Potatoes need to complement the flavor profile of the sauce to begin with-creamy sauces are a good bet-so just start small and stir away. Using instant potato flakes as a thickener is a convenient riff on the idea of adding pureed and mashed starches. (You can do this with an immersion blender directly in the pot.) You could also try adding pureed or mashed cooked cauliflower, potatoes, winter squash and beans to a sauce to thicken things up-just note that added vegetables will affect the flavor. Pureed VegetablesĪnother trick to try with vegetable-based sauces is to puree part of the sauce, breaking down some of the solids for use as a natural thickener. This method is called tempering-it prevents the egg yolk from curdling when stirred into a sauce over heat. Whisk some of the thin sauce into an egg yolk in a separate bowl, then whisk the egg yolk mixture back into the sauce over low heat to let it do its thing. For dairy-based sauces, skip the arrowroot powder, which has a tendency to become slimy when combined with milk or cheese.Įgg yolks can be a magical thickener. The rule of thumb here is to plan on 1 tablespoon of either powder in a slurry for each cup of liquid. If you want a gluten-free thickener, you can use cornstarch or constarch substitute and arrowroot powder to make a slurry (use equal parts cornstarch or arrowroot powder and water, whisked together). A roux (equal parts flour and butter, whisked and cooked together over heat) is another flour-based thickener, but it's generally used as a building block in the earlier stages of sauce-making, so it's not a great fix if your sauce is already made. Start by adding a little bit, then cook, stirring, for a few minutes to allow the sauce time to thicken and cook off the raw flour taste if the results are minimal, add more. (This is also a trick we use for how to thicken stew, too!) A general ratio to work with is 2 tablespoons flour for every cup of liquid. For a too-thin sauce, try adding a slurry (equal parts flour and water, whisked together) or beurre manie (equal parts softened butter and flour, kneaded together to form a paste)-both are ideal thickeners for rich and creamy sauces, such as steak sauce recipes.

The most readily available sauce-thickener is flour. What are different methods for thickening sauces? Flour-Based Thickeners

How to make a cheese sauce thinner