breakfast food debate

[Tam-i-am]

It seems that every time Kevin takes me out on a Logrite adventure, I find a new breakfast food.  I can now put an end to the tater or yukstuff argument.  I had biscuits and gravy for breakfast.  Boy is that stuff great. ;D ;D ;D

Now all I need is a little help from my friends with a recipe for the stuff.

Tammy

[chet]

I love that stuff too. Problem is not all biscuits and gravy plates are created equal.   :-/  But when made properly it is some Good Stuff.  

[Tam-i-am]

You are right about that.  The first place I had it wasn't very good but the next day Kevin ordered it and I passed on it.  When it came it looked so different so I tried it and ended up eating it all up!

[Texas Ranger]

cat head biscuits and gravy are a snack to warm up to the real thing.  Ham, eggs, grits and red eye gravy.  Washed down with good hot coffee.

[CHARLIE]

Tamiam, I've always heard it called Biscuits and Sausage Gravy.  Chet is right though, some is DanG good and some is downright deplorable.  I think if the cook uses too much flour to thicken it, it gets real pasty.  First they have to know how to make decent biscuits, then they have to know how to make good Sausage Gravy.  Sure is good though when it's fixed right. 8)

[Cedarman]

If you go into a new cafe(restaurants don't serve biscuits and gravy) see whats on the plates of others.  You should see chunks of sausage in their gravy.  If there are a lot of left overs, you know it wasn't that good, but if the plate is licked clean, aha.  I also ask other patrons how good it was.

I do all that because I can't stand the thought of diving into a bad plate of biscuits and gravy. Shudders!!  And as Chet said, it aint all cooked equal.

[Patty]

One of our best sellers at the restaurant was biscuits & gravy. I cooked the biscuits, Norm made the sausage gravy. Mmmmmmm boy, it was good stuff. Maybe if you send over some of those brownies our way, we'll share the B&G recipes with you!!  ;D

[Roxie]

Ok....since I got my start in life in Sparta NC, I know a thing or two about biscuits and gravy.  The very first thing to know about making it is that the sausage must have SAGE in it!  The spicier the sausage the better the gravy.  The rest of it is childs play....brown the sausage (leave the drippings in the pan) and put the flour into the grease and then stir in the milk.  Use about a tablespoon of flour per cup of milk.  Salt and pepper to taste.  By the way....Texas Ranger is correct that this is an appetizer to a turn Southerner!   :D

[OneWithWood]

If you sub arrowroot for the flour the gravy is silky rather than pasty and the sausage flavor comes through better.  Some folks use cornstarch instead of flour but I prefer the arrowroot.

[Tam-i-am]

One with Wood

Is it still 1 tablespoon of arrowroot to one cup of milk?

Patty
I posted the recipe for the brownies in the knowledge base, will you post your biscuit recipe?

[OneWithWood]

I think it is more like 3/4.

[Roxie]

My poor Grandma just rolled in her grave!   :'(  Gravy with cornstarch?  Gravy with arrowroot?  "SILKY" Gravy?  
It hurts me to think of it!!   :D  How is that silky stuff gonna stick to your ribs?  If you make it with flour and it glomps up on you,  just put in more milk.  Careful though not to add too much liquid...there should sausage in every bite.  

[Steve]

I, on occasion, will select bisquits and gravy at a resturant, but have only once found them to equal my beautiful wifes creation.
You gotta use buttermilkin the bisquits. And Jimmy Dean sage sausage.

[Patty]

Of course, Tamiam. I was just kidding.  ;D

For the biscuits use a good buttermilk biscuit recipe, this one works:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup vegetable shortening, chilled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3/4 cup buttermilk

Combine dry ingredients together. Cut in the shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs, then add buttermilk. Quickly fold dry ingredients into buttermilk with your hands until a sticky dough forms.
Turn dough out onto floured surface. Gently fold the dough over itself 3 or 4 times to create layers. Roll dough out to 3/4-inch thick, and cut into about 3" circles. Brush with butter. Bake for about15 minutes in a preheated 400 degree on a good cookie sheet. You can vary this to taste.

To be honest with you, in the restaurant we used a buttermilk biscuit mix from the supply company, due to time restraints, and they turned out really well. I think they were a Pillsbury mix, if I remember right. It came in big 5# boxes, and would make several sheets of biscuits. I don't know if Pillsbury sells this to consumers or not in smaller boxes. If so, try it, it is pretty good, and very easy and fast.


I'll have Norm add his gravy recipe. It came from his mom who made it in her restaurant for years.

[Roxie]

Patty, I'm gonna make a guess that you have a well seasoned cast iron skillet for making nothing but corn bread.  

[Norm]

The gravy recipe is pretty much the same as what Roxie posted above. I'm not a big fan of sausage gravy so my recipe is real simple, brown the sausage and add some vegetable oil if not enough drippings are there. Turn heat down to almost nothing and add flour. Cook the flour for a little while then turn up heat to medium and slowly add milk. You can always add more milk if it's too thick but be careful to not add too much. I'm like Roxie I like a fairly thick gravy with lots of meat in it. The only other thing we would do is add lots of pepper at the end to spice it up a little. I will say a good homemade sausage would be great to use in this, we used Jimmy Dean resturant grade and it was pretty good.

As far as the biscuits go I have not ever made em from scratch before, we used a restaruant  mix and pretty sure it was Pillsbury. The big deal with it is to not overwork the dough.

[Bro. Noble]

Norm is right about stirring the flower in the grease and browning it before you add the milk.  The amount of grease determines the amount of flower ------add enough to soak up the grease.  Too much flower and you get lumpy gravey;  too little flower for the amount of grease and you get greazey gravey.  After blending and browning the flower and grease,  you add milk slowly while stirring until you get the consistancy that you like.  Don't scorch the milk,  but let it bubble a little while (still stirring) to make sure the flower is cooked.

Gravey is good on biscuits or even sliced bread,  fried potatoes is the very best stuff to put it on though

I suppose this thread wouldn't be complete without mentioning 'sawmill gravey'  That's where you don't have any milk so you gotta make it with water.  Not nearly as good a milk gravey,  but has kept a lot of poor fellers ribs from rubbing his backbone. :D

[WV_hillbilly]

  Ther is only one other gravy I  like better than pork sausage gravy is one I make with homemade Deer sausage . Would you like to try some Tammy  ?   ???

[Tam-i-am]

WV Hillbilly

What's with deer meat?

[Tam-i-am]

Patty and Norm

thanks for  the recipes

I'll be fixin' it for the family this weekend!

Tammy

[WV_hillbilly]

  Tammy  

  It's pretty much most of the red meat we eat . They are a pest to the farmers around here .  So from October to the end of December it  is time to get the freezer full  .  I really like to eat it  and get my fair share of them .

[Bibbyman]

Here's one more biscuit recipe.  This one handed down to Mary from her mother.  They are "low fat" and light as a feather.  (so you can eat a lot of them).

Alabama Biscuits

Warm ....
1 Cup milk
1 Tablespoon shortening
2 Tablespoons sugar
½ Teaspoon of salt

Add ...
2 Cups flour
2 Teaspoons baking powder

Let rest...

Kneed lightly about 20 times on lightly floured bread board
Pat out and cut
Let rise until double
Bake 15 minutes at 400 degrees

Can also be used for cinnamon rolls or pizza dough, etc.

P.S. Don't forget to add these recipes to the Knowledge Base.

[Patty]

Roxie, you give me way too much credit. Bless your heart.  

Actually since we closed the restaurant, I do very little cooking. Norm does it all. I still enjoy baking now & then....cookies are my favorite, or a pie now & then. After the restaurant episode, we cooked for farmers markets for several years, so I could be home thru the summers with our boys. We baked 100 pies, plus 10 dozen cinnamon rolls, 50 loaves of banana bread & another 50 of pumkin bread every week.  Our boys helped out with the baking, plus I'd take them with me for the market. It was good for them, even though they say they still haven't recovered yet, it traumatized them so much.  ;D Norm was on the road alot then for his job, but I made sure he got to enjoy the thrills of the marathon baking, once he was home. He & I did all the baking for the markets after the boys ran off to college. It is an extremely tough way to earn a living, but I think it builds character. Come to think of it I have been accused of being a real character. Hmmmmm.  :

[SwampDonkey]

Nut'n beats grandma's home made buttermilk buscuits. And the buttermilk was home made too, since she used to churn butter every week during the summer months. They used the cream for the butter making because they were on a quota system, and grandma couldn't throw that cream to waste. Now what was real good on the biscuits was maple syrup or the gravy from the baked beans in molasses. Some folks lived on biscuits and beans during the depression years. My great grand father's brother used to grow great big gardens and he always had the old variety of calaco beans. I don't think you can get those any more, but a native woman who is in her late 90's now, used to grow some from the original seed she got from great grand father's brother. She has a sack left over from the last time she thrashed beans, which was about 5 years ago, and she eats them every weekend and lotsa pork. If there ever was a person that fowled up the statistics of heart disease its this old gal. She smokes and practically lives on anything from a pig and lotsa pork fat in her diet. She has had a mild stroke  5 years ago and recently a mild heart attack. She's already outlived all her daughters and she has only one son left, out of a family of 12. :D :D. When I was on the BC coast I couldn't even buy a good 'soldier' or 'yellow eye' bean. All they had was pea beans or lentils. We can buy 'yellow eye' now from Graves brand and several people grow them locally to sell in stores. I also like the Maine brand baked beans, which are soldier beans like grandma cooked in Maine and back home or in sporting camps and the Hotel she worked in eons ago.

Termite knows what I'm talkin about. Just like buscuits, some beans are good and some are GOOOOOOOOOOOD :D

Ok, now stop drooling on your keyboard. ;)

cheers

[Ed_K]

 I had B&G yesterday morn, was sitting at the counter so I could see what the cook was building  . It all came from packages  . Wasn't bad tho. Best ever was in a truckstop in Texarkana  8).