While butter and flour mixed in equal parts and baked brown makes the best thickening for gravies, plain browned flour does nearly as well and is more desirable when the butter is not very good. Put some sifted flour dry into a frying-pan and bake deep brown in the oven. Use it at the rate of a tablespoonful to a cupful of liquid. Wet with water the same as raw flour, before stirring it in. It may be kept in a can always ready.
Whitehead’s Family Cook Book, 1891