So we must have heard of the tomato gravy. Even when you have not heard of it, at one point in your life, you must have consumed it somewhere. But do you know what exactly the tomato gravy is and what are the differences between tomato gravy and tomato sauce? Well, these explanations below are theories that can answer your questions and give you some theories on the tomato gravy.
- What is the content of gravy that we know? When it has meat in the liquid, then it is gravy, otherwise it is not. So the first conclusion is that the tomato gravy is called that way because it has meat as well as tomato while the tomato sauce only has the tomato in it.
- It actually depends on your area. Some areas are used to calling tomato gravies compared to the others.
- For some Italian Americans living in the East Coast area, tomato sauce is tomato gravy or Sunday gravy or simply gravy. This is especially true to the sauces that are made with a big chunk of meat simmered in them. This liquid mixture is similar to the Italian Neapolitan Ragu. This is caused by the difference in the two languages as the sugo in Italian is often mistranslated as gravy. Sugo means juice but can also mean sauce in Italian. That is why the expression of sugo dell’arrosto is actually gravy in English, however the literal translation of the expression is juice of a roast. Well, it is gravy isn’t it?
- We know that when we cook meat or even some vegetables, there would be a sort of sauce that is made of the juices of these ingredients. These gravies are then added with certain seasoning as well as colored to the liking of the cook. The most common seasonings are the salt and pepper. However, there are instant extract nowadays that can replace the natural gravy with similar taste. In other word, you can now make gravy without the actual meat.
There is also the gravy salt that is made of the mixture of caramel food coloring and salt. Simple, right? Another one is the gravy browning. This is actually the same as the gravy salt however it is already dissolved in the water. The last and most commonly used to replace the natural gravy is the gravy powder, cubes and canned gravy. It is up to you to choose.
