Sauces
Onion Gravy
Rich, sticky onion gravy that needs no roast: three onions cooked slowly in butter until deep brown and sweet, then simmered with red wine, beef stock and a dab of mustard. Made for sausages and mash, toad in the hole, faggots and liver.
- Serves 6
- Makes about 600 ml
- About 1 hr, mostly gentle frying
- No roast needed
- Make ahead and freeze
- British
Method
Melt the butter (25 g) with the oil (1 tbsp) in a wide, heavy pan over a medium-low heat. Add the onions (3 onions), thyme (a little), bay leaf (1 bay leaf) and a good pinch of salt and stir to coat.
Cover and cook gently for 15 minutes, stirring once or twice, until the onions have collapsed and softened without colouring.
Take off the lid and keep cooking for 30–35 minutes, stirring every few minutes and scraping the bottom of the pan, until the onions are sticky and a deep chestnut brown. Add the sugar (1 tsp) for the last 10 minutes. If they start to catch, add a splash of water rather than turning up the heat.
Stir in the flour (1½ tbsp) and cook for 2 minutes until it smells toasty and has lost its raw look.
Pour in the wine (150 ml) and vinegar (1 tsp) and let them bubble for 2–3 minutes until reduced by about half, stirring so the flour does not form lumps.
Gradually add the hot stock (500 ml), then the mustard (1 tsp) and Worcestershire sauce (1 tsp). Simmer for 8–10 minutes until the gravy coats the back of a spoon.
Fish out the thyme stalks and bay leaf, season (to taste) and serve. Loosen with a little water or stock if it thickens on standing.
Tip: tap a step to tick it off as you cook.
See also
Chef’s notes
- Time, not heat, makes this gravy: the onions need the best part of an hour to go sweet and dark. Covering them at the start softens them quickly without burning.
- For sausages, pour off the fat from the sausage pan, add a ladle of the finished gravy and scrape up the sticky bits, then stir it all back in.
- For a smoother gravy, blend a third of it and stir it back in.
- Keeps for 3 days in the fridge and 3 months in the freezer; reheat until simmering, adding a splash of water if needed.
- For pork, swap the red wine for dry cider and use chicken stock and a few sage leaves instead of thyme.
The gravy that needs no roast
Onion gravy is the everyday British gravy: made without a roast, it turns a plate of sausages and mash into bangers and mash, and is poured over toad in the hole, faggots and liver and bacon.
Slow-cooked onions have been used to give body and sweetness to sauces since medieval times; French cooks call the same idea a sauce lyonnaise.
How this recipe was developed
We compared onion gravies by Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver (Jamie magazine) with the best-rated versions from BBC Good Food, BBC Food and Allrecipes, and took the flour technique from Anne Willan.
- Onions cooked for the best part of an hour. BBC Good Food’s easy onion gravy cooks them for 45–50 minutes and Jamie Oliver for about 40; Gordon Ramsay caramelises them for his roast beef. Time, not heat, gives the sweetness.
- Covered first, then uncovered. Jane Hornby’s French onion gravy for BBC Good Food (4.5/5, 210 ratings) and the Allrecipes onion gravy (4.5/5) both soften the onions under a lid before browning them.
- Brown the flour properly. Anne Willan cooks the flour in the fat until it is deep golden before any liquid goes in.
- Red wine, vinegar and beef stock. BBC Good Food reduces red wine with red wine vinegar to balance the sweet onions; Allrecipes’ True Bangers and Mash (4.6/5, 192 ratings) also uses red wine and beef stock.
- Mustard and Worcestershire sauce. The Allrecipes onion gravy for bangers and mash adds Dijon mustard and Worcestershire sauce, which we kept.
- Make it ahead. BBC Food’s make-ahead onion gravy and Jamie Oliver’s version are both designed to be made in advance and frozen.
Sources we compared (ratings as shown on each site on 31 October 2026):
- Gordon Ramsay: Roast Beef with Caramelised Onion Gravy
- Jamie Oliver (Sarah Tildesley (Jamie magazine)): Onion gravy (sweet & sticky)
- Anne Willan: Standing Rib Roast (gravy method), Food.com reproduction
- BBC Good Food (Elena Silcock): Easy onion gravy
- BBC Good Food (Jane Hornby): Pot-roast beef with French onion gravy (4.5/5, 210 ratings)
- BBC Food: Make-ahead onion gravy (5.0/5, 5 ratings)
- Allrecipes (Lupin Pooter): Onion Gravy for British Bangers and Mash (4.5/5, 54 ratings)
- Allrecipes: True Bangers and Mash with Onion Gravy (4.6/5, 192 ratings)
This is an original Cookeryonline recipe written in our own words. Ingredient choices and techniques are credited above; no source text has been copied.