Gravy without drippings

Most gravy recipes assume you have just roasted something. This one assumes you have not — you are making sausages, or a pie, or reheating yesterday's roast, and there is no tin of juices anywhere.

The trick is to recreate, deliberately, the three things a roasting tin would have given you: dark browning, savoury depth and fat.

Ingredients¶

Serves 4 · 20 minutes

• 2 tbsp butter, dripping or oil
• 1 onion, thinly sliced (optional but transformative)
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 500 ml hot stock
• ½ tsp yeast extract
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce
• Optional: 1 tsp tomato purée, a few drops of gravy browning, a splash of red wine

Method¶

1. Melt the fat in a saucepan and cook the onion over a medium heat for 12–15 minutes, until dark golden with properly browned edges. Do not stop early; this is your roasting tin.
2. Stir in the tomato purée, if using, and cook for 2 minutes until it darkens.
3. Add the flour and cook for 3–4 minutes — longer than usual, so the roux takes on colour. It should reach the shade of milky coffee and smell toasted. See making a roux.
4. Whisk in the hot stock a ladleful at a time.
5. Simmer for 10 minutes. This is where reduction does the work that concentrated pan juices would otherwise have done.
6. Stir in the yeast extract and Worcestershire sauce. Taste, then season.
7. Strain out the onion for a smooth gravy, or leave it in for an onion gravy.

The browning ladder¶

If your gravy is pale and tastes thin, work down this list in order — each step is more effective than the one below it.

1. Brown an onion properly. (15 minutes, biggest single gain.)
2. Take the roux darker. (2 extra minutes.)
3. Cook out a spoon of tomato purée.
4. Add ½ tsp yeast extract or 1 tsp miso.
5. Reduce for longer.
6. Add a few drops of gravy browning. (Colour only — no flavour.)

See also¶

• gravy from stock · making a roux · gravy browning
• yeast extract · instant gravy granules · simple everyday gravy