Cookaholics Bulletin Board

My mother went out to dinner last night for her birthday and she ordered Veal Marsala. She was very dissapointed when she received Veal with Brown Mushroom gravy. I read a recipe to her last night for a Marsala and the sauce is supposed to be a pan sauce thickened with cold butter. Could this sauce look like a Brown gravy or was it not made correctly?

CI has a recipe for it so you can look at it for yourself, but if my memory serves me correctly it does contains mushrooms along with Marsala, and it's mounted with butter at the end. I've made it before and I don't think anyone I served it to would have said it was brown gravy.

Thanks Darcie. The recipe that I read to her was CI's. One of the ingredients was Lemon juice which is one of the reasons my mother likes a Marsala dish. She likes the acidity that the citrus adds to the dish. What she had last night did not have this and the sauce was way too thick.

They served a cheaper product, assuming that most customers would a)not know the difference and b)not bother to complain.

I'd think that normally there would be marsala wine in it, which should give it some bite too.

The cutlets are normally dusted with flour which leaves a fond that would thicken the marsala sauce. When we make it it's typically blonde rather than brown

Joy of cooking has a recipe that I used to make years ago. It called for dredging in flour. Was very good, actually.

The restaurants here serve a dark brown sauce (semi thick) with mushrooms that is not at all citrusy but clearly flavoured with Marsala. It's like a sweet, winy gravy over breaded cutlets.

What a disapointment! Marsala sauce is not to thick and lighter than brown gravy in color. I have made it with chicken, but not in a long time.

Tell your Mom Happy Belated Birthday for me.

Laurie