# Sauce or Gravy???

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sauce-or-gravy/485612>\
**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:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**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, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sauce-or-gravy/485612/21 "2009-02-13T15:23:03Z")

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> [@wheresgeorge04](#):
>
> 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

It was definitely called “gravy” in Monmouth County, NJ, and the Philly area. (It makes me mental, but that’s what they called it.)

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**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sauce-or-gravy/485612/22 "2009-02-13T15:49:40Z")

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Here’s your definitive argument. In cooking, there are five “mother” (or “grand”)sauces, classified by Antonin Careme in the 1800s. This is universally accepted and can be easily verified by a simple internet search. They are:

Bechamel  
Veloute  
Espagnole (or Brown)  
Hollandaise  
**Tomato**

Some also include Mayonnaise and Vinagrette in the list.

Now, it could be argued that tomato sauce becomes gravy once you add meat to the mix. The spaghetti sauce that I make incorporates the drippings from searing the meat and the meat juices that collect on the warming plate. However, that’s just splitting hairs. Calling it “gravy” is a regional usage, which makes it correct for that area, but not for the rest of the sauce-eating world.

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**Author:** ![Turble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Turble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turble)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sauce-or-gravy/485612/23 "2009-02-13T15:52:01Z")

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Small town north of Philadelphia here with a large Italian population. Local Italians say “noodles and gravy” not “spaghetti and sauce.”

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