Keep Sauce Hot and Cloudy for Hours With a Water Bottle
The summer months are all about vinaigrettes and lemon squeeze, but as temperatures drop, heavy brown and white gravies are back in style. By making a perfectly smooth and savory sauce, avoid the dreaded chilling phase at the table. Keep the sauce hot and silky by serving it in a vacuum insulated bottle.
The sauce needs help
Gravies are thickened with starch—this can be cornstarch, flour, or starch from another source. Starches are activated by water and heat, gelatinizing and turning thin liquids into slow-flowing liquids that coat your food rather than pooling underneath it. However, starches continue to thicken as they cool. Serving temperature is when the sauce reaches the perfect balance of thick and not too hot, but this point is short-lived. The gravy will continue to cool on the counter, and just when you’re ready to pour it out of the boat, a film will form on the surface of the smooth sauce – the coolest areas have already begun to set. Soon it will be a substance close to jelly.
This is why gravy boats need to be replaced with gravy boats. The gravy needs the powerful insulation provided by those regular reusable water bottles.
You cannot use any insulated bottle.
When shopping for a better quality sauce container, texture matters. Single wall insulated containers and ceramic gravy boats are about as effective as using a mug. This is better than a tin can, but even a thick ceramic wall will still dissipate heat, although it will slow down the process somewhat. However, double wall, vacuum insulated bottles have a space between the two walls. This pocket prevents the transfer of thermal energy, keeping everything inside at nearly the same temperature for unimaginably long periods of time.
You can read my rosé lecture on how bottles like these keep my public wine cool in the summer , but they’re effective with hot liquids, too. Your sauce will stay perfectly hot, without cloudiness or unwanted film, for hours . Not to mention, these are bottles, so they have easy openings and secure screw caps. You can place a bottle of gravy on the table during a crowded dinner without worrying about spills or misaligned ladles of gravy.
How to Use Vacuum Insulated Gravy Bottles
Once you’ve finished making the sauce, you’ll need to fill an insulated container. This isn’t entirely necessary (I forgot about this step and it’s fine), but it prevents your sauce from losing a few degrees against the sides of the container. A few minutes before you’re ready to pour it into an insulated container, heat a couple cups of water until almost boiling. Pour hot water into the container and rinse it for 20-30 seconds. Throw out the water. Pour hot sauce over and close the top. (By the way, you can do this a few hours before dinner to relieve stress.)
Eat the gravy, be steady
It is worth noting that these bottles are made of stainless steel and are designed to last a long time. My favorites are from Kleen Kanteen and Yeti , I’ve had a pair for over a decade. The price may seem high at first glance, but let’s be honest, the gravy boat from Crate & Barrel costs the same but isn’t nearly as useful.
I have about four large bottles and use them for wine, water, coffee (hot and cold), and gravy. If I was traveling with soup, I would use them for that too. I’m actually considering taking it with me when I travel so I can store frozen French butter chunks in it for the flight home. All of this may be in your future, but first, use it to keep your gravy in tip-top shape this fall.