[Sca-cooks] gravy

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

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