Author Topic: A Gravy Question?  (Read 4725 times)

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Offline akruckus

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Re: A Gravy Question?
« Reply #14 on: November 12, 2014, 09:27:28 AM »
Gravy is a type of sauce. In other words, all gravies are sauces but not all sauces are gravy. How you determine which sauces are gravy is largely a cultural and geographic issue. Generally (in my world), gravies are made with cooking juices (drippings, etc.) and often thickened with roux, cornstarch, or whatever.* Or they're made some other way.

* In case you're interested, "whatever" often makes the best gravy thickener but it's often hard to find the correct kind.




Most Italians call that tomato thing you put on pasta gravy...

That's an Italian-American cultural thing that results from which term was used by whoever was first translating the the recipes and references. One of the common Italian words used was "sugo;" some translated it as "sauce" and some as "gravy."  Nowadays, Tommy's homemade vs. store-bought differentiation is as good as any.

I think its juicy stuff that tastes good  ::)

I've had, I think, just about every type of gravy or sauce that exists at one time or another.  Like the Turtle, I wouldn't call a lot of sauces "gravy" but I don't recall any I didn't appreciate for what they were.  If I had to stake out a definition I'd go with gravy as a meat-based sauce but sometimes tomato-containing sauces have meat, too.  Why bother with a definition?  If it can be poured over something and makes it taste good because it has yummy stuff in it, its GRAVY

Hub

I agree with HUB, grandmom from Italy called sauce gravy when she made a meat sauce (braciole, meatballs, sausage, and pork chop)  Brown everything and set aside, make sauce  with fennel and onion, return meat to sauce and simmer for hours.... in the end gravy is produced.  This and Christmas Eve dinner are the two things I miss most... of course aside from actually her presence.
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