Stout and Treacle Gravy

This is the heaviest gravy on the site and it is not for a light Sunday lunch. It belongs with beef shin, oxtail, a suet pudding or a plate of brisket. Treacle and stout are both bitter in their own way, so the balancing act happens with vinegar and a bit of sugar rather than by piling on more of either.

Ingredients

Makes about 600ml, enough for six large plates

• 2 tbsp beef dripping
• 2 onions, finely sliced
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 2 tbsp (30g) plain flour
• 400ml (14fl oz) stout a dry Irish stout or an oatmeal stout, not an imperial or a pastry stout
• 500ml (18fl oz) hot beef stock
• 1 tbsp black treacle
• 1 tbsp malt vinegar
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 bay leaves
• salt and black pepper

Kit

• Heavy casserole or saucepan
• Wooden spoon
• Whisk

Method

1. Melt the dripping in a heavy pan and cook the onions over a medium low heat for twenty minutes, stirring occasionally, until they are collapsed, sticky and properly dark brown. This is the sweetness that makes the treacle work rather than dominate.

2. Stir in the tomato puree and fry it for two minutes until it darkens from red to brick, then add the flour and cook for another two minutes.

3. Pour in the stout in three goes, whisking between each. Add the bay leaves and boil it hard for ten minutes until reduced by a third. Stout that has not been cooked down tastes sour and grainy, and treacle on top of that is genuinely unpleasant.

4. Whisk in the hot stock and bring back to a simmer.

5. Stir in the treacle a little at a time, tasting as you go. A full tablespoon is right for most palates but treacle varies in strength and it is very hard to take back out.

6. Add the Worcestershire sauce and simmer uncovered for fifteen minutes until it thickens and turns properly glossy and dark. It should coat the back of a spoon heavily.

7. Stir in the malt vinegar at the very end. It sounds odd in something this rich but without it the gravy sits flat and heavy on the tongue.

8. Remove the bay leaves, season carefully and serve. Go easy on the salt, since salt sharpens perceived bitterness.

Tips worth knowing

• Weigh or measure the treacle rather than pouring it from the tin. A generous glug is roughly double a tablespoon and will make the gravy taste of liquorice.
• If it does end up too bitter, a tablespoon of double cream or a knob of butter stirred in off the heat rounds it off fast.
• For a non-alcoholic version, use 400ml of alcohol free stout, or 300ml of strong black coffee mixed with 100ml of beef stock. Coffee gives you the roasted note that stout provides, and it needs the same treacle and vinegar balancing.
• This is a gravy that wants fat under it. Serve it with something rich enough to stand up to it, not with a plain chicken breast.

Keeping and reheating

Five days in the fridge, three months in the freezer. It sets almost solid when cold. Reheat with 50ml of water or stock and whisk it back to a pourable consistency.

Questions people ask