by Carmel Brulez

Created on: October 21, 2009   Last Updated: October 23, 2009

Gravy is a savoury sauce which is added to a main meal to give it more flavour and make it wetter. There are all different types of gravy, the most popular probably being onion, mushroom, pork, lamb, beef or chicken. Everyone has a different idea of how it should be done but we would all agree it should be tasty, well seasoned and well matched to the meal.

Usually the gravy is made in the meat dish using the juices taken from the meat that was roasted, with maybe some vegetables added, perhaps some flour or cornflour, then salt and pepper. I know a few people who hate gravy and prefer their meal to be totally dry without a drop of gravy at all. But most prefer it and most prefer it to be thick.

Those who like gravy like it because it adds taste and flavour, colour, and brings the whole dish together. A thin, runny gravy can be a bit like water! It is a lot more like soup than gravy. When you add it to vegetables and meat it can just swamp and take over the dish without adding anything to it at all. It has very little taste and it just spoils what is there. I love gravy and like to have loads of it but I would prefer not to have the meal at all if it was going to be served with runny so-called gravy.

There are two well known manufacturers, Oxo and Bisto, who are very well known. When you see their advertisements for gravy you see someone pouring THICK rich gravy, not thin runny stuff! I doubt they would sell much of their gravy if they advertised it with pictures of thin runny gravy being poured out of a gravy boat onto a plate.

Apart from the taste, you have to ask yourself what is the point to having gravy? If it has no taste and no colour and makes the vegetables and roast potatoes soggy and pappy then not only is there no point, in fact if you do not eat the roast potatoes or mash potatoes quickly they go all runny... urgh...but it has spoilt what might otherwise have been quite a nice meal.

It takes no more time or skill to make thick gravy than thin, so while you are making gravy you might as well make gravy that is tasty, colourful and of the right consistency.

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