If you want to eat mashed potatoes without gravy then you can put some hot sauce, ketchup, cheese, nacho cheese etc on the mashed potatoes.
I love putting nacho cheese and bacon bits on my mashed potatoes sometimes instead of gravy and it tastes delicious.
To make your brown gravy taste better you can mix in some herbs or garlic, bacon bits, bacon grease, beef drippings, chopped onions, onion powder, garlic powder etc.
To make gravy from scratch without flour you can use cornstarch in place of the flour.
Or you can also use cooked dry beans in place of the flour.
Cream them in a blender or food processor, place them in a skillet and add some of the drippings until it reaches the consistency you like then season, simmer and strain.
To make gravy with flour and water from scratch start off by heating butter and beef drippings in a non-stick saucepan.
Add flour and mix until golden brown.
Add broth gradually, while constantly mixing.
Add salt and pepper and let it simmer and thicken to the desired consistency.
Remove from heat and stir in some butter to make silky smooth glossy gravy.
To make brown gravy or other gravy from scratch without drippings you can use butter and some broth such as chicken broth, beef broth etc.
The butter will take the place of the fat drippings although brown gravy made with fat drippings makes for a better gravy.
To make brown gravy taste better you can add some herbs such as thyme, sage, chopped parsley, a teeny bit of tarragon, some chives.
Also adding some mustard powder to the gravy or some bacon grease or bacon bits to the gravy can make it taste much better.
To make homemade brown gravy with flour and water you need to also add some fat such as bacon fat.
I like to use bacon drippings for fat, but you can use shortening or vegetable oil.
You should use about 1/4 cup oil and about the same amount of all purpose flour.
Add salt and black pepper. If you like, you may season it with a little garlic and onion powder.
Brown the flour and seasonings in the fat until it is a rich dark brown.
At this point, you can use either water, milk, or a combination of the two (about 2 cups liquid).
Whichever you use, pour it slowly into the roux (the mixture of flower and fat), stirring with a whisk as you add the liquid. Continue to stir on low heat until the gravy thickens.
If it is too thick, you may add a little more milk, again stirring as you add. If it is too thick, put a tablespoon or so of flour in a cup and add a little water and stir until smooth, then add it to your gravy.
You can always adjust the thickness by this method.
Taste your gravy and adjust seasonings if necessary.
You can make a gravy this same way by browning half a pound of sausage before adding the flour. If you do this, you may not need to add oil.
You will soon learn how to do this by experience. If you use sausage, taste your gravy before you add seasonings.
If you make it with ground beef, you will need to add the seasonings and will probably need to add some oil.
Either of these make a great gravy.
To thicken gravy without flour you can use cornstarch or arrowroot although flour works the best to thicken gravy.
But the cornstarch or arrowroot will work just fine.
Flour or cornstarch works great to thicken the gravy and you just add a little bit of flour or cornstarch to the gravy at a time and stir it in until it thickens enough to your liking.
When you need to thicken gravy without flour or you don't have any flour to thicken the gravy you can use either cornstarch or arrowroot to thicken the gravy.
If your gravy is too thin you can add a little cornstarch or arrowroot slowly and stir it in until the gravy thickens.
Don't add too much of the cornstarch or arrowroot because it can make it too thick or ruin the gravy mixture.
As long as you just put a little in at a time and stir it then you should get the gravy to enough thickness.
To thicken the gravy with the cornstarch you'll need about 1 tablespoon for every cup of liquid in the recipe.
Mix the cornstarch with equal parts water to create a slurry and pour it into the pot.
This is a healthy and natural way to thicken gravy when it's too thin.
I always use cornstarch when I have it and don't have any flour.