Chicago Vs Appalachia Gravy Bread: Is There Any Real Difference?

The Windy City's many famous foods include Chicago-style hot dogs, Italian beef sandwiches, giardiniera (an everyday condiment for Sandwich King Jeff Mauro), and the polarizing deep-dish pizza that the late Anthony Bourdain found "abominable." However, a less-celebrated Chi-town favorite is something called "gravy bread," a squishy dish that may have you channeling your inner Clara Peller as you find yourself asking, "Where's the beef?"

Chicago gravy bread consists of a starchy base with a liquid topping. Not an original concept, true, as there's also a dish called Appalachian gravy bread. Are the two really that different? Maybe, maybe not. That depends on how you define "difference." If you'll pardon that bit of Bill Clinton-esque rhetoric, all we mean is that while Chicago gravy bread is somewhat specific in nature, the Appalachian variety is so ill-defined that the first-named dish could be seen as a subcategory of the second. 

Complicating matters is the fact that the "gravy" used in Chicago isn't flour-thickened, but is made of meat drippings, or as foodies like to call them, "jus." Still, since this substance may go by the name of gravy, the Chicago-style variant fits under the larger gravy bread umbrella. Of course, so does bread slathered with spaghetti sauce since older Italian-Americans sometimes call this gravy as well. (Even bread with chocolate gravy might qualify, although this might be a bit of a stretch.) Nonetheless, to many outside Chicago, "gravy bread" may imply something that comes with the same white sauce you'd find on biscuits and gravy or the brown gravy that often accompanies Thanksgiving turkey. 

Despite its name, Appalachian gravy bread may not be a regional food so much as a fairly universal one known wherever people need to fill their bellies on starch when there's no leftover meat. The dish is seen as an "old-timey" food in Pennsylvania, which is one of the 13 states that the Appalachian Mountains pass through, but its vague nature (it can consist of any kind of bread topped with any kind of gravy) makes it seem like the kind of non-recipe you come up with when you're scraping the bottom of the pantry right before payday. Essentially, Appalachian gravy bread is a messier, mushier but somewhat more flavorful version of the "wish sandwich" featured in the song "Rubber Biscuit." The song, in turn, was made famous by the Blues Brothers — who claimed to be from Chicago. (Connections are everywhere! How fun is that?)

Chicago's gravy bread, however, has a very localized twist to it: It's made with the bread and cooking liquid left over from Italian beef sandwiches. Unlike its countrified counterpart, it's something you may be more likely to order out (at an Italian beef stand, naturally) than make at home. While Chicago-style gravy bread is generally seen as a side dish, it can be a cheaper alternative to a sandwich made with meat. This dual nature (a side if you've got meat, a main course if you're don't) is something it likely shares with gravy breads everywhere.