Gravy is a sauce made often from the juices that run naturally from meat or vegetables during cooking. The gravy may be further coloured and flavoured with gravy salt[1] (a simple mix of salt and caramel food colouring) or gravy browning (gravy salt dissolved in water) or ready-made cubes and powders can be used as a substitute for natural meat or vegetable extracts. Canned gravies are also available. Gravy is commonly served with roasts, meatloaf, rice,[2] and mashed potatoes.
//Gravies are often thickened with a starch, starting with a roux made of wheat flour, cornstarch/cornflour, or arrowroot. The liquids from cooked meat, the liquids from dissolved bouillon cubes/stock cubes, or stock are added gradually to the mixture, while continually stirring to ensure that it mixes properly and that the thickener does not clump. In some recipes, the animal fat in the roux may be omitted as part of the base content. It may be replaced with cornstarch/cornflour alone.
Gravy is commonly eaten with pork, chicken, lamb, turkey, beef, meatloaf, American style biscuits, Yorkshire pudding[4], and stuffing and sandwiches. One Southern American variation is sausage gravy eaten with American biscuits. In Australia, Canada and the northern parts of the UK, chips and gravy is seen as a popular dish. It is also common with traditional ``Sunday Roast``.Often in the northern parts of the UK, leftover gravy from the ``Sunday Roast`` will be served in a mug with some bread, in a style somewhat akin to soup. Gravy is an integral part of the Canadian dish poutine. A Southern U.S. dish that has white gravy is chicken fried steak.
In many parts of Asia, particularly India, Malaysia, and Singapore, the word ``gravy`` is used to refer to any thickened liquid part of a dish. For example, the liquid part of a thick curry may be referred to as gravy.[5][6][7] In British cuisine, as well as in the cuisines of Commonwealth countries like Australia and New Zealand, the word gravy only refers to the meat based sauce (and vegetarian/vegan alternatives) derived from meat juices, stock cubes or gravy granules. Use of the word 'gravy' does not include other thickened sauces. One of the most popular forms is onion gravy which is eaten with Yorkshire pudding and roast meat.
In the Mediterranean, Maghreb cuisine is dominated with gravy and bread based dishes. The tajine stew dish and most Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia) dishes are derivatives of oil, meat and vegetable gravies. The dish is usually served with a loaf of bread. The bread is then dipped into the gravy and then used to gather or scoop the meat and vegetables between the index, middle finger and thumb and consumed.
In gastronomy of Minorca it is used since the British colonisation during the 17th century in typical Minorquian and Catalan dishes, as for example macarrons amb grevi (pasta).[8]
In the case of meat served with potatoes, vegetables, and gravy, in North America (except Quebec), the gravy is often poured onto the potatoes, whereas in Quebec or France the gravy is generally poured onto the meat.[citation needed]
Gravy made from well-done beef has been shown to contain heterocyclic aromatic amines, which are potentially carcinogenic in humans [9][10].
Gravy is thought to have originated in Egypt around 3000 B.C. Hieroglyphs in the tomb of Djer, an early first dynasty pharoah, at