What’s the difference between “sauce” and “gravy”? [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Spaghetti and gravy

For all translators I checked it means the same.

Answer 1

Per the OED, gravy is:

The fat and juices which exude from flesh during and after the process of cooking; a dressing for meat or vegetables made from these with the addition of condiments.

Whereas sauce is:

Any preparation, usually liquid or soft, and often consisting of several ingredients, intended to be eaten as an appetizing accompaniment to some article of food.

In other words, sauce is the more general of the two terms. Furthermore, gravy is usually hot, whereas sauce can also be cold.

Finally, with the rise of vegetarian meal options, you now hear qualified versions like mushroom gravy, which is made of mushrooms not out of simmered flesh-juices, to be served hot over mashed potatoes and the like. In other words, to be used for the same thing as meat gravy is used, but not made from animal flesh.

Note also that while a raspberry sauce can be expected to be made of raspberries, that cranberry sauce is a relish made from cranberries, not something to be spread atop cranberries. Things like Hollandaise sauce are something else again.

There are also extended, transferred, and metaphoric meanings of both these words, such gravy train, stewing in one’s own gravy, and in the old proverb that what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, as well as saying that someone has a saucy mouth, or that they have too much sauce meaning that they are impertinent. Sometimes, too, sauce can mean booze, at least in slang.

Answer 2

The Merriam-Webster 3rd Unabridged Dictionary doesn't help much because the two definitions are too difficult for non-native speakers without an excellent command of English, and too technical for native speakers to bother with.

The essential difference is this:

Sauce is usually a liquid condiment (a food seasoning like soy sauce) that is used to enhance the flavor of whatever it gets poured or sprinkled on. There are many others, like the red (tomato) sauce that covers some Italian pasta dishes, and the various sauces that the French created to hide the taste of rotting meat. Sometimes, though, it's jellied, like cranberry sauce. It's often made from vegetables rather than from meat, but that's not a requirement. Sauces are often used cold or at room temperature. The Chinese have a variety of sauces for their food, e.g., oyster sauce, which was traditionally made by cooking oysters until they caramelized and turned thick and brown -- the only way I can eat oysters.

OTOH:

Gravy is usually a thick sauce made from meat, either a roast beef or a turkey, for example, to which the cook has added water, maybe some wine or beer, some flour, some salt and pepper. Then it's usually stirred over the fire and, in the USA, at least, poured over mashed potatoes and meat for lunch and dinner, and biscuits (biscuits and sausage gravy) for breakfast.

We don't call soy sauce gravy, but you can probably call a Mornay sauce (butter, milk, spices, cheese, and vegetables) gravy: it's thick and served hot.

There's a major overlap between the two, but the two words are not interchangeable.