Origin of The Term "Gravy" for Tomato Sauce

[weinoo]

In another topic discussing Italian food vs. Italian-American food, this came up.

What is the origin of the term "Sunday gravy" for what is essentially a tomato based sauce?

And where did it start?

[Mjx]

My hunch is that it has to to with the colossal amounts of the various meats involved, and the fact that (if I my recollection of this is correct) the the fond that builds up while browning is retained when the pan is deglazed, and makes this pretty meaty, meaty enough to count as gravy.

ETA I found a discussion of the reason for calling it Sunday gravy on the Eat Italian blog, which got me thinking that in Italy, 'sugo', generally used to describe a tomato sauce, is also not uncommonly used to refer to some other sauces (e.g. this Tuscan rabbit sauce: http://www.feudighib...=20111210124555), although gravies as they're understood in English-speaking countries aren't something I recall ever encountering.

[gfweb]

I've been told that its a South Philly term. To me, a gravy connotes a roux-thickened sauce. Which this clearly isn't.

[Mjx]

I've been told that its a South Philly term. To me, a gravy connotes a roux-thickened sauce. Which this clearly isn't.

Funny, I was thinking of jus gravies (possibly thickened with a small amount of gelatine), starch-thickened sauces aren't even really on my radar!

[naguere]

Things get 're-arranged'. and the USA being so multi-cultural

.

Our family tale is of a lunch about 1930, an aunt asked. (that is not half past seven, but the year)

'Would you like some more mavy gravis?'

The niece's name was Mavis.....

[Jaymes]

My Italian-American friends have always told me that when the immigrants first arrived in the US, they were working hard to learn the language and integrate into society. So they had to call pasta sauce something in English. Some groups chose "sauce" and some chose "gravy," pretty arbitrarily. Naturally, whichever name they chose to call it in English, they traditionally made big pots of it for the Sunday family dinners, and the names stuck.

[gfweb]

I've been told that its a South Philly term. To me, a gravy connotes a roux-thickened sauce. Which this clearly isn't.

Funny, I was thinking of jus gravies (possibly thickened with a small amount of gelatine), starch-thickened sauces aren't even really on my radar!

To be more specific, to me, a gravy is the sort of thing served on turkey (or perhaps sausage in the South) where some of the fat in the pan that cooked the meat is used to make the roux.... and all the charred bits in the pan are deglazed with the making of the roux. I'm not a big fan of roux-thickened gravy; it is usually too fatty for my taste.

[abooja]

I've been told that its a South Philly term. To me, a gravy connotes a roux-thickened sauce. Which this clearly isn't.

We used the term in Brooklyn, too. My Italian grandmother would say "gravy", but her son, my father, still says "sauce". It seems pretty arbitrary to me.

[Toliver]

I don't know why but I've always considered "gravy" as made with meat and "sauce" as made without meat.