biscuits and gravy

[duckduck]

I love biscuits and gravy but I'm not much good at gravy. I did a search for prior threads and checked the recipe gullet. No luck. Anybody willing to school me a little and share your best recipe for gravy? Bacon gravy, sausage gravy...what do you love to smother your biscuits with?

[Dave the Cook]

I will smother biscuits with gravy (or molasses, maple syrup or egg yolk) indiscriminately. The gravy of choice, however, is made by using the fat from sausage to make a roux, then adding milk. In truth, I use half milk, half stock (pork if I've got it, chicken if not).

[fifi]

I have had a lot of lousy milk gravy. I have even made some pretty lousy milk gravy in my time that tasted like glue on a biscuit. There is a place here in Houston that comes close (The Breakfast Klub) so I have studied it and I think I know what most people miss. I maybe haven't gotten as good as Aunt Minnie, but I can now make a respectable milk gravy. This is the way she made it.

In your cast iron skillet, fry up some sausage. Back when, they used hand formed patties so there were plenty of gibbles of sausage that fell off. Be sure that the sausage fond is well browned. Leaving the grease in the pan, add in 1 to 2 tablespoons of flour per cup of milk that you will be using. I like my gravy pretty thick so that it kind of stands up on the biscuit but that is a personal choice. I use closer to 2 tablespoons. Stir it around, cooking it enough to get the raw flour taste out but not browning it. Add milk and deglaze the pan, stirring as the gravy thickens. Salt and pepper to taste. I like a lot of pepper.

Where I think most places go wrong is trying to reduce the fat, not browning the sausage gibbles enough, not having a really well seasoned sausage and not adding enough salt and pepper. Aunt Minnie's gravy had a lot of black pepper.

[Dave the Cook]

I'm not finding "gibbles" in Larousse Gastronomique.

[fifi]

I'm not finding "gibbles" in Larousse Gastronomique.

←

Well, that is their omission. All of us Southeners know what gibbles are. You know . . . gibbles.

[raxelita]

You can also crumble some of the sausage and leave it in the pan to produce large "gibbles."

Here in New York, they refer to the result as texture

I concur with fifi; too much black pepper is not enough when it comes to biscuit gravy.

[rmockler]

I'm not finding "gibbles" in Larousse Gastronomique.

←

I believe that both "leavins" and "munchies" are thoroughly proper terms, as well. I know I have an elk steak recipe from my mom that uses both. I'm thinking "gibbles" is much more expressive, however, and hope to co-opt it for my own use, unless it's been secretly trademarked/patented/otherwise protected by a conglomerate.

[Steven Blaski]

I'm not finding "gibbles" in Larousse Gastronomique.

←

Well, that is their omission. All of us Southeners know what gibbles are. You know . . . gibbles.

←

I called them "crunchies" as a youngster. Still do.

[highchef]

there's redeye gravy that's not thickened, just deglaze the ham/bacon pan with coffee and reduce w s&p. good with ham and bisquits. I like sawmill gravy made with a roux and milk and as upthread, lots and lots of fresh ground black pepper. A bit of ham/pork gelee' (saved from the ham pan) down in the gravy adds lots of flavor. I always save that gel from the ham that you get when you heat it and freeze it for gravy flavoring.

[andiesenji]

I like "gibbles" too. Gibble-lovers of the world, Unite!

I called them "ittle-bits" when I was a child. Our cook referred to the fond in any pan after cooking meat or fowl as "leavins", as rmockler mentioned above. She was a lowcountry Gullah so that may have been a Carolina thing.

I make sausage gravy much the same way as fifi. However I use "soft" flour only.

It may just be my imagination, but milk gravy made with all purpose or bread flour always seems a bit gluey to me. I am really picky about gravy.

By the way, there is this GRAVY! thread that has some informative posts.

Edited November 27, 2005 by andiesenji (log)

[andiesenji]

I did a search in my own bookmarks and this About southern food site is bookmarked several times so I guess I have accessed it a few times!

Other bookmarks included

this

andthis

and the grits page which suggests gravy on grits as well as on biscuits.

and not to be missed, this one which makes a LOT of gravy!

I have no idea why I have so many gravy websites bookmarked (there are many more) but apparently from time to time I came across something on each site I thought I might find interesting or useful in the future.

[MGLloyd]

To fifi's recipe, which is what I follow, I also add some finely chopped onion. You would be surprised at just how many places down South make their country gravy using the packaged packet mix from Pioneer. It actually is not half bad in a pinch. I have had much worse homemade country gravy.

And up Nawth here, we usually call them sausage 'crumbs'.

[fifi]

:bowing to the crowd: Yes . . . the terminology for gibbles and its kin is rooted in our family vocabularies. Old Larousse wasn't around. Thank you for your support. :bows out:

Interesting about the soft flour, andie. I am sure that is a factor. Aunt Minnie would have had the container of flour that she used for making the biscuits nearby and probably just threw in what "looked right" from that container. I will try that since I now have my very own supply of White Lily flour. (One of these days I am going to kick biscuit butt!) It would certainly reduce the "glue factor."

Oddly enough, highchef, I have never heard it called "sawmill gravy." I wonder what the origin of that term is?

My mother always kept a ham in residence and would sometimes fry some and make red eye gravy. She also saved the liquid from the baking pan and the gibbles ( ) from the platter to make it. Red Eye gravy was normally served with grits, not biscuits, for some reason.

An interesting cultural aside on biscuits and gravy . . . These kinds of full blown breakfasts were not an everyday thing. They were a late Sunday morning ritual common with my family and friends after the Sunday paper had been read. Breakfast is still my favorite type of meal and biscuits and gravy one of my favorite components.

[Jaymes]

Also, in the olden days, nobody ever threw away the drippings from bacon, sausage, etc. They were far too precious for that. They went into a can that one kept handy right by the stove, and were used for dropping into simmering vegetables like green beans and other greens.

And, if whatever you were cooking as your breakfast meat (ham, for example) was too lean to provide much fat, you had some handy to supplement.

As for the flour, my current gravy makin' relatives swear by Wondra.

Edited November 27, 2005 by Jaymes (log)

[Dana]

Alton Brown refered to 'sawmill gravy' on a recent show I caught. I can't remember anything else about the show, or what made it 'sawmill'. Maybe it was a gravy show-right before T'giving????

Cracker Barrel Restaurants refer to their thick milk gravy that has some bacon -type bits in it as sawmill gravy. (I'm not really sure what those bacon-type bit are, but I don't think they're bacon!!!)

Wondra is indeed a wonder. I use it every time I make gravy.

Edited November 27, 2005 by Dana (log)

[theabroma]

I'm not finding "gibbles" in Larousse Gastronomique.

←

I believe that both "leavins" and "munchies" are thoroughly proper terms, as well. I know I have an elk steak recipe from my mom that uses both. I'm thinking "gibbles" is much more expressive, however, and hope to co-opt it for my own use, unless it's been secretly trademarked/patented/otherwise protected by a conglomerate.

←

This gladdens the old linguist's heart: gibbles is from my mom's part of the South as well as leavins, but the gibbles applied to the fond in the pan from ccoking sausage or bacon , and leavins, from frying chicken. None of which terms are in Larousse.

Further, being exhorted to 'eat chicken skin', would appear to indicate that we should add copious amounts of grebenes to our diet, and I would agree. My cardiologist would not, however: they are the crispy bits of chicken skin left in a roasting pan ... think of them as Kosher cracklings. This term is not in Larousse.

My family made milk-based 'Sawmill Gravy' from sausage pans, water or stock based gravy from leavins, and baked grebenes into noodle pies called kugels. I was always told that Sawmill came from the appearance of saw dust like sausage flecks in the gravy. That was the favorite on biscuits, followed by chicken gravy on potatoes or biscuits. Red Eye gravy was always served on ham steaks, never on biscuits. I had a great aunt who said if it wasn't made in a cast iron skillet, it wasn't gravy. And always lots and lots of freshly cracked black pepper.

Excuse me, I'm going to have b'fast all over again.

Theabroma

PS: For those out there with the old edition of Larousse, read the entry for 'Punch'

[andiesenji]

Also, in the olden days, nobody ever threw away the drippings from bacon, sausage, etc.  They were far too precious for that.  They went into a can that one kept handy right by the stove, and were used for dropping into simmering vegetables like green beans and other greens. 

And, if whatever you were cooking as your breakfast meat (ham, for example) was too lean to provide much fat, you had some handy to supplement.

As for the flour, my current gravy makin' relatives swear by Wondra.

←

There was a time that every set of kitchen canisters included one labeled "Grease" - some made in obviously southern states were labeled "Drippins" (note the missing 'g"). Being a collector, I naturally have several of these made in various eras. The largest by far are the ones made by West Bend in Avocado Green, Brown and also in a "Sunset Gold" and "Bittersweet" red-orange.

These hold a lot of drippings from bacon, ham fat and etc. I periodically set this on a copper plate over a very low burner to melt the entire mass, which allows it to mix well and actually keeps it from becoming rancid as this is always kept at room temperature (except in the middle of summer when temps are over 100) handy to the stove. There are many foods that are enhanced by the addition of a tablespoon or so of these drippings. Green beans would certainly not be the same without it. Summer squash and onions, sauteed in drippings is a totally different dish than the same thing with olive oil. Fried green tomatoes really "need" drippings to taste as they did when I was a child.

I still trim all the extra fat off a ham and render the fat out - when I see people throw it away I actually cringe. I like to buy slab bacon because I like to scrape off most of the white fat for rendering and then cut the skin into squares and store in the freezer because each square is handy for greasing hot skillets, baking dishes, griddles, cast iron cornstick and muffin pans.

Some people joke at my frugality and think I am being foolish because I can afford not to have to do things like this. They simply don't get that I like doing things like this because it was a tradition in my family and most of all, I like the flavor. Just because I can afford filet mignon doesn't mean I should turn my back on home made sausage, sausage gravy and biscuits!

Edited November 27, 2005 by andiesenji (log)

[Jaymes]

Red Eye gravy was always served on ham steaks, never on biscuits.

And on grits. Ham & grits and Red Eye Gravy. Yum.

[andiesenji]

Red Eye gravy was always served on ham steaks, never on biscuits.

And on grits. Ham & grits and Red Eye Gravy. Yum.

←

I second that motion!

[duckduck]

Thanks for the advice and the links! I'll check them out!

[amccomb]

My husband and I hate breakfast sausage, so I normally use spicy italian sausage when making my sausage milk gravy. I do the same as above - cook the susage, sprinkle on flour, add milk, season with salt and pepper.

I only make biscuits and gravy once a year on the morning after Thanksgiving, and all of my friends look forward to that day and rave about the biscuits and gravy. This year, I used wild boar sausage from d'artagnan, and it was very good.

[Betts]

I love, love, love biscuits and gravy but mine is just not ever as good as the southern stuff. Northern sausage just isn't the same and there isn't enough fat left to make a roux.

[Jaymes]

I love, love, love biscuits and gravy but mine is just not ever as good as the southern stuff.  Northern sausage just isn't the same and there isn't enough fat left to make a roux.

The next time you cook bacon, save the grease. Let it cool, and then pour it into a small plastic refrigerator storage container. It'll keep for a long while in the fridge. Use that for your gravy.

[highchef]

Red Eye gravy was always served on ham steaks, never on biscuits.

And on grits. Ham & grits and Red Eye Gravy. Yum.

←

but you must have bisquits for the ham. And to sop up, of course. With grits. (please make those buttermilk bisquits!)

[handmc]

Here goes, the southerners will groan, but I like it.

Brown a mix of sage and hot roll sausage, breaking them up into little bits.

In the fat throw in one chopped onion, saute until they start to show color, add flour and cook from white to blonde, add a pinch of Cayenne, Milk and whisk stock is always a nice boost but more milk to thin it out a bit is fine. I think stock gives it a better feel in addition to more flavor.

A dash of worchester, a sprinkle of fine chopped parsley stir till right thickness serve over bisquits, with a very light dust of paprika at the end for color .

Dats how I make it, Dats how I like it!