The encyclopaedia of gravy
The everyday gravy that works any night of the week: fat, flour, stock and seasoning, in about eight minutes.
This is the gravy to learn first. It has four ingredients, it does not require a roast, and once you can make it without thinking you can make every other gravy on this site.
Ingredients¶
Serves 4 · 8 minutes
- 30 g butter (or 2 tbsp oil, or fat from whatever you cooked)
- 30 g plain flour
- 500 ml hot stock — beef, chicken or vegetable
- Salt and black pepper
Optional, and worth it: 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce, ½ tsp yeast extract, a splash of the water your vegetables cooked in.
Method¶
- Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a medium-low heat.
- Stir in the flour and cook for two full minutes, stirring. It will look like wet sand and smell faintly biscuity. This step is what stops the gravy tasting of raw flour.
- Add the hot stock a ladleful at a time, stirring each one smooth before adding the next. The mixture will go thick and alarming after the first addition — keep going, it loosens.
- Once all the stock is in, simmer for five minutes, stirring now and then, until it coats the back of a spoon.
- Season at the end, and add the Worcestershire sauce or yeast extract if using.
💡 Chef's tip
Use the water your vegetables boiled in instead of plain water for the stock. It is free, it is already seasoned, and potato water in particular adds body.
Getting the consistency right¶
The classic ratio is 30 g fat : 30 g flour : 500 ml liquid for a pouring gravy. For a thicker gravy that sits on mash, use 40 g of each. For a thinner gravy for chips, use 600 ml of liquid.
| Want | Fat | Flour | Liquid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thin (chips, dipping) | 25 g | 25 g | 600 ml |
| Standard pouring | 30 g | 30 g | 500 ml |
| Thick (mash, pies) | 40 g | 40 g | 500 ml |
Making it taste of something¶
Stock cubes give you salt. Depth has to come from somewhere else. In rough order of effectiveness:
- Browned onion. Fry a sliced onion in the fat before the flour goes in — see onion gravy.
- Yeast extract. Half a teaspoon adds savoury weight without tasting of Marmite.
- Worcestershire sauce. A teaspoon adds acidity and depth at once.
- A darker roux. Cook the flour and fat for four minutes instead of two, until the colour of weak tea. See making a roux.
- Reduction. Let it simmer for ten minutes rather than five.