The Gravy-Sauce Confusion
There is hardly a pair of words that confuse English-speakers more than gravy and sauce. What are we supposed to call the liquid poured over or under the meat that we eat. The difference between the meanings of these two words is easy to remember.
- If the liquid is poured over the meat (or certainly if over potatoes), it is gravy;
- If it is under the meat, it is sauce.
Which reminds me of chopped liver and pâte. Chopped liver is served with meals costing $25 or less; if it comes with a meal that costs over $25, it is pâte (pah-tay). Simple, right? Now we can avoid embarrassing ourselves at high- and low-end restaurants.
April 12th, 2009 at 11:35 pm
“If the liquid is poured over the meat (or the potatoes), it is gravy;
If it is under the meat, it is sauce.”
Well, the AHD says of sauce:
“A flavorful seasoning or relish served as an accompaniment to food, especially a liquid dressing or topping for food.”
and of gravy:
“The juices that drip from cooking meat. b. A sauce made by thickening and seasoning these juices.”
I would think by its very nature that a “topping” would not be “under” a food, and the definition of “sauce” says nothing of meat juices.
I believe sauces came to England with the Norman Invasion, so a working definition of gravy vs. sauce would be that gravy is what an Englishman puts on meat, and sauce is what a Frenchman uses to hide the taste of bad meat.
April 19th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
Not completely as simple as “over” and “under” the meat: In Eggs Benedict, the Hollandaise Sauce (not Hollandaise Gravy)is served _over_ the eggs, Canadian Bacon and muffin.
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