Thicken the Sauce with Flour: Here’s How

Thickening sauces with flour is quick and easy because you don’t always have time to let a sauce simmer until the liquid has reduced accordingly. But you have to know how to do it, otherwise, there will be lumps.

Thicken sauces with flour: the roux

The roux, also known as branding, is the classic way of binding sauces. Binding a sauce means making it thicker. You can avoid the sauce becoming too thick or too thin by following a few basic rules.

• First, get butter, flour, and a whisk ready. As a rule of thumb, you can remember that the two ingredients should be used in a 3:2 ratio.
• That means 2 parts flour for 3 parts butter. So if you use 60 grams of butter, you will need 40 grams of flour.
• 100 grams of roux is enough for about 1 liter of liquid. It all depends on how thick you want the sauce to be. Tip: Don’t pour all the liquid into the finished roux at once, then you can better control the thickening.
• To start, put the butter in a saucepan and let it melt until it foams. Then add the flour and immediately stir vigorously with the whisk until an even mass has formed. This will avoid lumps and burning.
• Please note that you can use normal butter for a light sauce, while you need to be clarified butter for dark sauces, as this is more heatable.
• Now let the burn-in roast while stirring constantly, but please not for too long, otherwise, it will burn. The flour and butter mixture should be golden yellow in color for light sauces and light brown for dark ones.
• Then gradually add the liquid again, stirring constantly. This can be vegetable or meat stock or, for example, milk in the case of bechamel sauce. You then continue to heat the sauce and remove it from the heat when it has reached the desired consistency. Please note that the sauce will continue to thicken as it cools.

More ways to thicken sauces

If it has to be done really quickly, you can also use the ready-made sauce thickener. This has the advantage that it can be added directly to the liquid and does not clump.

• If you don’t have a sauce thickener, stir some flour or starch with water until smooth and add this to the warm liquid and boil it again until the desired consistency is reached.
• With the classic reduction, you need a little more time. Let the sauce simmer until enough water has evaporated. The taste is 100 percent preserved.
• Raw grated potatoes are also suitable for thickening sauces because they contain a lot of starch. They are simply cooked. However, you must note here that the potato has its own taste.