Biscuits and Gravy.......

[Mama]

......what's your favorite way to eat it? Do you just like your gravy poured over your biscuits? Would you rather dip your biscuit in your gravy? Do you like to pour your gravy over your breakfast and eat the biscuit on the side with jam? Maybe mix some scrambled or fried eggs in your gravy?

Me, my favorite way to eat biscuits and gravy is like I had it this morning. Crispy hashbrowns on the bottom, crumbled biscuit comes next and then sausage gravy. The whole thing topped with an over medium fried egg (the white completely done but the yolk is still runny)....and plenty of fresh cracked black pepper!

 

[Doc]

Mmmmmmm your way is close to perfect. My perfect would be with a couple of over easy eggs on the side. I'd cut the eggs all up and mix them in with the hash browns and biscuit. On occasion I'd have a biscuit on the side but I'm trying to stop that habit.

 

[Leni]

I usually make so much sausage gravy that eggs and hash browns would be way too much. However I like the idea. Next time I'll do the eggs and hash browns on the side with the gravy on the biscuit and a side biscuit with home made boysenberry jam.

 

[thegrindre]

Well, since you asked, I rarely eat any kind of gravy at all. I've never added gravy to a breakfast meal. Although, living here in the south, I have tried it but didn't care for it.
Gravy is not one of my things to eat.

 

[luvs]

when my Dad would make this, he poured the gravy over split biscuits. i preferred toast. pepper was on the gravy, plus cooked into it, too.

 

[luvs]

Well, since you asked, I rarely eat any kind of gravy at all. I've never added gravy to a breakfast meal. Although, living here in the south, I have tried it but didn't care for it.
Gravy is not one of my things to eat.

there's a thread pertaining to foods you would not ingest.

http://www.netcookingtalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22866

 

[PanchoHambre]

Being a Yankee, and an eye-talian at that biscuits and gravy and gravy in general were always alien to me (I never ate gravy at all until i made it myself) - what we called "Gravy" Y'all call Tomata Sauce. So I have never actually had biscuits and gravy. I am also really fussy about eggs and only will eat them scrambled dry or in omelets (never with yolk and white separate and never runny)

BUT if Mama put that plate in front of me I would dive right in, head fist, and know I was gonna be eating something new and amazing.

 

[Doc]

I usually make so much sausage gravy that eggs and hash browns would be way too much. However I like the idea. Next time I'll do the eggs and hash browns on the side with the gravy on the biscuit and a side biscuit with home made boysenberry jam.

With both eggs and hash browns it's easy to leave out the biscuit and just have sausage gravy over hash browns.

 

[Leni]

I'd be in really deep trouble if I didn't split biscuits for the sausage gravy. Of course at least 1/2 would be for butter and home made jam. I think that I'd be in Heaven.

 

[Sunflowerhill]

The breakfast of champions and my absolute favorite! I like to split biscuits down the middle... ladle gravy over the top and add plenty of black pepper! Yum!

 

[Doc]

The breakfast of champions and my absolute favorite! I like to split biscuits down the middle... ladle gravy over the top and add plenty of black pepper! Yum!

Mmmmm, I'm with ya on that SunFlowerHill.

Welcome to Net Cooking Talk. I'm glad you found us.

 

[Mama]

Hey.....another new member! Welcome to NCT Sunflowerhill!

 

[QSis]

Oh excellent! Wellcome, Sunflower!

When you get the chance, please post an intro in this forum http://www.netcookingtalk.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=3

Stick around and have fun with us!

Lee

P.S. On topic, split biscuits with sausage gravy is my very favorite breakfast. I've never made it, but when I see it on a restaurant menu, I order it. I've probably had it half a dozen times in my life, because 1) I rarely go out to breakfast and b) it's not a common menu item in the Boston area. Hmmmm, maybe I'll make it for myself for my birthday!

 

[Doc]

My wife makes great home made sausage gravy ...but she discovered Bob Evan sausage gravy in the sausage / lunch meat section of the grocery store. She likes the Bob Evans better than her own home made sausage gravy. I much prefer her home made, but Bob Evans taint bad, and for a quickee just dump the Bob Evans packet into a bowl and microwave and the sausage gravy is ready to go over toast, hash browns, biscuits or whatever you want. Easy peezy if you want to try it Lee.

Another reason DW like the Bob Evans better is that her home made sausage gravy would feed an army. When the kids were home or we had a big family gathering it was awesome. With Bob Evans it is much easier to make just enough for the two of us and not waste. Plus it's a time saver.

 

[LADawg]

I omit, I cheat. I fry up a couple of three sausage patties then crumble them up after they have cooled. I then use a sausage mix to make the gravy and I add the crumbled up sausage. Just ladle it over cooked frozen biscuits that have been opened. Add lots of FRESH GROUND black pepper.
After reading some of the replies I think I will fry an egg or two, cook some hash browns, tear the biscuits in bite size pieces , mix all of this together and then cover with the gravy with the sausage, add the black pepper, and eat a stick to your ribs breakfast. Sounds good to me.

 

[LADawg]

On second thought I think I will not fry the eggs, but hard boil them. I then can peel them and cut them up before adding them to the gravy with sausage.

 

[Mama]

Why buy the gravy mix if you are cooking the sausage anyway and have all of that wonderful sausage drippings? Just add a little bacon drippings, brown some flour in the grease and add milk, salt and pepper...and boom...you have homemade gravy!

 

[lifesaver91958]

......what's your favorite way to eat it? Do you just like your gravy poured over your biscuits? Would you rather dip your biscuit in your gravy? Do you like to pour your gravy over your breakfast and eat the biscuit on the side with jam? Maybe mix some scrambled or fried eggs in your gravy?

Me, my favorite way to eat biscuits and gravy is like I had it this morning. Crispy hashbrowns on the bottom, crumbled biscuit comes next and then sausage gravy. The whole thing topped with an over medium fried egg (the white completely done but the yolk is still runny)....and plenty of fresh cracked black pepper!

Looks pretty good.

 

[lifesaver91958]

I used to enjoy the gravy poured over my biscuits but i'm no longer able to eat gravy because the grease hurts my stomach. I really miss it.

 

[QSis]

Would you folks that have made this from scratch please post you TNT recipes?

I'd like you make some!

Lee

 

[ChowderMan]

the biscuits are easy - and a recipe. gravy is more of a technique

we prefer 'drop biscuits' vs the rolled out kind - which is convenient because the drop style is way easier to make.....

here's a recipe I've been using for many years - it's primary advantage is you can go from "you want biscuits with that?" to butter rolling down the chin in about 30 minutes - less if the oven is already hot.

preheat the oven - if there's nothing else going on with the oven, I use 425'F
anything 375'F to 450'F will work but the bake time will change - pay attention at high heats - things go from golden brown to charcoal burnt in 2-3 minutes.

note 1:
it is important to have everything "at the ready" - oven up to temp, baking sheet at parade rest, _before_ combining the milk with the dry stuff. you will note there's a fairly high amount of baking powder - the leavening. this stuff mixes and stiffens up real fast - add milk, stir, dollop onto the baking sheet and into the oven should be about 3 minutes max. not a biscuit mix you can make a day ahead.

note 2:
because of the baking powder amount, I use aluminum free baking powder - Rumford is one brand, there may be others. an aluminum salt based baking powder can lend a metallic "off taste"

note 3:
regards cutting in the butter, quite frankly butter that has been on the counter for 10-15 minutes works better than straight out of the fridge.

240 grams AP flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
put all that in a bowl, mix well before adding
6 tablespoons butter
I cut the butter into "pats / chunks"
then cut the butter into the dry - I use a pastry blender. double knives works.

when the oven is ready, add 1 cup milk
stir&mix - within a minute the mix will get very stiff.

can be done with buttermilk; reduce baking powder to 2 tsp as the extra acid in buttermilk works 'faster'

(big) spoon the mix onto an ungreased baking sheet - makes 6-7 biscuits
and go directly to the oven - do _not_ dawdle around. mix to bake needs to be on the order of max 3 minutes. (the kitchen mice got to the below pix batch before the camera did....)

bake time at 425'F about 11 minutes - check for golden brown crusting. some peaks going darker is not a problem.

looks like

 

[ChowderMan]

gravy is more of a technique thing because there are so many variations.

I use a roux and thin it out. for roux you need a fat and flour.
the obvious candidates for 'the fat' -
- pork renderings
- chicken renderings
- butter

for pork and chicken you want to deglaze the pan to get 'the fond' flavors.

last couple years I've found it tricky to do from scratch using pork sausage - loose or cut out of the casing. it appears the fat content has been reduced in the name of "sausage is good for you." save your bacon grease/drippings - excellent flavor source if the sausage itself does not produce enough rendered fat.

chicken fat from roasting/broiling is easier to "acquire"

mix by volume - and by eyeball - it jis' ain't so critical... - equal parts flour and fat. for two people, 3 T each will work generously. any recipe that calls for flour in cups, you'll need to invite over your local friendly Army Corp . . .

it is important to cook the fat and the flour together for roughly ten minutes. otherwise you get a raw pasty flour taste. let it bubble a bit, it can go slightly brown, but you don't want it to go dark.

after that you whisk in / add milk - cream for the holidays.... - to get to the desired consistency. add in steps - don't just dump a whole bunch of liquid in. very easy to add more, very very tricky to wring it out....

taste for seasoning. depending on the sausage / chicken / etc you'll have some "base" of flavors. fresh ground black pepper and salt are the usual additional needs. to kick it up, cayenne pepper. past that all kinds of things are possible:
celery seed
caraway seed
finely minced garlic
minced green/red pepper
minced shallots/onion/scallion - scallion greens
chopped parsley
the list is near endless.

I never tell anybody this,,, but for a dinner type meal, I've sneaked in a dollop of horseradish to rave reviews. horseradish and anchovies / paste - two things you never want to tell anybody about. people who have never eaten it hate it - even tho they just chowed down on the mmmphmmph-this-is-really-good-stuff

oh, I also keep a roll of light and dark roux frozen/wrapped in foil - just in case the volume is insufficient. I can hack off a tsp or two to increase the volume 'on the fly'

 

[Moxie]

Traditionally, sausage gravy is pretty simple. It's just like making any other gravy.

Crumble and brown fatty pork sausage in a skillet. Stir flour into the fat & sausage & cook for a few minutes. Add milk, salt, plenty of black pepper. Stir till thick.

Proportion is usually 2 Tlb fat to 2 Tlb flour to 1 Cup milk - more or less if you like it thicker or thinner. Usually it's a very thick gravy. If you don't get enough fat from your sausage, use bacon fat to supplement. Figure out how many cups you need and adjust accordingly.

Any fluffy biscuit will due. Split it open, fluffy side up to help soak up the gravy. Pour 1/2 to 1 cup gravy over per person.

It's one of my favorite breakfasts, but way over the top in calories!

 

[QSis]

Thank you so much, ChowderMan and Moxie!

With the last several posts from both of you, I do believe I'm good to go!

Chowderman - I agree with your observation that there is hardly any fat left in the pan after browning bulk breakfast sausage! The last two times I've cooked it, I haven't needed to pour off any fat to continue on with a recipe!

Again, I appreciate the help, folks and I will post results when I attempt this wonderful dish!

Lee

 

[Leni]

I use Jimmy Dean sausage and there is plenty of fat. Many times I'll go pick some sage leaves and add it to the mix. Brown the sausage well to get maximum flavor. After it is browned I add flour and cook that for a few minutes and then add milk. I usually have to drain off some fat before adding the flour.

 

[Johnny West]

I want to try this one.

BISCUITS & GRAVY CASSEROLE
Ingredients
1 pound sausage
1 1/2 ounces pork gravy mix ( 1 package of Pioneer Brand Peppered Sausage Gravy Mix )
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
6 eggs
1/2 cup milk
to taste salt
to taste black pepper
1 Can (8 oz) biscuits ( 1 can Pillsbury Grands Biscuits )
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degree’s. Take a 9×13 pan and spray it with Pam or whatever you like to use. Then take the Biscuits and it into 1″ pieces and line bottom of pan. Brown Sausage and scatter over biscuits. Sprinkle with Cheddar Cheese. Whisk eggs and milk with a pinch of salt and pepper and pour it over the pan. Make Gravy mix per package directions and pour over. Bake in the oven for about 30-45 minutes.

 

[SilverSage]

John, that looks like it would feed an army!

 

[Johnny West]

John, that looks like it would feed an army!

I’d only make that for company. My wife won’t eat it so it would be all mine.

 

[QSis]

John, that looks like it would feed an army!

LOL, I was going to say, "serves 26".

Lee

 

[medtran49]

That would get you lynched in the south. Cheese has no place in biscuits and gravy. 😄 With that said, I certainly wouldn't turn down a plateful.