What's The Difference Between Chocolate Gravy And Sauce?

As chocolate lovers very well know, there are countless dishes that can be made even better with the inclusion of chocolate. Because of this, you may like to add chocolate sauce to things like a bowl of ice cream or a slice of pound cake. But did you know that there is also something known as chocolate gravy?

There are plenty of regional gravy styles across the U.S. that you may not know about — and chocolate gravy is one of them. However, you may be wondering: Is chocolate gravy just a different name for chocolate sauce? The two sauces certainly look quite similar and it seems like they would have similar tastes, as well — chocolate is chocolate, right? Well, the similarities are definitely undeniable, and it may be easy to mistake one for the other. But chocolate sauce and chocolate gravy are distinct from one another in a few key ways.

Chocolate gravy is essentially exactly as it sounds: It's the sweet version of the savory gravy that you would drizzle on top of mashed potatoes or turkey at Thanksgiving. Gravy is even bigger in the South, so it makes sense that they would have a sweet version of the popular sauce. Chocolate gravy is especially popular in the Ozark and Appalachian Mountains.

A typical chocolate gravy recipe includes cocoa powder, flour, butter, sugar, milk, and vanilla. Because of the flour and the butter, chocolate gravy has a thicker consistency than many chocolate sauces — think about your favorite savory gravy to get an idea of the texture, then imagine a much sweeter, chocolatey version of that. Plus, the butter brings in plenty of richness that a chocolate sauce may not have. It's most often used in combination with biscuits and even eaten for breakfast — essentially a much more saccharine version of classic one-skillet gravy.

A simple chocolate sauce requires fewer ingredients than chocolate gravy — our recipe for an easy chocolate sauce, for example, calls for just cocoa powder, chocolate chips, sugar, and water. It can even be made with just two ingredients: milk and chocolate. All in all, chocolate sauce has a thinner consistency than you'll find with chocolate gravy and a taste that is more sweet than rich. 

Chocolate sauce is quite versatile. You can choose from an array of different recipes to fit your preferences. If you want a very sweet sauce, you can add sugar. However, the two-ingredient version might be for you if you want the chocolate taste to be front and center without too much extra sweetness. Some versions use dark chocolate instead of the typical milk chocolate.

While chocolate gravy mostly serves one purpose — smothering biscuits for extra sweetness and richness — chocolate sauce isn't associated with just one dish. It can be used as a dipping sauce for homemade churros or to make your morning pancakes sweeter, to name a few ways to indulge in a delectable chocolate sauce.