Michelle’s Kitchen Table Strategies

It’s nice to know how to make sauces like white sauce, cheese sauce, and gravy.

I’ll never forget the first time I actually considered gravy-making. I was seven, maybe eight years old, and Mom, now Grandma, was shopping for supplies and restocking the larders for winter a few towns away, leaving Dad, now Grandpa, in charge of cooking for a few days.

So, Dad cooked up some steaks for dinner. We always had wild meat. Dad was then and still is now a good hunter. After making the steaks, he wanted to make some gravy, but he didn’t know how. The division of labor as he was growing up was first, his mother did all the cooking, and then, after marriage, his wife did all the cooking. We tried finding Mom’s cookbook, but we looked in all the wrong places, so he asked me if I knew how to make gravy.

Looking at the fat in the bottom of that cast iron skillet, I remembered Mom pouring flour into the fat, so I told him so. He poured flour into the fat in the skillet and stirred. It didn’t look like gravy, so I suggested more flour. He added more flour.

And that’s as far as we got: flour and oil in a mushy paste. I’d only paid attention to the first half of gravy making and didn’t know to add liquid. We treated that oily mush like gray and piled it on our potatoes only to scrape it off and leave it on the edge of our plates to be fed to the dog.

Looking back, I’m sure my value for ‘good’ gravy comes from that experience.

I’ve since learned how to make white sauce, and Dad has learned how to cook for himself and his mate (everyone now and then, we all get sick and need someone else to make dinner).

I use the knowledge to make cheese sauce for macaroni, clam sauce for linguine, and mushroom sauce for casseroles. Plus, I use the thickening technique for making broth gravies juice sauces, canned cream soup substitutes, and sometimes tomato sauce for spaghetti or pizza if that’s what I have to work with.

Flour Thickened Sauce

(Amounts will vary depending on personal preference.)

Equal parts flour and oil/butter/fat

Salt (optional)

Liquid, preferably a liquid with flavor

Herbs, spices, sugar (as needed)

   Consider what is being made. Decide what sauce to make and how thick it will be. Measure the liquid. Calculate the amount of flour and oil/butter/fat to use (see below). Pull out a saucepan or a skillet.

1 Tablespoon each of oil/butter/fat and flour plus one cup of liquid will make a sauce that pours nicely onto pancakes and waffles (Fruit juice sauce).

2 Tablespoons each of oil/butter/fat and flour plus one cup of liquid will make a sauce that works well on mashed potatoes like meat gravy type sauces.

3 Tablespoons each of oil/butter/fat and flour plus one cup of liquid will make a sauce that works well for freshly boiled noodles that retain a residue of moisture from the boiling.

Once the calculations have been done, measure the liquid, then add any of the optional ingredients to the liquid and stir to incorporate, set aside. Turn heat on low under the pan, then add the oil/butter/fat and the flour and bring to a simmering bubble until the mixture is smooth; then start adding the liquid a little at a time, stirring constantly until all the liquid is added and the sauce has thickened.

If making cheese sauce, use milk as the liquid, add a pinch of dried mustard, then add ½ to 1 cup shredded cheese after the sauce has thickened, mix well, and stir into noodles.

Choices for liquids: meat or veggie broth, tomato juice, any fruit juice, or milk. Milk will curdle with prolonged contact with heat, so as soon as a milk sauce is your type of thick, remove it from the heat.

In 2000 Michele Priddy left the work force to become a stay-at-home mother and wife. Being a one-income family in today’s society meant she had to learn to budget quickly. Food became a priority early because she wanted the children to have the best nutrition, she could offer them even on a budget. She also taught cooking classes on how to stretch the food dollar with simple ingredients at various churches in her community. Michelle has put her kitchen strategies and recipes in booklets, her church newsletter and also in her hometown newspaper, The Goldendale Sentinel. We hope you will enjoy her strategies, stories, and recipes. You can contact the Leavenworth Echo at Reporter@leavenworthecho.com or 509-548-5286 if you have any questions or comments for Michelle.