I never use wheat flour. :) You won't want barley flour either, which is what I usually use, because it also has gluten, but potato starch works very well, if the "sugar" part of using starch doesn't bother you.

The kid is gluten intolerant and SIL can't have potatoes, so we use cornstarch. Gravy thickened by anything but flour seemed just wrong at first, but I really don't mind the cornstarch.

In gravy, rice flour acts just like wheat flour. It is a more than fine substitute.

I have used corn starch, gluten free flour blends. dehydrated potato flakes, mashed potatoes or some other veggies. Soup for instance, the quickest is to make a slurry of cornstarch and water, slowly add to cooked food and residual heat will create thickening. For gravies, I use something called Savory Choice Beef Demi Glace reduction sauce. I only use a tiny bit for color and flavor. I buy it at Fresh Market.

McCormick and Simply Organic ( plus many more i am sure) make a line of GF gravy mixes, just add water or wine or stock. You can adjust to your tastes but the hard work is done. I have made my own gravy base dry packets, many of those recipes can be found on line.

You can make gravy the same way you are used to just change the wheat for a GF flour blend. Making the roux with butter is pretty much the same.

Cup4cup works well but is pricey. I make my own blend of GF flour. King Arthur has a GF cook book with a lot of info on how the different ingredients in GF flours work and how to handle them for maximum success. Biggest difference is sometimes there needs to be a rest period so wet ingredients can be absorbed correctly.

I also use Better than Bouillon chicken or beef base. It does not specifically say GF but looking at ingredients, no GF listed. Those of us who need to know, know to be careful with that. I clipped the part about GF from their website and posted it below. I have no problem with this product. If you have the time and equipment, you could make a batch of chicken or beef stock from leftover bones and carcasses and freeze the cooled and skimmed stock in ice cube trays so that you have it available when making gravies from scratch. As you progress on the GF journey, you might find less need for gravy and sauce additions and just eat a cleaner/leaner diet if only for streamlining your cooking routine. And be careful with salad dressings, those can be a minefield. Much more fun to make your own anyway. Best to you!

Is Better than Bouillon gluten free?

Many of our bases could be considered gluten free, but since we do not test specifically for gluten at this time, we are unable to make claims regarding the gluten content in each of the bases. However, I can help you if you have a question about one of the ingredients and where it is derived from so that you can make a personal decision about whether or not you can eat the product.

I often use potato starch or potato flour to thicken a sauce, but it does not reheat well. It is fine when you use it the same day you make it, but if you store it and try to reheat it, it will lose the thicken power and require more potato starch.

I get better results w/ cornstarch than arrowroot, which seems to break down faster.

I also mostly use cornstarch, but have been known to use GF flour. The problem with that is that some flours have a gritty texture, which throws the gravy off. Cornstarch is my go-to most often.

Since I make my own stock and can it, I can open a jar and know that there's no gluten problem, reduce it down and then thicken it and be confident knowing that Amanda won't be ill.

Annie

All the above and one more thickener choice - Ultra Gel, but what I do more often than not is to make a pan sauce by melting some frozen cubes of homemade bone broth, heat to a simmer reduce the liquid, at the end of reducing season it and add a knob of butter, stir in the melted butter. The butter will thicken the sauce. Mind you, this is a sauce, not gravy, but I try to avoid as many of the high-glycemic starches as I do gluten.

Here are the advantages and disadvantages of some of the more popular gluten-free thickeners:

Arrowroot-

Advantages - Works well with cold acid fruits. Doesn't need to boil to thicken. Does not need to be cooked to remove the "raw" taste.

Disadvantages - When used in a sauce that is served hot, it does not keep long and does not reheat well.

Cornstarch-

Advantages - Used for translucency. Recommended in high-acid fruit environments.

Disadvantages - Once they have gelatinized, over-beating or over-cooking cornstarch-based sauces will cause them to thin. If the sugar level is too high, cornstarch will not thicken the mixture. Can have a "raw" taste if insufficiently cooked. Lumps can form if the cornstarch is not properly dissolved in cold liquid before it is mixed with the hot liquid.

Potato Starch -

Advantages - Requires less simmering than flour-based sauces. Has some translucency. Makes a more delicate sauce than flour.

Disadvantages - Starts to lose thickening power at high temperatures. Hot sauces will not stand long, as it does not have much holding power.

Tapioca Starch -

Advantages - Works well in fillings that are to be frozen, as it does not break down like flour-based sauces do.

Disadvantages - Will get "stringy" if boiled.

Ultra Gel

Advantages - Thickens instantly so it is quick and easy to use. Thickens without lumping or scorching. Products made with Ultra Gel don't separate, set up hard or go runny when they are refrigerated or frozen. Adds stability to low-fat products and body to reduced-sugar foods. Improves the texture, mouth-feel, and keeping qualities of baked goods.

Disadvantages - It's not readily available. I order it on-line, and be sure to get "The Ultra Gel Cookbook" for more information about how to use it. It's NOT just for thickening, but lots of cooking/baking ideas.

http://shop.honeyville.com/ultra-gel.html

I just had a thought when "ultra gel" was mentioned. Could a person thicken a gravy using plain old gelatin?

When I think of gravy it's usually in a gravy boat, made from the drippings of some large hunk of roasted protein. I typically make pan sauces, mostly because I don't frequently cook for crowds. For pan sauces, it's either reduce the liquid and mount with a little butter or corn starch, that kind of depends on my mood and if I think the sauce will benefit enough from the butter to offset the added calories.

Grainlady - I have no idea what high-gylcemic starches are but would there be enough of those in the typical serving of gravy to make any real difference in the average person's diet?

mike-

High-glycemic carbohydrates and starches - this might help explain: http://www.diagnosisdiet.com/refined-carbohydrate-list/

It's not just the amount in the thickener for gravy, it's all those found in all the other gluten-free foods and products people consume, including commercial and homemade all-purpose flour blends. These highly-processed, high-glycemic starches/flours can stimulate appetite, cause insulin issues, and can contribute to weight gain, and can be unhealthy alternatives to those that contain gluten they are trying to replace.

Today, approximately half of all calories consumed by most American's come from carbohydrates, and mostly highly-processed carbohydrates. Don't wonder why Type II Diabetes, and other blood sugar conditions are rampant..... Disease by fork! Just because it's gluten-free doesn't make it healthy. It's like saying apple pie is bad for me, so I'll eat cherry instead.

Most foods containing wheat and wheat flour are at least "enriched" adding ingredients like vitamins and minerals. That's not true with most gluten-free options like cereals, pastas; and gluten-free grains and flours are not fortified with iron and B-vitamins. This includes common combinations with white rice flour, tapioca starch, cornstarch and potato starch. Also missing is fiber. There is the secondary concern from consuming high amounts of arsenic when consuming large amounts of rice flour found in virtually all all-purpose flour blends and commercial gluten-free foods of all kinds. For more information: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2015/01/how-much-arsenic-is-in-your-rice/index.htm

This is why I STILL stick to whole grains and mill my own wholegrain flour from gluten-free grains/seeds/beans. There's a bigger picture than just eating gluten-free --- at least for me. I happen to be gluten sensitive, but people with Celiac Disease also have issues ingesting nutrients due the damage done by gluten, so eating a lot of "dead" food, even though it's gluten-free, doesn't help nourish them. It helps lead to other diseases and even premature death. I know, I watch this happen to my mother.

-Grainlady

DD has celiac, I started using corn starch but found as stated above, slightly over heated & it thins. Now I use Bobs red mill GF all purpose flour. Small bag & keep in the freezer.

Don't think gelatin would work in a hot dish like gravy, since it is only thick when cold....?

Unless you like cold jello gravy...no, gelatin will not work. It will liquify when heated.

I've used just veggie for sauces and gravy. Diced onion and carrot and a chunk of cooked sweet potato or winter squash, (i have cooked frozen chunks in the freezer to thicken some soups.) Stick blender or standing blender.

I aslo freeze small 1/4 pints of stock with a bit of garbanzo and white beans. Then wizz in the blender to thicken things. Dried mushrooms, reconstituted in warm water, then blendered with their soaking liquid and a cooked veg...like garbanzos...

Made a 'gravy' for my sister who has a new allergy every year. : ) I used the mushrooms and some veg and her green lentils. I just said, "put what you can eat in this bowl and i will make you something". Grrr. Easy once i have the ingredients. But she just likes to talk about all her issues anyway....it did not really shut her up. We did have a bit of fun as sisters do. Raw kale salad...a mixed sprouted grain salad that she loved and still makes often since then....

I use Ultra Gel quite often but not as the first choice thickening agent for gravies, soups, or stews. For some reason I frequently miscalculate how much flour/cornstarch is needed for thickening. Rather than trying to reduce the liquid by boiling (and end up thinning it even more), I simply add a couple of tablespoons of Ultra Gel until I get the consistency I want. As Grainlady mentioned, it can be added to both cold and hot liquids directly -- no slurry required.

For example, I used it a couple of days ago when I made a chicken tortilla soup that's thickened with masa. I didn't mix in enough masa but felt adding more would also require more salt (something I wanted to avoid). Ultra Gel thickened the soup but didn't contribute any flavor, so I didn't need to up the salt content. It was a perfect fix.

There are two types of "gelatin" (aka cooked collagen) - one that gels -- like Knox gelatin where we bloom it in cool liquid and it melts when exposed to heat - as sleevendog covered above - the stuff Jell-O is made with -- and Collagen Hydrolystate, a bovine gelatin(I use Great Lakes Collagen Hydrolystate). Collagen Hydrolystate can be added to both cold and hot liquids but it does NOT gel, so it's great for adding protein, and the other health benefits it provides, to smoothies and hot or cold beverages.....

Ultra Gel isn't a gelatin product even though it gels. Gelatin is made from beef and pork while Ultra Gel is a modified food starch made from waxy maize corn.

For more about thickeners, check out this link at Cook's Thesaurus:

http://www.foodsubs.com/ThickenStarch.html

Editing to add: Shambo - I use 2-3 T. Ultra Gel per 1-cup liquid for thickening gravy. You can always start with 1 T. and work up from there according to the thickness you like.

-Grainlady

Mike, it all adds up. I went from buying cafeteria food thickened with starches and such to bringing in my own food for lunches. I lost weight, without reducing the amount of food I was eating. (I'd usually been eating the "healthier" selections from the cafeteria, btw.)

Grainlady, thanks for the tip. I use Ultra Gel frequently ,but when it comes to gravies or soups, I usually start out with flour. Ultra Gel is my emergency backup when I've miscalculated. That happens quite often when I'm making chili or a Mexican-inspired soup because I thicken them with masa. I love the flavor & texture but don't want to add too much. It kind of "flattens" the taste of the soup or chili, necessitating more salt. Using Ultra Gel allows me to achieve the consistency I want without increasing the salt content.

I use Ultra Gel a lot in homemade vinaigrette style salad dressings. It emulsifies the oil and vinegar without any weird taste or texture. And I use it instead of Clear Jel for fruit crisps and similar desserts.

I'm indebted to you for mentioning it several years ago. I've found it to be a really handy addition to my kitchen.

I don't thicken gravy. Just reduce and add a knob of butter at the end.