The encyclopaedia of gravy
A register of gravy world records: the three Guinness titles specifically about gravy, the records that involve it in bulk, and one historical claim that sits outside the Guinness database.
Gravy holds a small but respectable place in the record books — three Guinness World Records are specifically about it, and several more involve it in industrial quantity.
The official gravy records¶
| Record | Holder | Figure | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fastest time to drink a litre of gravy | Steven Ruppel, USA | 38.22 seconds | 24 November 2020 |
| Most gravy wrestling wins — male | Joel Hicks, UK | 6 wins | Established 2019 |
| Most gravy wrestling wins — female | Emma Slater and Roxy Afzal, UK | 2 wins each | Established 2018 |
Records that involve a great deal of gravy¶
Not gravy records as such, but none of them happens without it.
| Record | Figure | Gravy involved | Where and when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Largest serving of poutine | 3,034 kg | ~1,000 litres | Warwick, Québec, 3 August 2019 |
| Largest simultaneous roast dinner | 1,632 people | 264 litres | Peterborough, 22 February 2009 |
| Most expensive meat pie | £8,195 | Two bottles of 1982 Château Mouton Rothschild | Lancashire, 2005 |
A historical claim¶
The Yorkshire pudding eating record — 3 lb of Yorkshire pudding and half a pint of onion gravy in 7 minutes 22 seconds, set in 1986 — appears in the Record Holders Republic archive rather than the current Guinness database. It is best described as a historical claimed world record, and this site describes it that way.
The record that does not appear to exist¶
There is no publicly listed Guinness World Record for the largest serving or quantity of gravy on its own.
Given that gravy is made in thousands of litres at a time in food factories and at least a thousand litres at a time for a record-breaking poutine, its absence is a little surprising. Two cautions apply, though: Guinness does not publish every record it monitors in its public database, and the absence of a listing is not proof that no such record has ever been ratified.
If anyone fancies it, the poutine record sets an informal bar at around 1,000 litres.
📌 Why gravy resists a record of its own
Records need an unambiguous definition, and gravy has none. Would a 2,000-litre vat of chip-shop gravy count? A tanker of BIR base gravy? Does white gravy qualify, or red-eye gravy, which is coffee and ham fat with no thickener at all? The category is too loose to adjudicate — which is, in a sense, the whole reason this site exists.
Summary¶
Known gravy-related records, in one list:
- Fastest time to drink one litre of gravy
- Most gravy wrestling championship wins, male
- Most gravy wrestling championship wins, female
- Largest serving of poutine
- Largest simultaneous roast dinner
- Most expensive meat pie, for its gravy
- Yorkshire pudding and onion gravy eating record (historical claim)