How to Make Gravy From Scratch (2024)

Figuring out how to make gravy from scratch can enrich holiday recipes and elevate weeknight meals. Gravy is a velvety sauce ladled on top of roasts or used to enhance vegetables or sides. It’s near impossible not to dunk a yeasted roll in a pool of gravy, right? So, let’s learn more about how make gravy from scratch.

Is there more than one method on how to make gravy from scratch? In reality, learning how to make gravy from scratch involves getting a feel for the underlying techniques and textures—more than mastering one single sauce recipe. Each method results in distinct textures and tastes. Homemade gravy can embellish an elegant holiday roast. Other from-scratch gravies might drench a breakfast biscuit any day of the year.

Given how easy it is to learn the basics of how to make gravy from scratch, it’s just as simple to make a satisfying vegetarian or vegan gravy as a meat or cheese accented savory sauce.

When grappling with cooking gravy from scratch, it can be helpful first to review the different types of gravy. There are a few kinds of sauce that you might wonder about to make gravy from scratch—from the classic roast beef pairing to mashed potatoes’ saucy best friend.

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What You'll Need
How to Make Homemade Gravy with Flour
How to Make Brown Gravy from Scratch
How to Make White Gravy from Scratch
How to Make Sausage Gravy from Scratch
How to Make Turkey Gravy from Scratch
How to Make Beef Gravy from Scratch
Chef's Tips and Gravy From Scratch Recipe

What You'll Need

At its simplest, making gravy from scratch involves a blending of a few flexible ingredients:

Fats (such as pan drippings, melted butter and heated oil) create flavor and are necessary to create a roux.
Thickener (such as flour or cornstarch) combines with fats to create a roux.
Savory Liquid Sauce Base (such as stock, wine, or dairy) is the foundation for great flavor.
Seasonings (such as salt/pepper, fresh herbs, soy sauce, etc) are essential for creative twists and seasoned gravy.

For a richer or more substantial sauce, some gravies made from scratch also contain cheese or bits of roast meat.

How to Make Homemade Gravy with Flour

The process for how to make gravy from scratch is fairly standard across the rainbow of gravies out there. To make gravy with flour, you’ll need to make a thickening roux out of cooked flour and warmed fat. A roux is a paste made with equal parts of flour with fat, such as melted butter.Indeed, some expert cooks have already figured out how to make gravy from scratch with grease from pan drippings or rendered meat fats from a roast for their roux.

Secondly, you’ll slowly whisk the sauce liquid into the roux. To make gravy from scratch with flour and milk, you would slowly whisk in milk into the roux, creating a white gravy. (Refer to How to Make White Gravy from Scratch below.) Alternatively to create gravy from with stock, slowly whisk in stock into the roux instead of milk. (Refer toHow to Make Brown Gravy from Scratchbelow.)

You may be wondering, is it possible to make gravy from scratch with flour and water? While it is possible to create a gravy by adding water to a roux, it is not recommended as water adds no flavor to the finished product.

Now that you know the basic contours for how to make homemade gravy from scratch, let’s move on to exploring a more step-by-step approach for the following gravy varieties: brown, white, turkey, sausage and beef.

How to Make Brown Gravy from Scratch

The first step in how to make gravy from scratch is to decide which kind of stock you’ll be using to make brown gravy. Since most of the flavor of a no-drippings brown gravy comes from the broth, you’ll want to use a high-quality base liquid. Bone broth or organic broths are ideal.

To make homemade brown gravy:

Make a simple roux by melting two tablespoons of butter in a saucepan and then sprinkling in two tablespoons of flour.
Cook the roux, over medium-low heat, whisking constantly. You’ll want the flour to brown just a little—it should smell like buttered toast. This step is essential for how to make gravy from scratch.
While the roux is cooking, preheat your stock in a separate saucepan until it just starts to steam around the edges of the pan.
Pour two to three cups of high-quality bone broth or flavorful stock into the roux.
Adjust the heat up to medium, simmering the roux and the liquid together while stirring constantly.It is important to continuously whisk to avoid lumps.
When developing the skills on how to make gravy from scratch, the amount of cook time needed will vary pending on how thick of a gravy you’re aiming for. It should take 4-8 minutes to morph into a velvety sauce. If you use two cups of liquid, you’ll end up with a thicker gravy. If you use three cups of liquid, your initial gravy will be a bit thinner.
Once the gravy is thickened, season the gravy to your preference. Remove the gravy from the heat.

Brown gravy can be served right away or made in advance to be stored in the refrigerator or freezer. For a gourmet twist, you can always use pan juices from a roast and the skimmed fat from the drippings in lieu of the stock and the butter. For everyday noshing, a no-drippings brown gravy is easier and just as belly-pleasing.

Now that you’ve figured out how to make brown gravy from scratch, let’s dig into some other gravies you may want to cook.

How to Make White Gravy from Scratch

White gravy is a country cousin to brown gravy. So, the steps and techniques you’ll use for how to make white gravy from scratch are similar.

What is white gravy?

White gravy is a staple of Southern cooking in the United States. It’s a creamy, dairy-based gravy with a peppery kick. It’s often served over fluffy buttermilk biscuits or ladled atop chicken-fried steak.

To make white gravy from scratch:

Start with a simple roux: melt two tablespoons of butter and two tablespoons of flour together.
Pour in two to three cups of whole milk, whisking constantly over medium heat.
Keep stirring until the gravy has significantly thickened, about 3-8 minutes, depending on how cold your milk is to start.
Season your white gravy with salt and pepper. Since milk is less seasoned than stock, you’ll want to be generous with the black pepper and salt to add flavor.

How to Make Sausage Gravy from Scratch

When it comes to understanding how to make gravy from scratch, learning to make sausage gravy will add one more Southern sauce to your recipe repertoire. In fact, Southern sausage gravy is in reality a type of white gravy. It is made with breakfast sausages, flour, milk, salt and pepper.

To make sausage gravy from scratch:

First, cook ½ pound of pork breakfast sausage meat (without the casing) over medium heat.
Brown until the sausage meat is no longer pink. You’ll need to use fresh instead of frozen breakfast sausages here because you want the sausage meat to crumble and separate while cooking.
Once the sausage meat has cooked, add two tablespoons of flour. Stir it with a fork, creating a sort of roux from the mixture of the rendered fat, seasoned pork meat, and flour.
Pour in two to three cups of whole milk while stirring constantly over medium heat. Simmer for 7-10 minutes, adding in a little extra milk if it thickens too quickly.
Season generously with fresh-cracked black pepper and serve over buttery biscuits or grits!

How to Make Turkey Gravy from Scratch

When learning how to make gravy from scratch, turkey gravy is a classic all omnivore home cooks will want to master. One of the easiest ways how to make turkey gravy from scratch is to whisk together a simple flour-butter roux with a flavorful turkey stock until thickened—following the same ratios described in the how to make brown gravy steps above.

Alternatively, for a special holiday, you can also make turkey gravy with pan drippings.

To make a pan drippings turkey gravy:

Strain the pan juices and drippings—allowing it to cool slightly until the fat rises to the top.
Skim off two tablespoons of turkey fat and use this to make a roux with equal parts flour.
Remove the rest of the fat from your roasted turkey juices.
Measure out two cups of turkey roasting liquid. Whisk this together with the roux until thickened. For a thinner sauce, use more liquid. For a thicker sauce, use up to ¼ cup of flour with ¼ cup of rendered turkey fat.
Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt, pepper or fresh herbs.

How to Make Beef Gravy from Scratch

Beef gravy, like turkey gravy, can be made with a butter-based roux and beef stock. Or, it can be made by combining the juices from roast beef with a roux made of flour and the rendered beef fat from the roast.

When you’re trying to learn how to make gravy from scratch, the choice is yours — quick and easy (stock and roux) or gourmet and slow (roasting beef and pan drippings). In either case, beef has a richer fat. So, to cut the fattiness of your gravy, we recommend adding a ¼ cup of sherry or red wine in addition to the base liquid.

For homemade beef gravy:

Combine two tablespoons of melted fat (either the fat skimmed from beef drippings or melted butter) with two tablespoons of flour to create a roux.
Whisk the roux together with 2-3 cups of either beef stock or beef juices with the extra fat skimmed off. It can be easier to skim the beef fat if you let the juices fully cool in your fridge — the beef fat will solidify on top of the chilled gravy.
While the gravy is thickening, you can pour in the wine towards the end to add a hint of depth and acid.
Enjoy hot or store in your refrigerator or freezer in a well-sealed container.

Chef's Tips and Gravy From Scratch Recipe

Knowing how to make gravy from scratch doesn’t need to stay a secret only your grandparents understand. Follow the techniques and tips above for a memorable, velvety, and scrumptious gravy — whether you plan on slow-roasting a holiday turkey or whipping up a quicker savory sauce to garnish a weeknight plate of roasted vegetables.

Chef's Tips:

When preparing how to make gravy from scratch, you’ll also want to check to see if your broth is low-sodium or not. This can impact how much seasoning you’ll add.
For a flavor boost, free to simmer the base liquid ahead of time with additions like a bay leaf, one teaspoon of either Worcestershire or soy sauce, and/or fresh herbs, such as sage, tarragon or flat-leaf parsley. Remove the fresh herbs before making the gravy.
Please take caution to avoid turning up the heat to high to speed along the thickening! The flour in the sauce can burn to the bottom of your pan, creating a bitter and unpleasant gravy.
If your gravy is too thin, you can keep reducing it, while stirring, to further thicken up the brown gravy.
If your gravy is too thick, loosen up the sauce by pouring in a little more stock while whisking.
Think outside of the classic salt and pepper when seasoning your gravy, such as umami-packed seasoning sauces, like Worcestershire or soy sauce. You could also opt for celery salt or white pepper for a more seasonal accent.

Ways To Use Up Leftover Gravy:

Pair leftover gravy with homemade meatballs.
Boost the flavor and body of soups by incorporating gravy.
Make a pasta sauce by thinning out the gravy with some stock or heavy cream, or adding some sour cream for a tangy twist.
Upgrade your chicken pot pie or shepherd's pie by using gravy as a base sauce.

Storage Tips:

Refrigerate any leftover gravy and use within two days to maintain quality.
If storing gravy for more than two days, consider freezing the gravy instead.
To freeze gravy, either portion the gravy into ice cube trays or airtight freezer-safe containers.
To thaw gravy, place the frozen gravy in the refrigerator overnight. Reheat the thawed gravy in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Be sure to constantly stir to avoid lumps.
As stated above, if the thawed gravy is too thick, adjust the consistency with stock or water.

Check out our tried and true gravy recipe below.