Bread sauce substitutes

Workable and what most people actually have in the cupboard. Dried crumbs are far thirstier than fresh, so use less and add more milk. The texture comes out grainier and slightly gritty rather than the pillowy, almost fluffy softness fresh bread gives, and panko in particular stays a little distinct rather than melting in.

Best for

Christmas dinner when you have no fresh bread, roast chicken, game birds, quick weeknight cooking

Give it a longer, gentler simmer, at least 10 minutes, and beat it hard with a wooden spoon at the end to break the crumbs down. Golden or seasoned breadcrumbs will make it beige and taste of herbs, so use plain white ones.

The right flavour direction in the wrong texture. A flour-thickened white sauce is smooth and glossy where bread sauce is nubbly and soft, so the plate reads as a cream sauce with turkey rather than as bread sauce. Season it hard with white pepper and salt, since bechamel starts out blander than bread sauce does.

Best for

making ahead in quantity, when you want a smooth sauce, leftover turkey pies and gratins

Infuse the milk with the clove-studded onion and bay before you make the roux, exactly as you would for bread sauce, which gets you much closer than adding ground spice at the end. A tablespoon of fresh breadcrumbs stirred in at the end gives a hint of the right texture.

A good gluten-free option with real historical precedent, since medieval English cooks thickened sauces this way. It is richer and faintly sweet, with a slightly sandy rather than soft texture, and it browns and thickens more as it sits. The clove and onion still come through clearly.

Best for

gluten-free Christmas dinner, game birds, a richer sauce, roast pheasant and partridge

Almonds absorb less liquid than bread, so start with less milk and add more only if needed. Do not let it boil hard, as the almond oil can separate and leave the surface looking greasy.

Gluten-free, cheap and surprisingly effective, but the result is stickier and more gluey than bread sauce, closer to a loose mashed potato than a sauce. The flavour is neutral enough that the clove and bay do all the talking, which is really what you want.

Best for

gluten-free cooking at short notice, large batches, when you have nothing else

Add the flakes off the heat, a little at a time, whisking as you go, and stop while it is still looser than you want. It stiffens dramatically within a minute and there is no undoing it except with more hot milk.

Another gluten-free route, and the smoothest of them. Blitzed cooked pudding rice or arborio into the infused milk gives a thick, creamy, slightly elastic sauce. It is silkier than bread sauce and has none of the bready flavour, so it tastes cleaner and milder.

Best for

gluten-free dinners, using up leftover rice, a smooth, spoonable sauce

Blitz with a stick blender directly in the pan and stop as soon as it is smooth, since over-blending rice makes it stretchy. Long-grain rice does not work well here, it stays too distinct.

The honest admission that these do not substitute for bread sauce at all, they replace it with something else. Cranberry is sharp and sweet and cuts fat, gravy is savoury and salty and adds depth. Both are good on turkey and neither provides the soft, mild, milky cushion bread sauce provides. Your dinner will be excellent and slightly less complete.

Best for

when you simply have no time, guests who do not know bread sauce, keeping a Christmas plate simple

If you go this route, add a little cream or extra butter to the gravy so the plate is not short of richness, since bread sauce was contributing that as well as flavour.