the last shoe has finally dropped! red eye gravy

[Gifted Gourmet]

You just knew that somewhere in the Southeast Forum someone would have to ask about "red eye gravy", didn't you? So, the last shoe has finally dropped and I would love to hear about your personal experiences with this southern delight!

Have you ever made it from the original recipe? With variations? Coffee in it?

Is it made outside the south with some degree of success?

What do you serve it with?

Anyone know the origin of its name?

Do you have memories of red eye gravy from your childhood?

One history of this delicious treat comes from What's Cooking America?

Red eye gravy is well known in the South, but little known in the rest of the United States. The gravy is also called bird-eye gravy, poor man's gravy, red ham gravy, and muddy gravy. These hams are very salty and the gravy, made from drippings and black coffee, packs a punch. It is continually debated as to whether the best red eye gravy is made with water or black coffee.

[TheFoodTutor]

So, the last shoe has finally dropped

What are you. . . a millipede?

Just kidding. I have made red eye gravy, and I'd say that if you don't put coffee in it, you'd better at least put some co-coler. Otherwise, where are you gonna get some caffeine to brighten those red eyes?

Non-kosher, to be sure, as it absolutely must have ham. Probably the drippings of a ham steak.

Definitely the stuff that hangover breakfasts are made of.

[Squeat Mungry]

I've never heard of making red-eye gravy with water. In my family, the drill was:

1. fry your ham while the grits are cooking.

2. remove ham to a warm plate.

3. add one cup or a little more black coffee to the ham "drippin's" (the grease left over from frying the ham -- if you don't have ham, you can take a tablespoon or so of the bacon grease from the jar on the stove)

3a. the coffee is usually not this morning's coffee. it is left over from last night.

4. reduce a little, but not too much

5. season with salt and pepper to taste

6. serve over grits (if you have been too lazy to make grits, just have it over bread)

When I was little, I had no idea why it was called red-eye gravy -- it wasn't red at all! At some point I started assuming it was a description of the person(s) who were making and/or eating it -- either a hangover or just general morning bleariness.

I still make it sometimes if I'm having grits. Usually at night these days, though, since I generally don't eat breakfast. In that case the coffee is left over from the morning.

Cheers,

Squeat

[Mayhaw Man]

Coffee.

Did I say coffee. I meant to say coffee/

Red Eye gravy without coffee can be mighty fine, but it's just ham gravy at that point.

[Squeat Mungry]

Ham drippin's makes it gravy. Coffee makes it red-eye.

[jackal10]

Although not from the south, or even the US, I discuss Red Eye Gravy in my

eGCI non-stock sauces unit: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=29574

I've heard two theories about why its called "red eye".

One is that you need the cafffine to counteract the earliness of the morning...

The other is that when you stir the pan you get a "red eye" in the centre when the gravy is ready.

Edited August 22, 2004 by jackal10 (log)

[andiesenji]

This site has this recipe and explanation from Craig Claiborne's "Southern Cooking"

Many consider him to be the quintessential southern cookery gatherer of obscure and arcane facts, traditions and "down-home" trivia.

[NulloModo]

Oh wow, I had no idea how to make this stuff. I know my dad used to always make it for sunday breakfasts along with the rest of the spread (biscuits, ham steaks, fried eggs, grits, sausage gravy, bacon, and sometimes cinnamon rolls. Can you say heart attack on a plate? It was so wonderful though...)

It sounds so simple, I will have to make it myself now.

[FL Heat]

Definitely the stuff that hangover breakfasts are made of.

I asked my Papaw about "raddah gravy" when I was about 10 (I heard one of the other old men on the porch talking about it). Papaw said only heathens ate it, because only heathens needed it

When I turned heathen, there was a restaurant in my college town that made the *best* red eye gravy I've ever had. Some of the other sorority sisters thought I was a little nuts, but there were a couple who'd order it with me.

Diana

[Jaymes]

Like many things, the actual origination of the term "red eye" probably will never be definitively established, but my grandmother was a legendary southern cook, and a Harvey Girl, and also owned a southern-cookin' restaurant in the Houston-East Texas area around the turn of the century. She told me that the name originated because the gravy was originally, and best, made with a chunk of hambone in a big, cast-iron skillet in commercial kitchens and "cookhouses" which fed workers like railroad men, soldiers, lumberjacks, etc. The big slices of country ham that were cooked for these breakfasts always had a slice of hambone in them. One removed the cooked ham to serve with the eggs and grits, and then to make the gravy, used the drippings and the bone. The bone contained red ham marrow, and it looks like a big red eye in the middle of the pan. To make the best Red Eye Gravy, one scooped out that marrow and used it along with the ham drippings and coffee.

Even until the day she died, she tried to be sure to add some hambone marrow to her Red Eye Gravy. She said it just was not as good without it.

Edited August 22, 2004 by Jaymes (log)

[Gifted Gourmet]

Even until the day she died, she tried to be sure to add some hambone marrow to her Red Eye Gravy. She said it just was not as good without it.

A lovely story for us all on this subject, Jaymes!

May I ask how old was she when she died?

Do you think that red eye gravy made her life any less unhealthy?

Or did anyone even think about or care about HDL and LDL in those days? I know, another highly rhetorical question, since we all know the answer ....

[Jaymes]

Even until the day she died, she tried to be sure to add some hambone marrow to her Red Eye Gravy.  She said it just was not as good without it.

A lovely story for us all on this subject, Jaymes!

May I ask how old was she when she died?

Do you think that red eye gravy made her life any less unhealthy?

Nobody knows for sure exactly how old she was when she died. They didn't keep really good records when she was born, and she was born in the wagon of a travelin' show (in the immortal words of Cher). And she lied about her age. She was always a big hit with the men and married three times -- the last one when she was about 80. She lied and said she was just a girlish 70. We do know that when she died, she was somewhere between 94-99. Most of the women in her family, including her mother, lived well into their 100's, so some of the other relatives were lamenting the fact that "Sugar" (her name) had died relatively young.

And she lived life as she damn well pleased. She lived the last 20 or so years of her life in Aztec, NM, up in the Four Corners area. Every year she'd buy a new Thunderbird with the biggest engine Ford made. She was famous for outrunning the Navaho cops across the reservation on HWY 550 between Aztec and Albuquerque.

I'd say that eating Red Eye Gravy, as well as real butter, cream, lard, etc., and adding ham or bacon along with a pinch of sugar to her vegetables, and a healthy swig of bourbon into just about everything else, including her own self, didn't hurt her one little bit. I will say that she ate only good breads. About such typical "American white breads" as Wonder, etc., she'd say: "I can't believe anyone eats that crappy ol' mushy white 'cotton' bread."

Edited August 22, 2004 by Jaymes (log)

[Chris Cognac]

Now how is this gravy best served...should it be thick or thin? I am intrigued by this red eye gravy.

[Gifted Gourmet]

how is this gravy best served

in a word: grits!

as for the "texture"? check out the photo here ... I love thick red eye!

[Jaymes]

Just want to add a suggestion. If you'd like to try to prepare authentic, old-fashioned "red eye" gravy, complete with the "red eye," go to your butcher shop and buy a big slice of ham with a piece of bone in it. Fry it up in a cast iron skillet, cut away the cooked ham, leave the bone in the pan with the drippings while you make your gravy.

The origination of the name will be no mystery to you after that. Or at least it so seems to me (with all due respect to Craig Claiborne).

Edited August 22, 2004 by Jaymes (log)

[Katherine]

Before reaching enlightenment, I used to make redeye gravy by simmering heavy cream in the ham drippings, and adding coffee after thickening had occurred.

Turns out I didn't like the real thing after all.

[Lan4Dawg]

I am amazed that no one has mentioned one of the other "essential" ingredients for red-eye gravy and that is Tabasco (or another brand of hot sauce). You need the hot sauce as well as the coffee to jolt you awake. We always made it w/ ham drippings, some of the ham marrow, left over strong coffee, and a good shot of hot sauce then reduced it while the grits "set" (as any a good Southerner knows you have to allow the grits to "set" for several minutes after cooking in order to get them to the proper consistency).

I have known some folks to add flour to their red-eye gravy but they are known communists who say bad things about their own mothers and kick small furry animals at every given opportunity.

[therese]

I grew up with red eye gravy, made with drippings from country ham steaks that had been sauteed, and then the pan deglazed with coffee. The coffee was instant, weirdly enough, as the only person in the household who drank coffee was my grandfather, and my grandmother didn't see the point of making a big fuss over him (she was the harder worker of the two, by far). JFG brand coffee, if I recall correctly.

The ham, on the other hand, was the farthest thing possible from "instant": pigs raised on the farm, fed household leftovers and corn meal mush, slaughtered and butchered each fall, hams cured in the "smokehouse" (not really much smoking occurred in there, but that's what we called it).

I was also taught that the name came from the central "red eye" of ham steak. But then again members of a strongly Southern Baptist household could hardly have promoted the idea that it had been named for a hungover cook or guest, now could they?

[Katherine]

Emeril added finely diced onions and celery to his, and thickened it with roux.

Good ol' New Englander.

[therese]

I have known some folks to add flour to their red-eye gravy but they are known communists who say bad things about their own mothers and kick small furry animals at every given opportunity.

Flour? Flour in red eye gravy? I think I hear my grandma rolling over in her grave. I've never heard of such practice personally, but then they did make an effort to protect me from that sort of outlandish fringe activity.

[edited to correct typos---I was clearly so flummoxed that my usually decent typing went all to hell]

Edited August 22, 2004 by therese (log)

[Lan4Dawg]

I have known some folks to add flour to their red-eye gravy but they are known communists who say bad things about their own mothers and kick small furry animals at every given opportunity.

Flour? Flour in red eye gravy? I think I hear my grandma rolling over in her grave. I've never heard of such practice personally, but they they did make an effort to protect me from that sort of outlandish fring activity.

luckily you were sheltered fr/ such heathens.

They claimed it was to "thicken" it. My response was, "you are mixing it w/ grits for criminies sake! How much more of a thickener do you need?"

[joiei]

fried eggs

country ham

old fashioned grits ( not that instant muck)

redeye gravy ( no one thickens good red eye for god's sake, it is pan drippin's)

cathead biscuits

My texas granny's regular breakfast when we would go to visit.

[Jaymes]

One last caveat -- for those of you interested in trying the real thing, you have to start with (as others have said), smoked, cured "country" ham, with some fat left on it. That ham you get in the supermarkets these days simply never will impart the same flavor to the pan drippings.

[Lan4Dawg]

fried eggs

country ham

old fashioned grits ( not that instant muck)

redeye gravy ( no one thickens good red eye for god's sake, it is pan drippin's)

cathead biscuits

My texas granny's regular breakfast when we would go to visit.

you forgot the pork brains and the "rat trap" cheese! Every thing else makes me want to go and cook break fast for dinner.

[tryska]

man..i just had an argument wiith my very southern co-worker the other day about red-eye gravy. he tried to tell me it didn't have any coffee in it.