RealGravy

American Style Gravies

American Diner Brown Gravy

A dry roasted flour and butter roux taken to the colour of an old penny, let down with beef stock and seasoned with onion and garlic granules, the way it comes out of a diner ladle.

  • Contains meat
  • diner
  • brown gravy
  • beef stock
  • toasted flour
Illustration of American Diner Brown Gravy
Prep
3 min
Cook
20 min
Total
23 min
Serves
6
Difficulty
Easy

This is the gravy that goes over an open turkey sandwich, a plate of mashed potato or a hot beef roll, and it is not trying to be a Sunday roast gravy. The trick is toasting the flour dry in a pan before the butter goes anywhere near it, which gives you a deep brown colour and a nutty flavour without any browning residue to work from. It is cheap, quick, and tastes exactly like the plastic booth it came from.

Ingredients

Makes about 700ml, enough for six plates

Scale

Kit

  • Heavy saucepan
  • Balloon whisk
  • Measuring jug
  • Small dry frying pan

Method

  1. Put the flour, on its own with no fat, into a dry frying pan over a medium heat. Stir it constantly with a wooden spoon for six to eight minutes until it turns the colour of a rich tea biscuit and smells like toast. Tip it straight onto a cold plate so it stops cooking.

  2. Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan over a medium heat and let it foam and settle. If you take it a shade further so the milk solids turn golden, all the better, but do not let it burn.

  3. Whisk the toasted flour into the butter. Because the flour is already cooked it will not thicken quite as strongly, which is why there is a full fifty grams of it here. Cook the paste for one minute only.

  4. Add a ladleful of hot stock and whisk to a smooth paste. Keep adding the stock a ladle at a time, whisking each one smooth, until it is all in. Doing it slowly at the start is what keeps it lump free.

  5. Bring to a gentle simmer and add the onion granules, garlic granules, soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Let it tick over for ten minutes, whisking occasionally and scraping the base.

  6. It should end up the colour of strong tea and thick enough to coat a spoon but still pour freely. If it is too thick, splash in more stock. If it is thin, simmer it another five minutes.

  7. Taste and season. Diner gravy wants more black pepper than you think and a decent amount of salt, but taste before adding, because the stock cubes and soy have already done a lot of work.

  8. Pour into a warm jug through a sieve if you want it glass smooth, which is how it comes out of a diner ladle.

Tips worth knowing

  • Toasting the flour dry is the whole difference between this and a plain roux gravy. It gives colour and a nutty note without needing any meat juices, and it takes eight minutes you can spend doing nothing else, because it burns the moment you turn your back.
  • Toasted flour has less thickening power than raw flour, so do not be alarmed by the amount used here or tempted to cut it back.
  • This gravy is designed to be made without a roasting tin, but if you do have pan juices from a joint, whisk a couple of tablespoons in at the end and it goes from good to very good.
  • Make a big batch of toasted flour and keep it in a jar. It sits happily in the cupboard for months and knocks ten minutes off the next batch.

Change it up

  • Add 200g of sliced mushrooms fried in a little extra butter before the flour goes in for a mushroom brown gravy for meatloaf or chops.
  • Use vegetable stock, plant butter and a teaspoon of yeast extract in place of the Worcestershire sauce for a vegan version with the same colour and body.
  • Stir in a tablespoon of double cream and a teaspoon of English mustard at the end for a richer, sharper gravy that suits roast beef.

Keeping and reheating

Keeps four days in the fridge and freezes well for three months. It sets to a firm jelly when cold, which is a good sign. Reheat in a pan with a splash of stock or water, whisking as it comes back up.

Questions people ask

How do I make brown gravy without meat drippings?

Toast the flour dry until it is properly brown, use a strong beef stock, and add soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce for the savoury depth that roasting normally provides. That combination gets you about ninety per cent of the way there with nothing in the pan to start from.

Why is my brown gravy pale?

Either the flour was not toasted far enough or the stock was weak. Push the toasted flour to the colour of a rich tea biscuit and add a couple of teaspoons of dark soy sauce, which darkens it dramatically without making it taste of soy.

Is American brown gravy the same as British gravy?

Not quite. British gravy is usually built from the roasting tin and leans on meat juices, while diner brown gravy is a standalone sauce made from stock, a browned roux and dried onion and garlic. It is a little smoother, a little saltier and a lot more consistent.