Cold gravy looks like something you wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole. One time when I was drunk, I looked in the freezer and found a bowl of frozen gravy that I thought was chocolate ice cream. I put a spoon in the frozen gravy and tasted it. The frozen gravy was delicious. Now, frozen gravy is one of my favorite meals.
Most people will want to reheat their gravy before using it, because heat turns it back into a liquid form that you can easily pour on mashed potatoes. Reheated homemade gravy is way better than heating gravy out of a can or jar. Those gravies taste more like soup than gravy.
To reheat gravy on the stove, you need to put the gravy in a non-stick pan. Heat at a low setting on your stovetop, stirring occasionally once it becomes liquid. Be sure to only heat it until it is just about to boil, because once it boils, it will scorch on the bottom of the pan.
Do You Really Need to Reheat Your Gravy?
Think about it. You enjoy plenty of items with partially melted butter. Just so long as it is a little soft, butter is great on bread. The same is true of gravy. It doesn’t always need to be heated so long as the item of food that you put it on is hot.
Try heating a bowl of mashed potatoes. Make sure they are nearly boiling. Now, take some cold, congealed gravy and put it on top of the potatoes. You see that the gravy melts, just like butter. You can do the same thing with congealed gravy and hot toast.
Every time you reheat something, it will lose some of its nutrition. Why not enjoy your gravy without reheating and getting the full nutritious value of the gravy?
What are the Advantages of Reheating Your Gravy?
Basically, the only advantage of reheating your gravy is that most people expect gravy to be hot. They have not yet become accustomed to letting their gravy slowly melt over the food. You can try to convince them like I have, but I assure you they won’t listen.
People get accustomed to eating their food in certain ways and there is no reason they do. Gravy is supposed to be hot. Nobody has ever considered that cold gravy can be more delicious and more nutritious.
What is Gravy?
Gravy is basically fat from meat that has been collected and adulterated with a paste to make it smooth. Gravy is pretty disgusting in its own right. In fact, many cultures consider gravy to be taboo. When the aborigines of Australia cook a whole kangaroo, they let the drippings from the animal fall back into the earth where more kangaroos will come from.
How to Reheat Your Gravy on a Stove
If you still believe that reheating your gravy is a good idea, follow these steps to get a steaming hot gravy.
- Put the gravy in a non-stick pot. When you put the gravy in, don’t look at it because you will surely lose your appetite. One time I looked at unheated gravy in a pot and actually thought it was vomit. Luckily, my mom was there, and she calmed me down before I vomited.
- Turn on the stove at a low setting. If you use a high setting, you risk heating your gravy too fast.
- WARNING! If you let your gravy bubble, some gravy can splash on you and burn you. There is nothing worse than a gravy burn because when people ask what caused the burn, you don’t want to tell them it was gravy.
- Heat the gravy slowly at a low setting. You can put a lid on the pot to keep the gravy from bubbling over on the stove.
- Try to keep your work area clean. Gravy is very difficult to work with without making a giant mess. When I eat it, I always wear a bib because the gravy always gets on my shirt and tie.
- Wipe up any mess as soon as you make it, because once the gravy congeals, it is nearly impossible to wipe up.
- Ask your mom to check the gravy before taking it off the stove. With gravy, moms always know best.
How to Eat Your Gravy
If you are lucky, you have other leftovers to eat the gravy with. Try to not mix one gravy with a different source of meat. For example, don’t put chicken gravy on beef. Do not put turkey gravy on pork. Don’t put pork gravy on turkey either. There is no real reason you can’t mix and match, doing so is considered a gravy faux pax.
I like to eat my gravy straight out of the pot. There is nothing better than hot gravy, except for frozen gravy. I sometimes get a bunch of potato chips and throw them in with the gravy. Popcorn goes great with gravy as well.
Can you Reheat your Reheated Gravy?
Obviously, if you are heating gravy from a can or jar, you can reheat it. If you are reheating gravy from some other source, I would not be so trusting. Reheating reheated gravy would be the third time that it had been heated, considering the first time you ate it the gravy was hot. Three times reheated is inviting bacteria into the mix, and you don’t want to get sick eating leftover gravy.
Conclusion
There are lots of reasons you don’t need to reheat your gravy, but if you choose to do so, the process is simple. Reheat the gravy in a nonstick pot and stir frequently. Use a low heat to prevent the gravy from boiling too much. Be sure to prevent the gravy from boiling too much because it can splatter and cause a gravy burn.
