[Sca-cooks] gravy
Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius
adamantius at verizon.net
Sun Dec 28 19:04:15 PST 2003
Also sprach Stefan li Rous:
>>Another regional example of an exception would be sawmill gravy,
>>which can be stock and/or drippings or milk, thickened with cornmeal
>>instead of flour.
>This is the first I've heard of "sawmill gravy".
>But this is still thickened with a starch addition. Of course if
>made with milk, then I think that would violate the other
>requirement of using stock or drippings. Or is there a better
>definition of "gravy"?
I am powerfully tempted to say "No," and leave it at that ;-). Stock
isn't strictly necessary for gravy. It's an excellent liquid to use
if you need to add liquid (say, if the drippings and a little
deglazing water aren't sufficient). Did you really grow up in Texas
and never encounter something like cream gravy? Maybe I'm just making
unwarranted assumptions here.
See, the trouble is that every time anybody tries to come up with any
kind of empirical statement on the nature of anything, people
immediately bring up exceptions and we're back where we started.
But I'll try anyway. Just remember when you get tired of all my
commas, parentheses and qualifications, and my utter inability to
call a spade a spade in under an hour, you guys asked for it.
In the U.S., gravy is usually an accompanying sauce for meat, usually
made from either the meat it is accompanying, or some similar meat.
Gravy, again in the U.S., is usually thickened with some starchy
element, such as flour, mixed into the liquid in a variety of ways.
Frequently gravy is made from drippings, in the case of roast meats,
or pan juices, in the case of sauteed or fried meats, sometimes
augmented with stock, milk, cream, tomato juice, wine, or any of
several other possible liquids (including, sometimes, black coffee).
>Does this use corn *meal* or corn "flour"? It would seem that using
>meal would make a much coarser gravy.
I'm pretty sure it uses meal, and yes, it is coarser. One explanation
for the name is that it is thickened with sawdust, but it's supposed
to be a favorite in Appalachian logging camps.
>>Actually, if I said Americans consider a roux necessary, I misspoke.
>>I should have said that the majority of American gravies appear to be
>>thickened with flour, which can in turn be added straight to the
>>gravy, made into a slurry, a roux, into beurre manie, and used in a
>>variety of other ways, but all coming down to thickening by
>>gelatinizing starches.
>Hmmm. Okay, probably my error. You may have said adding flour and I
>assumed this meant a roux. But I guess a roux is more specific than
>simply adding flour and cooking more. What do you mean by
>"gelantinizing" starches? Perhaps that is the key to the definition
>of what is and is not a "gravy"?
Starch lives in little particles which are clusters of complex
carbohydrate molecules. When heated in the presence of water, they
expand and get squishy: like gelatin. Some starches are pre-treated,
and will do this in cold water, too. But it's the capacity of starch
to gelatinize that allows it to thicken liquids.
>>The various gravies which are dishes in themselves, rather than
>>sauces (like sausage gravy, Italian ragus, which are sometimes known
>>as gravy to English-speaking Italian-Americans, etc.) would also be
>>exceptions.
>What do you mean by "dishes in themselves"? Is sausage gravy like
>the ham gravy just mentioned in that it doesn't use flour?
As far as I know, it usually does call for flour. But instead of
being a sauce for the meat, it has the meat mixed into it. It's also,
as far as I know, usually made with milk and/or cream instead of
stock. Usually served over biscuits. Which brings us to other sauces
with the meat mixed in...
> What is a "ragu"?
Etymologically linked to the French ragout (which is usually a stew
of previously-cooked ingredients, like cold roast poultry or other
meat, such as a salmi of game), this is usually an Italian meat
sauce, the kind of sauce Italian grandmothers in Bensonhurst,
Brooklyn, start cooking at 7AM on a Sunday morning to have it ready
by dinnertime. Sometimes it can have ground meat in it, sometimes
sausages, meatballs, or stuffed, rolled and tied meat slices called
brasciole. Ragu is also the brand name of a popular but exceptionally
awful commercial pasta sauce.
Adamantius
More information about the Sca-cooks
mailing list