British and American Gravy Are Different Sauces
Gravy is a sauce made from meat juices. What arrives on the plate differs sharply between Britain and the American South.
Gravy is a sauce made from the juices of cooked meat. Ask for it in two countries and you get two different things: British gravy is thin, brown and savoury, made from roasting juices with stock; American Southern gravy is often thick, white and milk-based, made with sausage fat and flour and served on biscuits. Neither would be recognised as gravy by the other side. The word may come from a medieval misreading of French *grané* as *gravé*.
- A meat sauce. *Roast beef and gravy.*
- Sausage gravy — the American white kind. *Biscuits and gravy.*
- Gravy train — easy money. *On the gravy train.*
- Gravy boat — the serving jug. *Pass the gravy boat.*
- Roux — flour and fat, the thickener. *Start with a roux.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | gravy | Thick gravy. |
| Compound | gravy boat | A gravy boat. |
| Compound | gravy train | The gravy train. |
| Related | jus | Served with jus. |
| Old French | grané | A stew. |
- Pour the gravy over the potatoes.British.
- Biscuits and gravy for breakfast.American South.
- He has been on the gravy train for years.Idiom.
Meat sauces, compared
- Gravy (UK) — pan juices plus stock, thickened with flour
- Sausage gravy (US South) — milk-based, white, peppery
- Jus — unthickened roasting juices
- Redeye gravy — American, made with coffee and ham drippings
- Onion gravy — a British variant served with sausages
Middle English *gravey*, probably a misreading of Old French *grané*, from *grain*, a spice or grain, where n was read as v.
What is biscuits and gravy?
An American Southern dish of soft scones covered in a thick white sausage gravy, eaten at breakfast.
Where does gravy train come from?
American railway slang from the early 1900s for an easy run with good pay. It came to mean any easy source of money.