What is the best way to thicken sauce, or gravy as I call it here?

Caribbean girl

Caribbean girl

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Most of the time my sauce/gravy does not have the desired thickness. Lately, I tried using flour to thicken it. This helped a bit, but I still think it needed something more. I use either tomato sauce or tomato puree. I do not usually buy tomato paste. I guess I could try using the paste and see if that does the trick. I have even tried adding a little pasta to my sauce. Any other suggestions?
 
Flour has always worked really well for me for thickening gravies. Sometimes I get it too thick so I have to dilute it with milk and then its too thin so dinner quickly turns into a science experiment! What's the exact ratio of milk and flour I can use to make this actually taste good? :)

For sauces,especially enchilada sauce, I like to do away with the flour and use chili powder. For chilis, I use corn meal. For pasta, I reserve a little bit of pasta water and use that to thicken up pasta sauce. Works like a charm!
 
Is it a blood gravy? Because my mother had been making mushroom soup that was mostly flour and coffee for years and passing it off as gravy. The red blood cells denature into something thick and brown...essentially making a scab soup, but with enough butter and salt, those scabs are delicious.

Other ways, as mentioned: flour, cornstarch, another vegetable such as a puree squash or potato, potato starch... I'd have to be pretty desperate to thicken gravy with gelatine, but just throwing in there that it is a thickener of sorts.
 
It really depends on what type of gravy that you are making. The standard gravy made out of meat drippings is usually thickened with flour. At least that is what my mother used to use.
 
When starting to cook, make a roux of butter and flour. If you. decide later while cooking you want gravy, make a slurry of 2 tbs of cornstarch in a 1/2 cup of cold water, stir, then add to pot.
I told my best friend of this once, she wanted gravy from the broth of her pot roast. She did not believe it would work, said so in her text back to me. Not 30 seconds later, she called me on the phone squealing it was working! Haha.
 
Caribbean girl said:
Most of the time my sauce/gravy does not have the desired thickness. Lately, I tried using flour to thicken it. This helped a bit, but I still think it needed something more. I use either tomato sauce or tomato puree. I do not usually buy tomato paste. I guess I could try using the paste and see if that does the trick. I have even tried adding a little pasta to my sauce. Any other suggestions?
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My wife uses flour to thicken gravy. She puts the flour in a cup and then adds water to it, stirs it up and adds it to the gravy mixture.
 
kamarsun1 said:
My wife uses flour to thicken gravy. She puts the flour in a cup and then adds water to it, stirs it up and adds it to the gravy mixture.
Click to expand...

Well I realize now what I have been doing wrong. Yes, I have tried using the flour, but I was adding it straight to the gravy, and as a result I was getting lumps of flour in the mixture which i found hard to get rid of. I will try mixing the flour in a cup with water first, and then add it to the gravy. This will help me to get a smoother mix.
 
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