Sauce too thick

What to thin it with, best first

The liquid you add is an ingredient, not just a diluent.

• More of whatever the sauce is made of. Stock for a gravy, milk for a béchamel, cream for a cream sauce, wine for a reduction. Nothing is lost.
• Pasta cooking water, for anything going onto pasta. Starchy, salty and it improves the texture rather than thinning it out.
• The cooking liquid from the dish — braising liquid, the water the vegetables were cooked in, the juices from the roasting tin.
• Stock, which adds body and savouriness rather than only volume.
• Cream or butter, which loosens and enriches at once. Butter whisked in off the heat is the classic finish.
• Water, which works and dilutes everything. Fine in small amounts; taste and re-season afterwards.
• Never a large slug of anything cold into a hot sauce. Warm the liquid first, or add it gradually.

Thinning it properly

1. Take the pan off the heat before you add anything. A thick sauce over direct heat catches within seconds.
2. Add the liquid a little at a time — a tablespoon or two — and stir it fully in before judging.
3. Return it to a low heat and let it come back to temperature. A sauce looks thinner hot than it will be on the plate.
4. Taste and re-season. Thinning dilutes the salt and acid as well as the texture.
5. If it has gone lumpy as well as thick, whisk hard or push it through a sieve.
6. For a sauce that has caught on the base, pour the good sauce into a clean pan without scraping, then thin it there.

Why it thickened

Reduced too far

Evaporation. The commonest cause, and the flavour is concentrated rather than lost.

Too much thickener

Flour, cornflour or roux. Once cooked out it will not thin back on its own.

It cooled

Starch-thickened sauces set considerably as they cool and loosen again when reheated. Judge them hot.

It kept thickening off the heat

Cornflour and arrowroot continue to set for a minute or two after the pan comes off.

A skin formed

Not thickness at all. Whisk it back in, or press cling film onto the surface next time.

Dairy reduced hard

Cream and milk thicken sharply as they reduce and can go grainy if pushed too far.

Sauces that behave unusually

• Cornflour-thickened — thins with a splash of liquid and re-thickens on standing. Add liquid, do not add more cornflour.
• Roux-based — thins readily with warm milk or stock, whisked in gradually.
• Reduction sauces — thin with stock or wine, then reduce briefly again to marry it.
• Egg-thickened custards — thin with warm milk or cream, off the heat, and never reheat hard.
• Cheese sauces — thin with warm milk. Adding cold liquid to a hot cheese sauce is a common way to make it grainy.
• Tomato sauces — thin with pasta water, stock or a splash of the tin. Water alone flattens them.

Common questions