Thickening Sauces

[Lucio]

Ok, so I like to cook, but tend towards fairly basic recipies which are meat, vegatables and spices in a sauce made from either water, coconut milk or chopped tomatoes.

One problem I find is that sometimes the sauce becomes too thin, particularly if I've been using water, and wondered what people suggested to thicken it back up? I've been using breadcrumbs but find that it does affect the flavour, particularly in curries where the mix I'm going for is a little more delicate.

[Saracen]

It depends on the sauce. There's a variety of methods.

One is to simmer to reduce it. This works well for things like tomato or curry where you simply want to get rid of excess water. All you do is keep the sauce at a gentle simmer, and stir from time to time. Don't boil it, and don't let it burn. Oh, and don't cover with a lid, not at the 'thickening' stage.

For instance, a simple meatballs and tomato sauce for pasta. Fry some good quality meatballs. Once browned, pour in sauce mix and simmer, lid on, for, well, anything from 10 mins to half hour. Then, cook pasta. While pasta is cooking, remove lid and firmly simmer the tomato sauce.

Once pasta is cooked, drain pasta over a cup or mug . Keep some of the pasta water. You might need it. Once drained, and preferably with a little water still in it, add pasta to tomatoes sauce and meatballs, mix thoroughly, plate up and serve IMMEDIATELY. Never keep drained pasta laying around, but if it is going to be around on a serving plate, without sauce, for a few minutes, use some of that pasta water to keep it moist. It stops it sticking together, for a little while anyway.

Having added the pasta, meatballs, tomato sauce together, if it's now too thick, add a LITTLE pasta water to loosen up a bit.

So .... you can thicken the sauce by simmering, and if necessary, thin it again a little with the pasta water you kept.

And the "tomato sauce" can be HUGELY varied. Usually, at a minimum, I stick a tin of GOOD tinned tomatoes in a basin, add about 1/3 tin of water, a good pinch of dried herbs, salt and pepper to taste and about 1/2 teaepoon of sugar. And blitz with a stick blender. But you can vary it in so many ways, like with half a red pepper, or fresh herbs (I like fresh basil), or mushroom, garlic or whatever the hell.

And once blitzed, that's what gets poured on the meatballs. I never buy pasta sauces, they're too easy to make. And that meal is a quickie, by the way, taking anything ftom 25 mins yo 45 mins, depending on how long you simmer to thicken, which depends on how much water you added, and what other ingredients went in.

The key, IMHO, is good quality tinned tomatoes. It does affect the taste. A lot.

But simmering to reduce is just one method. Another is cornflour. Mix a teaspoon of courflour eith COLD water until you get a thin mix. Pour into a watery sauce and it thickens immediately. Well, a minute or two. If need be, add another teaspoon full, but it can affect taste too much if you overdo it.

A better method than cornflour is to make a proper butter/flour roux. It keeps pretty well in a fridge, too. But unless you already have some made, it's not something to decide you need 90 seconds before serving the meal, whereas the cornflour method can be done very late on.

Next, use a vegetable puree. The most obvious is tomato puree, but there are others available. You do, of course, need to consider what the sauce is and pick a puree to complement it, or at least, not overpower it. Tomato works, in moderation, in that sauce I described earlier, or indeed, in tomato-based curries, but I wouldn't suggest thickening a Hollandaise sauce with tomato puree. It'd be ... yuck. Or with any veg puree for that matter.

Some things can be thickened with rice. For instance, a slow-cooked cassetole can be thickened with a handful of rice. If left in and cooked for long enough, the grains essentially dissolve and the starches thicken the casserole. You can do the same with potato, and again, it's the starch thickening it.

In other words, there's loads of ways, depending on quite what you're seeking to thicken, and how long you've got to do it.

[wasabi]

Maggi coconut milk powder

[peterb]

Cornflour tends to make a 'glossy' sauce, while a traditional roux has less of a sheen to it - but both are good ways of thickening. A roux is the classic way of making a béchamel sauce, which is the base for many sauces. Both flour and cornflower need 'cooking out' otherwise the taste of the flour comes through. Cornflower tends to need less cooking out than flour in a roux base.

You can also use ground arrowroot, as a thickening agent. it is a clear mix (so good for syrups and so on) and needs much less 'cooking out' than flour or cornflour.

[g8ina]

Arrowroot tends to go slimy if you use a lot, so use with care....

[KeyboardDemon]

For curries if you start with sauteed onions you will usually get a good thick sauce, essentially you need to keep the onions on a gentle heat in a vegetable, corn or sunflower oil until the onion caramalise and start to dissolve before you start adding other ingredients like your garlic, ginger, herbs and spices etc... then add your meat/chicken until they are nearly cooked, then add vegetables or other ingredients towards the end before adding water to loosen the sauce and again, you can simmer if you've added too much.

[RobbieRoy]

A roux is the classic way of making a béchamel sauce, which is the base for many sauces. Both flour and cornflower need 'cooking out' otherwise the taste of the flour comes through.

You need to melt butter and then add flour before adding milk to make a béchamel sauce, which is a good base for many other sauces, particularly cheese ones.

Otherwise, if it's a water based dish you want to thicken, say a stew, I'd mix a couple of teaspoons of cornflour in 20ml of water so it is smooth and there are no lumps and then add it. Stir as it thickens the liquid under heat.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Paprika??

[KeyboardDemon]

Stir as it thickens the liquid under heat.

lol.. I guess I must have woken up in a pedantic mood today, but technically it would be over heat unless you are cooking in an oven or under a grill in which case it would be harder to keep stirring.

Phew, right, got that out my system, let's see if I can get back to having a normal day.

[RobbieRoy]

lol.. I guess I must have woken up in a pedantic mood today

Well, at least you said it!!

I myself can be sometimes a pretty acute pedant so completely understand how you sometimes just need to put things right!

[MrComputerSaint]

I've used Corn flour to thicken things up before. I think Soya flour can have the same effect.

If its a soup, with at least 20 minutes left to simmer then lentils can work well.

[SeriousSam]

A lot depends on the application, e.g. hot or cold, plus the ingredients used. Peppers contain enzymes that will chew up starches quite happily so need to destroy them before adding thickeners of that type. Honey and Lemon are also notorious for causing problems, colloquially known as snotting... and yes it does look like that

Personally I've always favoured adding water absorbing ingredients like lentils (as previously mentioned) or not being bothered by it. Admittedly Ramen is my favourite food so excess water isn't an issue for me.

[Biscuit]

I actually use the onion method KBD mentioned before quite a lot, if you also the onions dissolve into a wine and vegetable stock, it goes very well with tomato based dishes.

[peterb]

I actually use the onion method KBD mentioned before quite a lot, if you also the onions dissolve into a wine and vegetable stock, it goes very well with tomato based dishes.

Oh yes, nothing quite like an onion gravy! Pearl Barley can be used to thicken stews. Gelatine from a good stock (boil up the bones after boning out a joint, or if a butcher does it, make sure you get the 'trimmings'.

I was thinking more about ingredients specifically for thickening though, like flour - but that might not be what Lucio had in mind.

[Spreadie]

I tend to use cornflour for thickening sauces, but I've used shredded potato and onions to thicken soup.

[Zak33]

If its a meal that you an pull the main ingredients out of and then thicken ...and drop the main ingredients back in fast.. then you can put a single small potato or a pair of carrots in while its cooking...then use a slotted spoon to drag out all the food except the single potato.. then use a hand blender.. and whizz it all.. and then main ingredients back in.. job done! The starch from the root veg.. either spud or carrot.. will thicken it and add a sweetness.

However.. if that's too much advanced planning/faff you can try this:

mix tea spoon of butter with 3 teaspons of plain flour.. in tea cup of whatever you have handy.. make it into a little ball... and then drop it in. Mix it with a spoon and not your hands.. keep it cool.

OK it's NOT a proper roux.. but it's a great emergency thickener and you can put it in a bit at a time.. while the sauce is boiling. and it will thicken