How to Use Flour or Cornstarch to Thicken Sauce, Gravy, and Soup (2024)

FAQs

How to Use Flour or Cornstarch to Thicken Sauce, Gravy, and Soup? ›

Either one works. It's just that you have to whisk the cornstarch with water and drizzle it in slowly while you whisk the sauce where you are drizzling it in. It thickens the sauce that fast. with flour you combine it with water and pour it in and stir up with the sauce then simmer the sauce as the flour thickens it.

It's important to note that cornstarch has twice the thickening power of flour.

Cornstarch is a great thickener for soup because only a little bit is needed to significantly thicken a soup, and it will not affect the flavor profile of the soup.

4 Issues That Cause Thin Gravy

1. Skipping roux: A roux is a thickening agent made by cooking fat and flour together. It's an essential ingredient for thickening gravy, and without it, gravy is thin and runny. Learn how to make a roux.

Cornstarch is a common thickening agent in the culinary arts, but if you add it directly to the liquid you want to thicken, it will clump up. To thicken a sauce or soup with cornstarch, you first need to make a slurry, which is a mixture of equal parts cornstarch and liquid (usually water, stock or wine).

(The classic ratio for gravy is three:two:one, so 3 tablespoons flour, 2 tablespoons fat, and 1 cup of hot stock.) You can add other flavors to the mixture, swap out the stock for another liquid, or use cornstarch rather than flour to thicken your gravy.

It should look like gravy. So if you added too much cornstarch, you can always dilute it. with a little bit more chicken stock or water. If you're thinking it too much, it looks like pudding.

Add Flour Or Cornstarch

Instead, ladle a small amount of broth into a separate bowl and let it cool. Add a few tablespoons of flour or cornstarch to the bowl and whisk until it's blended smooth. Next, bring the soup to a simmer and add the mixture back to the pot. Pro tip: Don't dump in the entire mixture at once.

Whisk together equal parts cornstarch (or arrowroot) and water or broth, then whisk it into the pot of soup. A good ratio to get to a pleasant thickness without your soup tasting goopy or heavy is one tablespoon. slurry to 4 cups of soup.

How to fix gravy that's too thin? ›

If your gravy is on the skimpy side, you can thicken it quickly with flour or cornstarch. But don't add your thickener directly to the gravy, which will create lumps. Instead, try stirring in three or four tablespoons of flour or cornstarch into a small amount of cold water until you have a smooth paste.

Flour is a natural thickening agent and can be incorporated into your sauce with a few different methods (for a gluten-free option, you can also use arrowroot flour or a gluten-free flour blend like Bob's Red Mill's 1 to 1 or King Arthur's Measure for Measure).

However, when using flour as a gravy thickener, you must double the amount—use 2 tablespoons of flour per 1 cup of liquid. Use a whisk or wooden spoon to incorporate, stirring constantly until you thicken the gravy to the desired consistency.

If you're cooking hot liquids like sauces, stock or broth, 1 tablespoon of corn starch per cup of liquid will give you a thin to medium consistency that's appropriate for soups or very thin sauces. 2 tablespoons per cup will give you a thicker, more gravy-like consistency.

Browning adds more flavor to the gravy and gets rid of the raw flour taste. You're basically making a roux. We find that a flour-based gravy holds up better and reheats better later, which is why we tend to prefer using flour over cornstarch to make gravy unless we have a guest who is eating gluten-free.

To make a cornstarch gravy, start by making a slurry (blend) of cornstarch and a small amount of cold liquid (generally water or broth). You will need about 1 tablespoon of cornstarch to thicken about 1 1/2 to 2 cups of gravy. Don't add powdered cornstarch directly to a hot liquid; it will clump.

The ratio is an easy one to remember: Use 1 tablespoon of cornstarch per 1 cup of liquid for a perfect gluten-free gravy thickener every time.

If you're cooking hot liquids like sauces, stock or broth, 1 tablespoon of corn starch per cup of liquid will give you a thin to medium consistency that's appropriate for soups or very thin sauces. 2 tablespoons per cup will give you a thicker, more gravy-like consistency.

In sauces. Both self-raising and plain flour are fine for thickening sauces. Any air bubbles you get from the raising agents in self-raising flour will pop and evaporate as the sauce cooks, although plain flour usually tastes better.