Sauces
Gravy from the Roast
Proper Sunday-roast gravy made in the roasting tin: the joint sits on a trivet of onion, carrot and celery, then the browned juices, a spoonful of the fat and well-cooked flour are simmered with red wine and beef stock and strained until glossy. Works for beef, lamb, pork or chicken.
- Serves 6
- Makes about 600 ml
- Hands-on 15 min while the meat rests
- Needs a roast
- Freezes well
- British
Method
Before roasting, scatter the onion (1 onion), carrot (1 carrot), celery (1) and bay leaf (1 bay leaf) in the roasting tin and sit the joint on top. The vegetables lift the meat out of the fat, catch the juices and slowly caramelise, and that browning is where the gravy gets its colour.
When the meat is cooked, lift it on to a board to rest and cover loosely with foil. Tilt the tin and spoon off the clear fat, leaving about 1 tablespoon with all the dark juices and vegetables. If the vegetables are pale, put the tin back in the hot oven for 10 minutes to brown them.
Set the tin over a medium heat on the hob and mash the vegetables roughly with a potato masher. Sprinkle in the flour (2 tbsp) and stir in the tomato purée (1 tsp). Keep stirring and scraping for 2–3 minutes until the flour turns a rich golden brown and smells toasty.
Pour in the wine (150 ml) and let it bubble hard for 2 minutes, scraping up every stuck-on bit, until it has reduced by half.
Gradually stir in the hot stock (500 ml), a ladle at a time at first so no lumps form, then add the Worcestershire sauce (1 tsp). Simmer gently for 5–10 minutes, stirring now and then, until the gravy lightly coats the back of a spoon.
Strain into a saucepan through a sieve, pressing hard on the vegetables to get every drop, and pour in any juices that have collected under the resting meat.
Taste. Stir in the redcurrant jelly (1 tsp) for a touch of sweetness with beef or lamb, or a few drops of vinegar (a little) to sharpen a rich gravy. Season (to taste), bring back to a simmer and pour into a warm jug.
Tip: tap a step to tick it off as you cook.
See also
Chef’s notes
- No tin juices, or a small joint? Brown 6 chicken wings with the trivet vegetables for 45 minutes at 200°C (fan 180°C), then carry on from step 3. Made a day or two ahead like this, the gravy only needs reheating in the roasting tin with the fresh juices.
- Only use the roasting tin on the hob if it is flameproof; otherwise scrape everything into a wide frying pan.
- Too thin? Simmer for a few minutes more, or whisk in 1 teaspoon of cornflour mixed with 1 tablespoon of cold water. Too thick? Add a splash of hot stock or the water from the vegetables.
- For chicken or pork, use chicken stock and white wine or dry cider in place of the beef stock and red wine.
- Keeps for 3 days in the fridge and 3 months in the freezer.
From the spit to the gravy boat
Gravy began as the juices that ran from meat roasting on a spit in front of the fire; the word itself probably comes from a misreading of “grané”, an Old French name for a spiced broth. By the 18th century English cooks were thickening the juices with flour to make the brown sauce that now goes with every Sunday roast.
Until 2026 this page held both of our gravies; onion gravy now has its own recipe.
How this recipe was developed
We compared roast gravies by Anne Willan, Christopher Kimball’s America’s Test Kitchen, Jamie Oliver and Heston Blumenthal with the best-rated versions from BBC Food and BBC Good Food, and kept the method from our own Roast Beef with Gravy.
- A trivet of vegetables under the joint. America’s Test Kitchen roasts beef on onion, carrot and celery and strains them out of the gravy; Jamie Oliver mashes the roasted vegetables in the tray for a darker gravy.
- Keep only a spoonful of fat. BBC Good Food (Sarah Cook) spoons 2 tablespoons of the fat back into the tin and BBC Food’s traditional gravy skims the rest off; we keep about 1 tablespoon.
- Brown the flour properly. Anne Willan cooks the flour in the fat until it is deep golden before any liquid goes in, which gives colour without gravy browning.
- Tomato purée, red wine and Worcestershire sauce. America’s Test Kitchen’s Classic Roast Beef and Gravy adds tomato paste, red wine and Worcestershire sauce for depth.
- Sharpen at the end. Heston Blumenthal finishes his roast gravy with a few drops of sherry vinegar; redcurrant jelly is the classic British sweet note.
- Make it ahead if you need to. Jamie Oliver’s get-ahead gravy roasts chicken wings with the vegetables; we give that as the fallback when there are no juices.
Sources we compared (ratings as shown on each site on 31 October 2026):
- Anne Willan: Standing Rib Roast (gravy method), Food.com reproduction
- Christopher Kimball (America's Test Kitchen): Classic Roast Beef and Gravy
- Christopher Kimball (America's Test Kitchen): Grandma's Roast Beef with Gravy
- Jamie Oliver: Get-ahead gravy
- Heston Blumenthal: Roast turkey and gravy, Gourmet Traveller reproduction
- BBC Food (BBC Food team): Traditional gravy (4.7/5, 9 ratings)
- BBC Good Food (Sarah Cook): Roast beef with caramelised onion gravy (4.6/5, 24 ratings)
- Cookeryonline: Roast Beef with Gravy (our batch 1 composite)
This is an original Cookeryonline recipe written in our own words. Ingredient choices and techniques are credited above; no source text has been copied.