If you have yourMake your own sauceyou may have a preference as to what type of thickener you use. The simplest method of making gravy uses a roux made from wheat flour and butter to thicken the drippings when cooking a chicken, goose, or roast. However, you can replace the flour with cornstarch and arrowroot powder to make the sauce gluten-free. For low carb meals, egg yolk is also ideal as a sauce thickener. Each thickener results in a slightly different texture when it comes to the finished sauce. Here we will not only tell you what you can use to thicken a gravy, but also how to do it correctly.
Thicken the gravy with flour
All-purpose wheat flour is almost always on hand in most households. That's why using flour to thicken the sauce is quite practical. You can incorporate the flour into the gravy by first mixing it with water (as a paste) or by stirring it into a roux (roux in French). How does the roux work? Hot butter is mixed with flour (in a 1:1 ratio) and fried until the desired color is achieved.
A light roux would be more suitable for white sauces such as béchamel and hunter's sauce. 30 seconds are enough to sweat. Roasting the flour longer produces a darker roux that is ideal for turkey, chicken and beef gravies. The roux is then deglazed with broth and cooked for a few minutes so that the sauce binds and becomes thicker.
However, keep in mind that flour gives the sauce a cloudy appearance, so it's not always the best choice. It also doesn't have the same thickening power as other starches and needs to cook for about three minutes to reach the right consistency. Some types of sauces don't benefit from the high temperature and longer cooking time they require, so using flour as a thickener won't work in certain recipes.
Flours other than wheat do not have the same starch content, so not every flour is a suitable substitute for wheat flour as a sauce thickener. You can also use spelled flour and whole wheat flour. Sweet rice flour is also a good alternative to wheat flour.
Thicken the gravy with cornstarch
Chinese and other Asian recipes often use cornstarch orTapiokastärkefor thickening sauces. The addition of this thickener results in a lighter, translucent sauce with a beautiful sheen. To use cornstarch as a sauce thickener, first mix a slurry of cornstarch and cold water in a 1:1 ratio. Stir well until the cornstarch is dissolved in the water and the mixture looks completely smooth. Then slowly incorporate into the frying fat in the pan, stirring constantly. Cornstarch will become lumpy in hot liquid, so you shouldn't skip this first step. One tablespoon of cornstarch thickens 400 – 500 ml of sauce.
Keep in mind that the starchy flavor may linger if you don't cook the sauce long enough, so allow the sauce to simmer for a minute or two after adding the cornstarch slurry. However, be careful not to overcook it or it may become runny. Remove a sauce thickened with cornstarch from the heat before adding acidic ingredients.
Thicken the gravy with arrowroot powder
Arrowroot is an almost tasteless starch that is extracted from the tropical plant of the same name. Using it as a thickener produces a smooth, transparent sauce with a light texture. Arrowroot powder does not require cooking and is great for sauces with eggs or other ingredients that should not be cooked as the mixture will thicken below the boiling point.
However, sauce thickened with arrowroot is not very stable and cannot be reheated. You should finish your arrowroot slurry sauce no more than 10 minutes before serving the meal. Prolonged heating and vigorous stirring will negate the thickening properties of arrowroot. If your sauce suddenly becomes runny, you've overdone it. For a medium-thick sauce, use 2 1/2 teaspoons arrowroot powder per 250 ml cold liquid.
Thicken the sauce for low carb with egg
Flour and cornstarch are both high in carbohydrates. Some keto sauces are thickened with flour alternatives such as coconut or almond flour. Both can be used, but contain their own flavor that may affect the taste of the sauce. You can also make the sauce gritty. Egg yolk is ideal as a thickener. Similar to how egg yolk thickens mayonnaise, it also adds creaminess to low-carb sauces without affecting the natural taste of the sauce.
To thicken a broth with egg yolks, you must first temper the yolks. First, you should bring the beaten yolks to room temperature to prepare them for tempering. Use 2 egg yolks per 500 – 600 ml of stock. Then skim off some of the hot broth with a ladle and pour it onto the egg, stirring constantly. Then add the egg mixture to the pot and bring to the boil while stirring.
