Guinness Gravy

Guinness brings roasted barley bitterness and a colour you cannot get any other way. Left to its own devices it can taste like burnt coffee, so this recipe reduces it properly and balances it with a little sugar and a splash of Worcestershire sauce. Serve it with sausages and mash and you will not go far wrong.

Ingredients

Makes about 600ml, enough for six generous plates

• 30g (1oz) butter
• 2 onions, halved and finely sliced
• 2 tbsp (30g) plain flour
• 330ml Guinness or other Irish dry stout one small bottle or can
• 500ml (18fl oz) hot beef stock
• 2 tsp dark brown sugar
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 bay leaf
• salt and black pepper

Kit

• Heavy saucepan
• Wooden spoon
• Whisk

Method

1. Melt the butter in a heavy pan over a medium low heat, add the onions and a good pinch of salt and cook them for fifteen minutes, stirring now and then, until they are soft, sweet and properly golden. Rushing this leaves the gravy thin tasting.

2. Stir in the flour and cook for two minutes until the onions look coated and the raw flour smell has gone.

3. Pour in the Guinness slowly, whisking as you go. It will froth up dramatically, so keep the heat moderate and let the foam subside before adding more.

4. Add the bay leaf and boil the stout for about eight minutes until it has reduced by roughly a third and lost that raw yeasty edge. Stout only tastes bitter and sour in gravy when it has not been cooked down.

5. Whisk in the hot stock, then add the sugar and Worcestershire sauce. Bring to a gentle simmer.

6. Simmer uncovered for twelve to fifteen minutes, stirring occasionally, until it thickens enough to coat a spoon and the colour goes from muddy brown to deep glossy near black.

7. Fish out the bay leaf. Taste it. If it is still leaning bitter, add another half teaspoon of sugar rather than more salt, since salt makes bitterness louder. Season and serve.

Tips worth knowing

• Sugar is not optional here. Roasted barley in stout is genuinely bitter and a little sweetness turns that from a fault into depth.
• Do not use a sweet milk stout or an imperial stout unless you drop the sugar entirely. They are much sweeter and much stronger and will overwhelm the beef.
• For a non-alcoholic version, Guinness 0.0 works almost identically and reduces the same way. Failing that, use 330ml of strong black tea with 1 tsp of treacle and 1 tsp of soy sauce, which gets you close on tannin, colour and savouriness.
• Open the can and let it sit for ten minutes before it goes in. Less foam, less mess.

Keeping and reheating

Fridge for four days, freezer for three months. It thickens noticeably when cold, so loosen with stock or water as you reheat. The flavour improves overnight.

Questions people ask