Dear Board,
Be forewarned this post is long. I had to chime in, biscuits and gravy might be better than steak and eggs!
I usually make biscuits and gravy the Yankee way with Pillsbury canned biscuits and gravy made out of browned sausage, 2 tbls of butter, one cup whole milk, 2 tbls of flour, and 1/8 tbls of salt and 1/8 tbls of pepper. Brown the sausage, dry mix the flour, salt, and pepper, and when the sausage is done add the butter, pour in the milk, and slowly sift and stir the the flour mixture in. Heat it until it bubbles and it’s the consistency you like. Pour it all over 3 scrambled eggs and a couple of those Pillsbury biscuits and enjoy!
But I figured I’d share a downhome recipe I got from a friend.
I hope this works! I’d credit my buddy but he’s Godawful bashful! He’s from Georgia by way of East Tennessee so I figure he knows his stuff!
Here is what he told me word for word.
If you want really good sausage gravy, you first need to find a store that sells either Pioneer Pepper Gravy Mix or Southeastern Mills Pepper Gravy Mix. Either of these makes lump free gravy a lot easier. But since you live in PA and your stores don’t have such good stuff (or grits for that matter - how you folks make it on scrapple and other stuff we feed the dogs with is beyond me), I’ll give you the homemade recipes.
For the Biscuits:
Preheat oven to 475 degrees
Melt some butter and set it aside.
2 cups White Lily UNBLEACHED Self-Rising Flour (you cannot make decent biscuits with plain flour. I don’t give a rat if you’re Emeril Lagasse - it takes self-rising flour to make decent biscuits and you want the unbleached kind because the flour has more glutens in it. White Lily is the lightest flour and it makes the lightest biscuits).
1/4 cup of lard, cut into the flour until the flour is like small cracker crumbs. You can use shortening or butter, but lard tastes better.
2/3 - 3/4 cups of buttermilk (depending on the humidity and the flour - some takes more liquid, some less). Mix buttermilk with a fork into the flour just long enough to blend. Be careful - if you overwork the flour, you’ll end up with biscuits that taste like pie crust.
On floured board, roll out dough with a floured rolling pin and cut with a floured biscuit cutter (my grandmamma used an old Garrett Snuff Can). Put the biscuits one inch apart on a cookie sheet and cook 9 minutes. Remove from oven and brush the melted butter on top of the biscuits and return to the oven for a couple of minutes until golden brown.
Sausage Gravy:
Fry country sausage. Once its done, remove patties from skillet and let set aside to cool for a few minutes. Turn the heat down and let the sausage drippings simmer.
Take about a 1/3 cup of flour and slowly mix in a 3/4 cup of hot water, using a whisk or a beater until the floor water mixture is smooth. If it gets lumpy, toss it and start over. If it’s too stiff, add some warm milk or more hot water. Add some black pepper (not much, the sausage has it’s own flavor).
Add a cup or so of milk to the simmering sausage drippings (turn up the heat to medium high) and stir until the milk is warm (not boiling, but starting to bubble just a bit). Crumble up the fried sausage and return them to the drippings and milk mix. Then slowly and evenly pour the flour/liquid mixture into the heated milk/sausage drippings and stir constantly until the mix starts to set. If it’s too stiff too early, add milk and keep stirring. If too soft, let it cook a little bit. But always keep stirring. You want to take the gravy off just before it gets to the consistency that you want - the gravy will continue to set even once it’s off the heat and you don’t want paste. Gravy’s something you make from feel - I don’t measure anything - I just add it until it feels right and remember ? It’s better to start with a gravy that’s too runny than one that’s too stiff.
Next week, we’ll discuss recipes for peach butter, fried okra, pumpkin pie and corn liqour. Until then, it’s the fly flinging chef bidding you adieu from somewhere deep inside Martha Stewart’s portfolio…
EAT UP FOLKS!
Best wishes,
Avalon