Sauce or gravy?

[Crocus]

This I'm sure will probably be a very daft question, but what's the difference between gravy and sauce?:o Are sauces made of flour, butter and milk, and are gravy meat juices where flour is added to thicken it? Or am I totally confused here?:rolleyes: We only have one word for either which is sauce. Can someone perhaps explain to me? :eek: Thanks!


Or is a sauce thicker than a gravy?

[franbee]

Hmm, never really thought about this. Gravy is always savoury, I think, but here it's normally the thinnish brown stuff made from slightly thickened meat juices. Sauce tends to be a thicker product, either the ones you described above, or you could have a tomato sauce which has no extra thickening. You can have sweet sauces too, like custard. And don't forget bottled sauce like tabasco, Worcestershire, HP and so on. Sorry it's no clearer!

[Crocus]

Hi Fran, I often wonder about this, but I wonder whether the 'liquid' served with traditional roasts are perhaps your gravy and everything else perhaps sauce? x

[keepersdaughter]

Never really thought about this Crocus, somehow it's one of those things you just know, or imagine you know, but I would say it's this:

If you add a thickner, like cornflour or flour to the pan drippings it makes gravy. A thinner liquid.

If you make it separately, it is more a sauce. A thicker liquid.

Though having said that, I quite often make a green peppercorn sauce, and I do add butter, flour etc. to pan drippings. There is no question I would call this a sauce rather than gravy!

You lot have been posing some interesting questions lately. My head hurts :confused: :D

[Rustic Pumpkin]

I would have gone with your first instinct Crocus, a sauce is made by melting fat with flour and cooking it slightly before adding liquid to make a sweet or savoury sauce. Gravy is made by slightly thickening the pan juices from your meat dish, or you could be a total heathen and open a tub of Bisto!

[Rustic Pumpkin]

Where does this leave 'jus'

[franbee]

What about mint sauce, rustic?!

[Rustic Pumpkin]

Yes, please, especially on peas. YUM! YUM! Then there's Tomato Sauce! and Worcestershire Sauce! Ohhh, we are a saucy lot here aren't we?