🧂 Ingredients

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.

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.

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

Broth is a seasoned cooking liquid, usually served thin or used as a base for soups and sauces. Gravy is a more concentrated sauce, commonly thickened and made to accompa…

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

Garlic adds savoury depth and aromatic warmth to gravy, but its flavour depends greatly on whether it is fried, simmered or roasted. Used carefully, it supports meat, veg…

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.

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.

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.

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.

Mirepoix is a mixture of diced onion, carrot and celery cooked gently to flavour stocks, sauces and gravy. It contributes sweetness, savouriness and aroma, usually being …

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

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

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

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.

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.

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 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 …

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