The Rich Addition That Easily Upgrades Store-Bought Gravy

Gravy is the ultimate accompaniment to home-cooked comfort food: Ladle it over meat, smother your mashed potatoes in it, or sop it up with a biscuit. You can even add gravy to soups for a boost of flavor and body. When you don't have time to make it yourself, store-bought gravy can be a decent substitute. However, canned and jarred varieties are often lacking in the rich and creamy department. Fortunately, it only takes a bit of heavy cream to fix the problem.

Much like using sour cream in gravy, heavy cream works as a thickening agent. The high fat content of minimum 30% milk fat is the reason it works so well at making gravies and sauces silkier. In fact, since heavy cream contains more fat than whole milk or half-and-half, it's a great ingredient for reducing the saltiness of jarred gravy and can be added directly to the saucepan when heating it up.

All you have to do is bring your gravy to a simmer and whisk in the heavy cream as you drizzle it into your pot or saucepan. As the sauce simmers for a minute, you'll notice it getting silkier in texture. It won't become too much thicker, but your store-bought gravy won't be as runny so it'll adhere better to food.

Whether you want to upgrade canned sausage gravy or classic country gravy, there are several things that you can do to improve the consistency and boost the flavor. When you use heavy cream, consider quickly whipping it beforehand until it's stiff for additional creaminess and body.

If you don't have heavy cream, you could use half-and-half. It has a lower fat content though, so it's likely to curdle if you add it directly to simmering gravy. Instead, combine it with the canned gravy first, and then heat it all together. If you don't realize that the gravy needs a little oomph until after starting to heat it, that's okay, too. Just temper it by transferring some of the hot gravy into a bowl and slowly stirring the half-and-half into it. Then, whisk the mixture into the rest of the hot gravy.

Along with reducing saltiness, adding cream to store-bought gravy can soften its other seasonings. You can reintroduce flavor and make the gravy taste more like homemade by adding aromatics like minced shallots or garlic, a splash of wine, and fresh herbs like chopped sage, rosemary, or thyme. At the very end, let a tablespoon of butter melt into the pot, then season it with fresh ground pepper before serving.