Gravy is a sauce, made often from the juices that run naturally during cooking and often
thickened with wheat flour or cornstarch for added texture.
In North America the term can refer to a wider variety of sauces.
The gravy may be further colored and flavored with gravy salt or gravy browning or ready-made
cubes and powders can be used as a substitute for natural meat or vegetable extracts.
Canned gravies are also available.
Gravy is commonly served with roasts, meatloaf, rice, and mashed potatoes.
Types Chocolate gravy is a variety of gravy made
with fat, flour, cocoa powder and sometimes a small amount of sugar.
Egg gravy is a béchamel sauce that is served over biscuits.
Meat drippings and flour are used to make a thick roux.
The roux is salted and peppered to taste.
Water and milk are added, and the liquid is brought back up to a boil.
A well-beaten egg is then slowly added while the gravy is stirred or whisked swiftly, cooking
the egg immediately and separating it into small fragments in the gravy.
Giblet gravy has the giblets of turkey or chicken added when it is to be served with
those types of poultry, or uses stock made from the giblets.
Mushroom gravy is a variety of gravy made with mushrooms.
Onion gravy is made from large quantities of slowly sweated, chopped onions mixed with
stock or wine.
Commonly served with bangers and mash, eggs, chops, or other grilled or fried meat which
by way of the cooking method would not produce their own gravy.
Red-eye gravy is a gravy made from the drippings of ham fried in a skillet/frying pan.
The pan is deglazed with coffee, and uses no thickening agent.
This gravy is a staple of Southern U.S. cuisine and is usually served over ham, grits or biscuits.
Vegetable gravy or vegetarian gravy is gravy made with boiled or roasted vegetables.
A quick and flavorful vegetable gravy can be made from any combination of vegetable
broth or vegetable stock, flour, and one of either butter, oil, or margarine.
One recipe uses vegetarian bouillon cubes with cornstarch as a thickener, which is whisked
into boiling water.
Sometimes vegetable juices are added to enrich the flavor, which may give the gravy a dark
green color.
Wine could be added.
Brown vegetarian gravy can also be made with savory yeast extract like Marmite or Vegemite.
There are also commercially produced instant gravy granules which are suitable for both
vegetarians and vegans.
Cream gravy is the gravy typically used in biscuits and gravy and chicken fried steak.
It is essentially a Béchamel sauce, with the roux being made of meat drippings and
flour.
Milk is added and thickened by the roux; once prepared, black pepper and bits of mild sausage
or chicken liver are sometimes added.
Besides white and sawmill gravy, common names include country gravy, white gravy, milk gravy,
and sausage gravy.
Brown gravy in Southern U.S. cuisine, is the name for a gravy made from the drippings from
roasted meat or fowl.
The drippings are cooked on the stove top at high heat with onions and/or other vegetables,
then thickened with a thin mixture of water and either wheat flour or cornstarch.
The name "brown gravy" distinguishes it from white gravy in Southern U.S. cuisine.
In the United Kingdom In the UK, a Sunday roast is usually served
with gravy.
It is also popular in different parts of the UK, to have gravy with just chips.
It is commonly eaten with pork, chicken, lamb, turkey, beef, Yorkshire pudding, and stuffing.
In British cuisine, as well as in the cuisines of Commonwealth countries like Australia and
New Zealand, the word gravy refers only to the meat based sauce derived from meat juices,
stock cubes or gravy granules.
Use of the word "gravy" does not include other thickened sauces.
One of the most popular forms is onion gravy, which is eaten with sausages, Yorkshire pudding
and roast meat.
Cuisines One Southern United States variation is sausage
gravy eaten with American biscuits.
Another Southern US dish that has white gravy is chicken fried steak.
Rice and gravy is a staple of Cajun and Creole cuisine in the southern US state of Louisiana.
Gravy is an integral part of the Canadian dish poutine.
In many parts of Asia, particularly India, Malaysia, and Singapore, the word "gravy"
is used to refer to any thickened liquid part of a dish.
For example, the liquid part of a thick curry may be referred to as gravy.
In the Mediterranean, Maghreb cuisine is dominated with gravy and bread-based dishes.
Tajine and most Maghreb dishes are derivatives of oil, meat and vegetable gravies.
The dish is usually served with a loaf of bread.
The bread is then dipped into the gravy and then used to gather or scoop the meat and
vegetables between the index, middle finger and thumb, and consumed.
In gastronomy of Minorca, it has been used since the British colonisation during the
17th century in typical Minorcan and Catalan dishes, as for example macarrons amb grevi.
See also
Sauce boat, also referred to as a gravy boat Cuisine of the Southern United States
References