Video Exploring Gluten Free Gravy

[jesse_the_k]

Adam Ragusea aragusea was a public radio reporter, is now a journalism professor, and has recently become a YouTuber talking about home cooking with a healthy dose of science. I was thrilled by last year’s Alternative Starches: How to thicken sauces without flour. He demonstrates making gravy with

• flours: rice, potato, and corn (US: corn starch)
• starches: tapioca, arrowroot
• gums: xanthan and agar agar.

He also explores how some gums maintain their staying power at all temperatures, which finally explained why wheat flours sometimes show up in ice creams.

I’ve been using cornstarch and arrowroot to make slurry gravies for decades. Adam blew my mind by making a traditional browned roux with both potato and rice flours, and they look great! Adam summarizes:

If you need to make a gluten-free gravy, you can try making your roux with rice flour or potato starch — I'd do the rice flour because it's more opaque. That makes a really delicious gravy. Nobody is gonna miss the wheat.

Content notes: although he has sponsors, YouTube is running US campaign ads to start and randomly in the middle.

Have you made fat-and-flour based sauces with gluten-free ingredients? Which flour did you use? Please share any hard-won lessons or handy tips.

Comments

[topaz_eyes]

I used to thicken gravy with corn starch all the time, but leftover gravy would start to separate within 24 hours in the fridge. I switched to rice flour for thickening a few years ago, and it's made a world of difference. Leftover rice flour gravy holds together much longer in the fridge. Rice flour is comparable to wheat flour in terms of thickening.

I also find rice flour easier to use. With corn starch, if you don't suspend it thoroughly in water before adding to the fat, it settles into a non-Newtonian fluid at the bottom that is difficult to re-suspend. I don't have that problem with rice flour.

[jesse_the_k]

In my roux days, I would use 4Tbs of butter with 4Tbs of wheat flour. Based on your experience, can I substitute rice flour at the same volume as wheat flour?

I found an outstanding resource on the delicate varieties of non-Newtonian liquids.

[topaz_eyes]

They say to use 3/4 cup of rice flour for every 1 cup of wheat flour (so 3 Tbs rice flour instead of 4 Tbs wheat flour). Though the last time I made a roux I used 4 Tbs butter with 4 Tbs cup rice flour and it turned out okay. You might need to experiment; the ideal amount of rice flour may be in between.

Cool resource, thank you!