Sauce and Gravy Food Facts
- Spaghetti sauces should be home made. Store bought sauces are for the most part high in fat and calories. Prego extra chunky with sausage and green pepper is 47-percent fat. Ragu marinara is 40 percent fat. One of the best store-bought is Neumann's Own; the mushroom sauce is 22-percent fat.
- A good method of removing fat from gravy or stew is to wrap a few ice cubes in a piece of cheesecloth, then pull it back and forth over the surface. The fat will become hard and stick to the cloth when it comes into contact with it.
- Packaged sauces and gravies are all lower quality convenience items. They contain chemicals for the flavor, coloring, freshness and texture.
- If you purchase spaghetti sauce, never purchase the ones that already have the meat included. By law they only need to include meat that is 6 percent meat. Best to add the meat at home for a better quality sauce.
- Use your blender to smooth lumpy gravy or sauces.
- Add a teaspoon of peanut butter to cover up the burnt flavor of gravy. This will not alter the taste.
- When using butter for sauteing, always use unsalted butter since the salt separates from salted butter when heated and may leave a bitter taste.
- If you add a pinch of salt to flour before mixing it with a liquid, it will help keep the gravy from becoming lumpy.
- To obtain a richer brown color to your gravy, spread the flour on a cookie sheet and cook over a low heat, stirring occasionally until brown before using the flour or add a small amount of coffee to the gravy. You will not taste the coffee flavor.
- Another trick to turn gravy brown is to add onion skins to the gravy while it is cooking, but only for a few minutes, then discard the skins.
- When making a white sauce, add a dash of nutmeg for a great taste.
- If your Hollandaise sauce has curdled, try beating a tablespoon of cold water into it and it will bring it back to smooth texture.
- A high fat gravy will have a better consistency if you add one-quarter teaspoon of baking soda to it.
See also:
Sauces and Gravies -- Tips and suggestions on making the best sauces and gravies!
