And then we come to the difference between sauce and gravy.
Sauce (As in classic French Sauces) are a mixture of fat, liquid, and a thickening agent (usually a roux in French cooking) A sauce is usually lightly thickened liquid or semi-liquid, and or can be a relish, used to enhance other foods. It is usually not eaten by itself.
Think of the 5 mother sauces, or apple sauce, or even catsup. Prepared mustard is a sauce. Other examples include sweet & sour sauce, Peanut sauce, Mornay Sauce, Salsa, these are all sauces. Sauces can include meat, or meat juices (broth or stock) but don't have to. Sauces can be either sweet, sweet and sour, piquant, or savory.
Gravies always use meat flavor as the base (except for Sunday Gravy), and are thicker than are most sauces. Gravies are also always savory.
DW likes her gravies and sauces thickened with corn starch. I prefer to use a roux with gravies, except for Sunday Gravy, which is thickened with tomato pulp. Then again, I call Sunday Gravy tomato sauce.
Comments, or discussions are welcome.
Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North