Country White Gravy

Country white gravy is what you make when there is no sausage, no drippings and no time. It is nothing more than a white sauce with attitude, but the pepper and the way you cook the flour lift it well clear of anything you would pour over cauliflower. Good on chips, mashed potato, fried chicken or anything that came out of a pan too dry.

Ingredients

Makes about 500ml, enough for four plates

• 50g (2oz) butter or half butter and half bacon dripping if you have it
• 40g (1½oz) plain flour
• 500ml (18fl oz) whole milk warmed
• ½ tsp ground white pepper this is what makes it taste American rather than British
• ½ tsp coarsely ground black pepper
• ¼ tsp onion granules optional, adds a savoury background
• salt to taste

Kit

• Small heavy saucepan
• Balloon whisk
• Measuring jug

Method

1. Warm the milk in a jug in the microwave or in a small pan until it is hot to the finger but nowhere near boiling. Set it beside the hob.

2. Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan over a medium heat. Let it foam and then settle. If you take it as far as browning you will get a nuttier gravy, but it will no longer be white, so watch it.

3. Tip in the flour all at once and whisk it into a smooth paste. Cook for two minutes, whisking most of the time, until it looks like thick custard and smells faintly biscuity. Do not let it colour.

4. Add a quarter of the hot milk and whisk hard. It will grab into a stiff ball. Keep whisking until it is completely smooth, then add the next quarter and repeat.

5. Pour in the remaining milk, whisk it through and bring the pan to a bare simmer. Cook for four to five minutes, whisking round the base and up the sides, until it coats the back of a spoon and holds a line when you draw a finger through it.

6. Whisk in the white pepper, black pepper and onion granules, then salt to taste. White pepper is stronger than it looks, so add half, taste, then decide.

7. Serve straight away. If it stands and stiffens, whisk in a splash of hot milk to bring it back to a pourable gravy.

Tips worth knowing

• White pepper is doing the heavy lifting here. It gives the slightly musty, warm heat that people recognise as diner gravy, and black pepper alone will not do the same job.
• Use a heavy pan. A thin one scorches the milk at the base and you will taste it through the whole batch.
• If it tastes flat rather than under salted, a quarter teaspoon of onion granules or a small dash of Worcestershire sauce usually fixes it faster than more salt.
• For a properly smooth finish, whisk rather than stir. A wooden spoon leaves ridges of flour in the corners of the pan.

Keeping and reheating

Keeps three days in the fridge and thickens hard as it chills. Reheat slowly with an extra 50ml of milk, whisking constantly. Freezing is not recommended as the sauce separates and goes grainy.

Questions people ask