# Sauce or Gravy??? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 12, 2009, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sauce-or-gravy/485612 "2009-02-12T23:44:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MrXray](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/848f3c/32.png) [@MrXray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrXray)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2009, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sauce-or-gravy/485612/1 "2009-02-12T23:44:21Z")
\*\*I am from an Italian American family and for all my life what we put on our pasta was TOMATO SAUCE. Some Italians say that it’s TOMATO GRAVY. I myself have been in too many detailed conversations with other stubborn people on this topic and I was wondering if you can resolve this. I was told years ago that if the item in question is made mainly from a meat dripping it would be “gravy”. For example turkey gravy, beef gravy. And if it is made from anything else it is a sauce. For example tomato sauce and alfredo sauce. Let’s not get into tomato sauce flavored with meat. I think the basics are all we need here. Other people say it depends on where you are from. Specifically Italians from Sicily say gravy and the people from Naples say sauce. Please help settle this country dividing dilemma and bring unity back to Italia.\*\* ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2009, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sauce-or-gravy/485612/2 "2009-02-12T23:47:48Z")
> [@MrXray](#): > > \*\* > > I was told years ago that if the item in question is made mainly from a meat dripping it would be “gravy”. For example turkey gravy, beef gravy. And if it is made from anything else it is a sauce. For example tomato sauce and alfredo sauce. > > \*\* This is what my household Italians agree with- I just checked. Including the 90 year old from northern Italy. ---
**Author:** ![MrXray](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/848f3c/32.png) [@MrXray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrXray)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2009, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sauce-or-gravy/485612/3 "2009-02-12T23:51:21Z")
wow talk about FAST… Thats the answer I have been using for years and most people think about it and just stop fighting me…however they never admit to being wrong…Those darn stubborn Italians…HA HA ( i can say that I AM ONE TOO ) WOW a 90 YEAR OLD…GOD BLESS THEM…BET THEY MAKE A GREAT SAUCE … ERRR GRAVY? ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2009, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sauce-or-gravy/485612/4 "2009-02-12T23:58:11Z")
Northern and Southern Italy have never agreed about anything in at least 3,000 years\*. Why should they start now? :smack: But I think you’re right on this. Gravy is a sauce made from meat drippings. So some sauces are also gravies, but tomato sauce is definitely not. - My wife has good friends who are Italian-American; their parents came from Sicily. I haven’t met them yet, but apparently they assume I will look down on them because my great grandfather came from northern Italy. ---
**Author:** ![MrXray](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/848f3c/32.png) [@MrXray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrXray)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sauce-or-gravy/485612/5 "2009-02-13T00:04:13Z")
My family comes from northern Italy. Ex wife was Sicilian, Nuff Said… ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sauce-or-gravy/485612/6 "2009-02-13T00:10:05Z")
I’m Sicilian and grew up eating pasta practically every day. And no one in my huge extended family ever called it gravy, it was always tomato sauce. From the [internet debates](http://www.randyrants.com/2005/02/its_gravy_dammi.html) I’ve read, in which Italian-Americans can get really worked up about the proper terminology, it’s more an **American regional** difference, not a Sicilian/Neapolitan split. If I understood right, “gravy” is the word in parts of New England, while it’s “sauce” elsewhere. > [@](#): > > You do know that gravy is an Italian/American term, NOT and _[sic]_ Italian term. Even then, it is only really in NJ, RI, and part of NYC and Boston. So Randy, you are wrong. We’re talking about American English vocabulary, after all. In Italian the only name for it is _salsa di pomodoro_. Tomato sauce. There is no word in Italian that precisely translates “gravy,” but _sugo_ (literally ‘juice’, i.e. meat drippings) is the word used to convey the concept. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sauce-or-gravy/485612/7 "2009-02-13T00:11:11Z")
> [@MrXray](#): > > My family comes from northern Italy. Ex wife was Sicilian, Nuff Said… Northern Italian food with a Sicilian touch. Mmmm. Please set an extra plate for dinner tonight. I’ll be over. ---
**Author:** ![MrXray](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/848f3c/32.png) [@MrXray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrXray)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sauce-or-gravy/485612/8 "2009-02-13T00:13:16Z")
I did say she was the EX…she couldn’t cook…kinda sad isn’t it? looks like the debate is still going on… ---
**Author:** ![MissGypsy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@MissGypsy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissGypsy)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sauce-or-gravy/485612/9 "2009-02-13T00:21:05Z")
My SMIL, from the more southern part of Italy, now south Philly, calls it “gravy,” which confused my midwestern self a great deal. My MIL, from northern Italy, calls it sauce. (But hers isn’t nearly as good as the “gravy” that SMIL makes!) ---
**Author:** ![MrXray](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/848f3c/32.png) [@MrXray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrXray)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sauce-or-gravy/485612/10 "2009-02-13T00:24:04Z")
> [@MissGypsy](#): > > My MIL, from northern Italy, calls it sauce. (But hers isn’t nearly as good as the “gravy” that SMIL makes!) [SIZE=“5”]OHHH I’m Telling her..[/SIZE] ---
**Author:** ![MissGypsy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@MissGypsy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissGypsy)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sauce-or-gravy/485612/11 "2009-02-13T00:47:06Z")
> [@MrXray](#): > > [SIZE=“5”]OHHH I’m Telling her..[/SIZE] 😃 That’s ok, she already hates me! ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sauce-or-gravy/485612/12 "2009-02-13T00:48:56Z")
This is just one of thousands of words, especially food words, in which regional or generational differences exist. In standard writing sauces and gravies are distinguished the way you say. That doesn’t make it wrong for people who have grown up calling a sauce a gravy to continue that usage. I wish people would stop trying to strap usage into right and wrong boxes. Usage doesn’t work that way. ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sauce-or-gravy/485612/13 "2009-02-13T00:55:45Z")
Italian Americans in the Northeast call it “gravy.” In professional culinary terminology, it’s clearly not a gravy, it’s a sauce. At some point after they arrived in this country, someone assigned the English word “gravy” to it instead of “sauce,” and it stuck in their colloquial usage. It doesn’t make sense, but, hey? Whatcha gonna do? Start a fight with an 80-year-old Italian grandmother over her tomato sauce? That’s a recipe for disaster. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sauce-or-gravy/485612/14 "2009-02-13T01:26:55Z")
True story: Once, I was in a church in the suburbs of Philadelphia, and the pastor was announcing some minor change in the liturgy. He was worried that the conservative congregation wouldn’t take well to the change, so he was trying to explain to them that some things are essential, but some things can be changed. His analogy? “If I asked all of you for your gravy recipes, I’d get a different recipe from each of you. But they would all include tomatoes. Tomatoes are essential, but the other ingredients can be changed.” I was in a rush that day, so I managed to refrain from telling him that I’d never even seen a gravy recipe that included tomatoes. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sauce-or-gravy/485612/15 "2009-02-13T03:40:44Z")
My father, whose parents came to Massachusetts from Sicily, always called it “spaghetti sauce”, FWIW. I don’t remember what my damnyankee relatives called it, as we lived in Texas and only visited them for a couple of weeks each year. I distantly recall reading that strictly speaking, a gravy was the meat juices and drippings, and a sauce was something that was thickened somehow. But of course I don’t remember where I read it, and I don’t even remember how reliable the source was. The only Italian-Americans I know who call a tomato sauce “gravy” are from certain areas in the US NE, so in my experience, it’s a US regional difference. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sauce-or-gravy/485612/16 "2009-02-13T03:45:09Z")
I recall in India they used the world “gravy” for a lot of things that I would call “sauces.” I imagine it’s just an archaic British usage that has become enshrined in some dialects. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sauce-or-gravy/485612/17 "2009-02-13T03:53:50Z")
Oh, by the way, **MrXray** , a point of advice: You’ll fit in better around here if you mostly stick to normal font size and non-bold. While we do have the option enabled, they’re much more effective when used sparingly for emphasis, rather than for an entire post. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sauce-or-gravy/485612/18 "2009-02-13T06:26:32Z")
It’s fucking sauce. My grandfather came here from Sicily in 1903. I Lived in Trenton NJ (AKA Dago Central) for the first 26 years of my life. I’m not steeped in heritage, but it’s sauce. Never heard “gravy” before The Sopranos. Gravy goes on turkey or chicken. If it goes on Pasta, and it’s made with tomatoes, it’s sauce. Joe ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sauce-or-gravy/485612/19 "2009-02-13T13:44:38Z")
The only person I’ve heard say “gravy” was from Philly. Not sure if she was Italian or not. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sauce-or-gravy/485612/20 "2009-02-13T15:08:57Z")
> [@MrXray](#): > > WOW a 90 YEAR OLD…GOD BLESS THEM…BET THEY MAKE A GREAT SAUCE … ERRR GRAVY? Oh my God, she makes great _everything_. My MIL bought a spare freezer for the garage, just to hold all the stuff Aunt Terese cooks while she’s here- sauces, pasta, meatballs, lasagne, crepes…she made cranberry chicken last night that was to die for. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sauce-or-gravy/485612.md?page=2)