Thickening Soups, Stews, and Sauces

Making and canning soups and stews is relatively easy, however they must remain somewhat thin as canning thickened liquids is not recommended. However, for my tastes there is one step left to do after you open the jar of and heat up a good home canned soup, stew or gumbo, and that is to thicken it. For this article I will be taking a minimalist approach, that is to say that the only thickeners I will be discussing are the three found in the 'minimalist' pantry, flour, cornstarch and condensed soups.

As I have been canning a lot of soups and stews lately and posting the recipes for you to try on our blog, I decided I need to add a quick article to the blog on how to thicken soups, stews and sauces. Now, there are several different ways to thicken a hot soup, stew or gumbo and I am going to show you both the traditional ways I learned to thicken soups, stews, gumbos, and sauces as well as a quick easy out.

All-Purpose Flour

All-purpose flour is a great thickener and it is the base of all roux's used to make sauces and soups. However, if you add flour by itself to a hot liquid, you are going to get a crappy, lumpy mess. When using flour as a thickening agent for hot soups and stews, you have two options. The first, is to make a flour and butter paste known in French cooking as a 'buerre manie' (pronounced 'burr men yea'). To make a buerre manie you take equal amounts of flour and butter and knead it into a paste. You can then put the buerre manie straight into your soup and the flour will not clump up. To thicken your soup or stew using a buerre manie use the following guidelines. Remember we are using a ratio of 1 tablespoon of butter with 1 tablespoon of flour (1:1 ratio).

1 tablespoon of burre manie per cup of liquid will make a thin sauce.

1 ½ tablespoons of buree manie per cup of liquid will make a medium thick sauce.

2 tablespoons of buree manie per cup of liquid will make a thick sauce.

The great thing about a burre manie when used to thicken soups is that the butter adds a nice smooth mouth feel to the soup that accentuates the flavor of the soup. It does however add calories, but as the French would say c'est la vie (such is life).

The second option for using flour is somewhat easier, using this technique you are going to make a slurry (combination of a starch and cold water) by combining equal parts of flour and cold water in a small bowl and mixing it well with a fork or whisk. The slurry is then added to your soup or stew which must be brought to a slight boil to activate the flour and get rid of the raw taste of the flour. Like a buree manie, I would start out with 1 tablespoon of flour to 1 tablespoon of water (1:1 ratio) and add to your soup or stew 1 tablespoon at a time.

1 tablespoon of flour slurry per cup of liquid will make a thin sauce.

1 ½ tablespoons of flour slurry per cup of liquid will make a medium thick sauce.

2 tablespoons of flour slurry per cup of liquid will make a thick sauce.

Cornstarch

The one thickener that most home cook's think about using to thicken a soup or stew is cornstarch. Cornstarch is a great thickener with a thickening power about twice that of flour. Like flour, cornstarch is used primarily as a slurry to thicken soups or stews. The one downside to cornstarch is that it tends to leave a shiny sheen to liquids that are thickened with it. It doesn't affect the taste, but that is why all the food that have sauces at the Chinese buffet have that shiny appearance. Cornstarch is best used as a thickening agent for sweet or fruit sauces, pie fillings and of course Chinese food. Depending on the desired appearance of the finished dish, the shiny appearance is something that you may want to avoid, but it does work quite well

Like flour, a cornstarch slurry is made with equal parts cornstarch and cold water (1:1 ratio). Mix it well and then pour it into the liquid you wish to thicken. When using cornstarch, I generally make a slurry of 1 tablespoon cornstarch to one tablespoon water to start out with. I then add it to my soup, stew or sauce one tablespoon at a time until I get the desired effect. No fast an furious rules here with cornstarch, just add it stir, wait and add some more until you get the right consistency.

Condensed Soups (The Quick Easy Out)

Using condensed soup as a thickener is an easy out. If you are cooking a home canned chicken soup and you want it a little thicker, just add a condensed can of 'Cream Of Chicken Soup' or 'Cream Of Mushroom', for gumbos add a can of 'Cream Of Celery' or any flavor of your choice. You can even use the fat-free versions to reduce the calorie count of your soup. Condensed soups can add body to a weak soup and because it is condensed it can also act as a sudo-thickening agent as it has half the water removed when canned, that is why it is called 'condensed'. However, it is not a true thickening agent. Often, I use the fat-free version in my gumbo for a low-fat roux alternative and it works very well.

Conclusion

Keep in mind that after you add any slurry to your soup, stew or sauce, you will need to bring it to a slow boil in order to activate the slurry’s thickening ability. Caution must be taken as overcooking the slurry can cause it to hydrolyse (break down) and lose it's thickening ability. Therefore, once your soup, stew or sauce has reached the desired consistency that you are looking for, carefully remove the saucepan from the heat to prevent hydrolysis. Condensed soups can be used to help thicken a soup but they do so by volume rather than acting as a thickening agent.

Thickening soups, stews and sauces is really easy and can be done quickly, but a little care must be taken when doing so. I would not advise that you add your buree manie or slurry to your soup, stew or sauce and walk away from the stove. You need to keep an eye on it so that once it reaches the consistency you are looking for you can remove it from the heat to prevent it from scorching or becoming overcooked and totally breaking down defeating the whole purpose of trying to thicken your meal.

If you are looking to find additional ways to stretch your food dollars, be sure and check out some of my other articles on the subject on our blog. And as always, if you have enjoyed this article, please share it with your friends and don't forget to send us a friend request on Facebook and Google+ so that you will not miss out on any of our new articles.