and a vegetarian gravy gains a decade of experience

Dried mushrooms are among the most concentrated sources of umami available, and their soaking liquid is as valuable as the mushrooms themselves.

The browned residue stuck to the tin, and why it is worth more than the meat juices

Fond is the dark, caramelised layer of meat juices that dries onto a hot pan. It is the most flavour-dense material in gravy-making and dissolves readily in liquid.

The bag inside the bird, and the best free ingredient in the kitchen

Giblets — the neck, heart, gizzard and liver supplied with a whole bird — make a stock far better than any cube, and the basis of giblet gravy.

Colour in a bottle, and no flavour to speak of

Gravy browning is caramelised sugar dissolved in water. It darkens gravy instantly and adds essentially nothing else — which is both its virtue and its limitation.

Which herb goes with which meat, and when to add it

Woody herbs go in early and are removed; soft herbs go in at the end. Matching the herb to the meat is one of the simplest ways to improve a gravy.

In the gravy, or beside it — the most contested question in British roast dinners

Mint sauce is chopped mint in vinegar and sugar, served with lamb. Whether it belongs in the gravy is a matter households do not agree on.

Mustard in gravy

Sharpness, and a quiet helping hand with emulsification

A teaspoon of mustard sharpens a gravy, and its natural emulsifiers help keep fat suspended rather than floating.

Onions in gravy

The most important vegetable in the jug

Onions contribute sweetness, body and colour to gravy — but only if cooked long enough for their sugars to caramelise.

The default thickener, and how much of it you actually need

Plain wheat flour thickens gravy through starch gelatinisation. It must be dispersed in fat or cold liquid and cooked out, and 30 g per 500 ml is the standard dose.

Red wine in gravy

Deglaze with it, reduce it, and do not use the cooking wine

Red wine adds acidity, depth and colour to beef and lamb gravies — provided it is reduced properly first.

Redcurrant jelly and other sweet additions

Balancing salt and richness with a spoonful of something sweet

A teaspoon of redcurrant jelly, cranberry sauce or sugar balances a salty or over-rich gravy — a technique inherited from the medieval sweet-sharp tradition.

Roasting juices

The single most valuable liquid in the kitchen

The juices that collect in a roasting tin and under resting meat are concentrated, seasoned and already full of gelatin — and most of the flavour of a good gravy.

What they can do, what they cannot, and how to use them well

A stock cube supplies salt and savoury flavour but no gelatin. Used knowingly it makes decent gravy; used as a substitute for technique it makes salty brown water.

Worcestershire sauce

Acid, salt and umami in one bottle

Worcestershire sauce is the most useful single bottle in gravy-making, supplying acidity, salt and umami at the same time — and it descends from the mushroom ketchups of …

Half a teaspoon of Marmite, and a vegetarian gravy stops tasting thin

Yeast extract is a concentrated source of glutamates — the single most effective umami shortcut for meat-free gravy, used in tiny quantities.