Fixing gravy when it goes wrong

Lumpy, thin, greasy, pale, salty, bitter or split. Every common gravy disaster and the fix, in the order to try them.

Lumpy

Whisk hard first, since most lumps are just flour that has not swollen yet and will break up with thirty seconds of proper whisking. If they survive that, pour the gravy through a sieve into a clean pan and press the lumps against the mesh with the back of a ladle. Nobody will ever know.

Prevention is adding hot liquid slowly at the start and whisking between additions, not dumping the whole pint in at once.

Too thin

Simplest fix is time: boil it and let water leave. That also concentrates the flavour, so it is the fix that improves the gravy rather than just changing it. If you have no time, whisk in beurre manié a lump at a time, or a cornflour slurry, and let it come back to the boil for a full minute.

Do not add dry flour to hot gravy. That is how you get lumps.

Too thick

Add hot liquid, not cold, and whisk. Stock is best, then the veg water, then plain water plus a bit more seasoning. Cold liquid dulls the gravy and can make a roux based one go stringy.

Greasy

A slick of fat on top means the fat and liquid have not emulsified. Skim it with a spoon, or lay a sheet of kitchen roll flat on the surface and lift it straight off, which takes the fat and leaves the gravy.

If you have time, chill it. The fat sets into a disc you can lift off in one piece. That is why make ahead Christmas gravy is often better than the rushed version.

Pale and grey

Pale gravy is under browned, not under seasoned. Cook the roux longer next time. To rescue what is in the pan, add something dark and savoury: a teaspoon of Marmite, a splash of soy or mushroom ketchup, a spoon of caramelised onion, or a little gravy browning, which is just caramel and does nothing but colour.

Boiling it harder will also darken it a little as it reduces.

Too salty

Dilute with unsalted stock or water and rethicken. That is the only reliable fix. A peeled raw potato simmered in it will absorb a little but far less than the internet claims. A spoon of cream, a squeeze of lemon or a pinch of sugar will mask some of it.

The real fix is upstream: use low salt stock, and season at the end.

Bitter

Usually burnt fond, over reduced stout, or garlic that caught. Sweetness balances it, so a pinch of sugar, a spoon of redcurrant jelly or a splash of cream. Diluting with more stock helps too.

If it came from genuinely burnt bits in the tin, start again. You cannot season your way out of charcoal.

Split or curdled

Cream sauces split when they are boiled too hard or when acid meets low fat dairy. Take the pan off the heat, add a splash of cold cream or a small knob of cold butter, and whisk hard. It usually comes back.

Next time, use double cream rather than single, add acid before the cream rather than after, and never let it do more than a lazy simmer.