BBQ with white bread

[Jaymes]

Rancho: sausage gravy ain't rocket science, you don't need a mix. Fry up a bunch of sausage in a cast iron skillet. Remove and set aside. Reserve enough of the fat in the pan to make a roux. Add a few tablespoons of flour and whisk over medium heat. Add a bunch of black pepper. Add whole milk, whisking entire time. Once the liquid comes up to boiling point you can judge thickness. Once it is as thick as you like it, take some of cooked sausage and crumble it into the gravy. It is very easy, it took me longer to type this than it takes to make sausage gravy.

 

OMG!!! That's the exact same recipe I gave upthread!!!!

 

Are we related???

 

However, I do feel the need to point out, again as I did upthread, that the stuff from a packet, while obviously inferior in taste and texture, is much better for you than sausage and grease.

 

Especially if you're going to eat it often.

 

 

 

[Suzanne F]

People can eat biscuits and sausage gravy more than once a year?

 

I get my fix on vacation in Wilmington, Vermont. Yes, Vermont. They use sweet Italian sausage, and it is heaven. Or hell, depending on whether you ask my mouth or my hips.

[Ron Johnson]

Rancho: sausage gravy ain't rocket science, you don't need a mix. Fry up a bunch of sausage in a cast iron skillet. Remove and set aside. Reserve enough of the fat in the pan to make a roux. Add a few tablespoons of flour and whisk over medium heat. Add a bunch of black pepper. Add whole milk, whisking entire time. Once the liquid comes up to boiling point you can judge thickness. Once it is as thick as you like it, take some of cooked sausage and crumble it into the gravy. It is very easy, it took me longer to type this than it takes to make sausage gravy.

 

OMG!!! That's the exact same recipe I gave upthread!!!!

 

Are we related???

 

However, I do feel the need to point out, again as I did upthread, that the stuff from a packet, while obviously inferior in taste and texture, is much better for you than sausage and grease.

 

Especially if you're going to eat it often.

 

there is no question that sausage gravy is terribly unhealthy. if you ate it every morning you would die in a week.

 

[Ron Johnson]

it took me longer to type this than it takes to make sausage gravy.

 

Ron, It would seem this length of time would not allow the flour in the roux to be cooked enough for my preferences.

your pan is not hot enough.

 

 

[Peter Creasey]

your pan is not hot enough.

 

Ron, I cook it slowly but it's still boiling and steaming hot. I stir it constantly. I cook it until it is the brown color I want. Most instructions say cook the roux for at least 5 minutes but I go longer.

 

If I did it any hotter, the roux would scorch.

 

 

[Suzanne F]

it took me longer to type this than it takes to make sausage gravy.

 

Ron, It would seem this length of time would not allow the flour in the roux to be cooked enough for my preferences.

 

 

 

 

your pan is not hot enough.

 

Ron, I cook it slowly but it's still boiling and steaming hot. I stir it constantly. I cook it until it is the brown color I want. Most instructions say cook the roux for at least 5 minutes but I go longer.

 

If I did it any hotter, the roux would scorch.

 

 

 

Maybe Ron is a slooooooooooooooooow typist?

 

Seriously, though: The recipe I just found in Smokehouse Ham, Spoonbread, & Scuppernong Wine (taken with acknowledgment from Fanny Flagg's Original Whistlestop Cafe Cookbook) is listed under the category of White Sausage Gravy, and says to add the flour to the drippings, stir until it's smooth, cook the roux for 1 minute, and add the milk "stirring forcefully until the mixture is smooth and thick." The operative word here is white. It sounds as though Peter likes a brown gravy, which would indeed require longer cooking, while Ron does something like the one I mention. So you two are talking about different gravies.

 

Kiss and make up?

[splinky]

it took me longer to type this than it takes to make sausage gravy.

 

Ron, It would seem this length of time would not allow the flour in the roux to be cooked enough for my preferences.

 

 

 

 

your pan is not hot enough.

 

Ron, I cook it slowly but it's still boiling and steaming hot. I stir it constantly. I cook it until it is the brown color I want. Most instructions say cook the roux for at least 5 minutes but I go longer.

 

If I did it any hotter, the roux would scorch.

 

 

 

Maybe Ron is a slooooooooooooooooow typist?

 

Seriously, though: The recipe I just found in Smokehouse Ham, Spoonbread, & Scuppernong Wine (taken with acknowledgment from Fanny Flagg's Original Whistlestop Cafe Cookbook) is listed under the category of White Sausage Gravy, and says to add the flour to the drippings, stir until it's smooth, cook the roux for 1 minute, and add the milk "stirring forcefully until the mixture is smooth and thick." The operative word here is white. It sounds as though Peter likes a brown gravy, which would indeed require longer cooking, while Ron does something like the one I mention. So you two are talking about different gravies.

 

Kiss and make up?

this is like one of those east coast/west coast rapper beefs. best to stay out of it or risk getting caught in stray gunfire

[Peter Creasey]

this is like one of those east coast/west coast rapper beefs. best to stay out of it or risk getting caught in stray gunfire

 

S etal, I just don't see whatever "friction" anyone might seem to infer from the dialogue. None is present!

 

My training and long term experience are that it is very important that the flour in a roux be sufficiently cooked.

 

The intention here is merely to compare notes.

 

[Chad Ward]

People can eat biscuits and sausage gravy more than once a year?

 

Yup. But I'm southern. I have cultural immunity.

 

Actually, we do, in fact, have a big Sunday breakfast every week, usually involving me making pancakes or biscuits and bacon (house cured) and my wife making fried eggs. Sometimes I make biscuits and my wife makes sausage gravy (my sausage). It's maybe a tablespoon or two of leftover fat, a tablespoon or two of flour and some milk. No one dies. The roux is certainly less voluminous than I routinely use for macaroni and cheese (3T each of flour and butter) or gumbo (ditto).

 

Seriously, A) this is not hard -- no one needs to make sausage gravy from a packet, and biscuits take 30 minutes, tops, including baking time; and B) this is not the automatic cardiological death sentence that is being suggested on this thread. Really. Flour, milk, a little fat, a little protein. Unless you had tofu on rice cakes, I can guarantee that you had worse for lunch. We each usually have two biscuits with gravy for Sunday breakfast. My 15-year-old sometimes has three. The rest goes into lunch containers, so everything gets spread over several meals.

 

[joiei]

Rancho: sausage gravy ain't rocket science, you don't need a mix. Fry up a bunch of sausage in a cast iron skillet. Remove and set aside. Reserve enough of the fat in the pan to make a roux. Add a few tablespoons of flour and whisk over medium heat. Add a bunch of black pepper. Add whole milk, whisking entire time. Once the liquid comes up to boiling point you can judge thickness. Once it is as thick as you like it, take some of cooked sausage and crumble it into the gravy. It is very easy, it took me longer to type this than it takes to make sausage gravy.

 

OMG!!! That's the exact same recipe I gave upthread!!!!

 

Are we related???

 

However, I do feel the need to point out, again as I did upthread, that the stuff from a packet, while obviously inferior in taste and texture, is much better for you than sausage and grease.

 

Especially if you're going to eat it often.

 

there is no question that sausage gravy is terribly unhealthy. if you ate it every morning you would die in a week.

I have been eating it all my life and I am not dead yet. Deprive yourselves all you want, I will continue to enjoy an occasional biscuit with sausage gravy. I do not order biscuits and gravy when I am dining out, most of that is awful.

 

Consider this, how often to you make a white sauce, pretty much the same thing with the addition of a little crumbled sausage.

[Wilfrid]

Sausage gravy may be the only food with "sausage" in the name which I don't much like.

[Sneakeater]

Actually, we do, in fact, have a big Sunday breakfast every week, usually involving me making pancakes or biscuits and bacon (house cured) and my wife making fried eggs. Sometimes I make biscuits and my wife makes sausage gravy (my sausage). It's maybe a tablespoon or two of leftover fat, a tablespoon or two of flour and some milk. No one dies. The roux is certainly less voluminous than I routinely use for macaroni and cheese (3T each of flour and butter) or gumbo (ditto).

 

OK, everybody. This Sunday at Chad's!

[Jaymes]

Consider this, how often to you make a white sauce, pretty much the same thing with the addition of a little crumbled sausage.

 

And germane to that is how long you choose to cook the roux. I don't cook it all that long. Just long enough to be certain that the flour is thoroughly cooked, and you don't get that "raw flour" flavor.

[Chad Ward]

Actually, we do, in fact, have a big Sunday breakfast every week, usually involving me making pancakes or biscuits and bacon (house cured) and my wife making fried eggs. Sometimes I make biscuits and my wife makes sausage gravy (my sausage). It's maybe a tablespoon or two of leftover fat, a tablespoon or two of flour and some milk. No one dies. The roux is certainly less voluminous than I routinely use for macaroni and cheese (3T each of flour and butter) or gumbo (ditto).

 

OK, everybody. This Sunday at Chad's!

Cool! I'd happily feed the lot of you.

[Suzanne F]

Road trip!!!