Ella asked for some tips on gravy.

Gravy is nothing more than a roux, thinned with a liquid. Most start with butter and flour. When the roux is ready, milk, broth or some other liquid is added. In effect, you are making a thin bechamel sauce.
Finish it off with seasonings, herbs. Some folks like to strain theirs, I usually don't.

basic recipe would be two tablespoons butter, three of flour, 1 1/2 cups warm milk. Season to taste.

For sausage gravy, a big favorite everywhere, you can brown the sausage meat in a little butter. Then add more butter, and a couple tablespoons of flour. Stir to coat the meat with the flour, and then add the milk. Keep mixing until the consistancy is where you want it. Add more milk to thin it out if necessary.
Some add fine diced onion in with the sausage.

Nothing can be simpler than making gravy. Tips to keep it from lumping start with the roux. Made correctly, your gravy just can't lump up. Err on the side of adding too much, not too little flour. You can always easily thin the gravy out, but it's more problematic to thicken it after the fact.

i love white sausage gravy but usually end up with pasty sludge. i don't use butter, just add flour and milk and pepper to the sausage and grease. maybe thats my problem?

Done. Onlyist thing missin' iz biscuits and coffee in a big enamel pot.

My wife makes great gravy.
I've been trying to learn from her for nearly 48 years.
Having said that, one of the tastiest gravies I have ever enjoyed was pork roast gravy made by an Army Reserve cook.
He needed a strainer to get the lumps out.
This resulted in a somewhat diminished amount of liquid.

Too much flour, not enough liquid.

Like Sam said, it's just a roux (which is fat and flour) and then a liquid, whether it be stock, milk, etc...

Make your roux with the sausage fat and flour. A whisk makes it easy to blend the flour into the fat in the pan as you add it slowly. Whisk and cook for several minutes or until its smooth and you like the color and aroma.

Now add your liquid. Milk or 1/2 and 1/2 in your case. Do it slowly while you continue to whisk until it is blended and fully incorporated.

Now you leave it on the heat to come up to a simmer/light boil while you keep whisking to keep it from scorching. As it simmers it will thicken. after a few minutes you should be able to tell if you need to add more liquid.

It will thicken as it cools after you take it off the heat.

Easy to season with S&P to taste.

Just perfect MM, and always remember, it's easy to add a little more broth or milk to thin it out, but it is an issue to thicken. When you add raw flour to a cooked gravy, it will almost always clump.
If you have to, then mix the flour with warm milk, and make a slurry.
Another way if you just have to thicken it more, is to make a mix of raw flour and soft butter. Form this into a paste, and add in a bit at a time until it melts into the gravy.
That should not lump up at all.

Ol' gal bin servin' breakfast down to the dollar sto parking lot out of the back of her truck fer a spell now,......

Does that mean she needs tags on the flatbed ???

Personally I prefer bacon gravy over sausage.

One of my friends Mother, back when I was in grade school made a gravy that was near white as the flour that she used to make it. Tasted great without any raw flour taste, but damned if I know how she did it. If I don't get the flour brown in the skillet, it tastes like flour, but not hers. miles

When ol pappaw kicks the bucket, he say he wunts ta be incorpseerrated.

Word. Bacon has it all over sausage for gravy makin'!

Must be a local demographic thing as gravy around here means sausage gravy with biscuits. Love the peppery backtaste of sausage.

Hot italian sausage makes a decent gravy as well.

*For advanced students

First, mentioned by milespatton, one must get rid of the gritty flour taste. The flour and butter have to sizzle a bit to do so. In my experience, you really don't have to get the roux to turn too tan/brown to mellow it, but if you do, it will impart a nice color which most find more appealing/appetizing, anyway. The result has a little to do with how dark the added liquid is.

Next is something I recently learned by accident, glad I did. I have a recipe for domestic and game poultry that uses tarragon, but could be any other fresh herb. I incorporate the herb in various ways. After the bird is browned and shallot is sauteed, the pan is deglazed and a roux is started.

The last occasion I added the fresh herb to the roux as it bubbled away. The herb flavor was really imparted, even after a half hour braise. A week or so later I saw someone on TV doing something similar. It's a great way to build a dish around an herb from which the essence is sometimes hard to coax.

Gravy up here is pan drippings from roast beef, pork, chicken.
Thickened with flour,for additional liquild I normally use the water from the boiled potatoes.
Salt and Pepper for seasoning .
Trick is to whisk the flour mixture so it doesn't burn yet the flour cooks long enough to not have the flour taste.

Flyer

Me, an' Flyer think alike.

Recalling fish gravy, it's been over fifty some odd years, I can not remember much, save it was made with the oils left from frying fish.

+1, the long and short starches have to be broken down. Cook your gravy gently and it will stay light in color.

Brown gravy on biscuits ??? UGH !

I assume that you are not talking the light brown of a milk gravy, but the brown gravy made from roasts and such. Most people use a recipe that calls for onion soup mix in the brown gravy, and detest the stuff. I don't like the taste and it usually gives me heartburn. I lived on the road and ate in restaurants for 37 years and simply would not eat anything with brown gravy on it. White gravy on the other hand I love and sometime order it with french fries and use it like ketchup, which I don't use much. miles

I'll never forget the first time we went to visit my new mother in law. In the kitchen, pinned above the stove was a recipe for making gravy.

I thought "Oh S**t, we're in trouble now."

We were

White gravy on biscuits n gravy. Thick brownish gravy on meats but that's not a hard and fast rule for pork and poultry. Just the way I roll.

Cheers !!!

*Real* gravy is not white!

laughing Pete. There is no 'real food' at all in the UK. France or Italy is where you go for great food in Europe.

You mean deep fried mars bars are considered "great food"?? lol

Getting back to your white gravy, I suppose the nearest thing over here would be an onion/white sauce made with the roux made from the fat of the fried sausages.

Gravy is *always* brown though, deep brown is my personal favourite, although there seems to be a trend now on the cooking shows to have pale almost translucent gravy especially with poultry...

Then there are "jus" which as far a I can tell is washed out gravy somebody is trying to charge $50 for in a fancy restaurant!

don't forget homemade tomater gravy. fry up some thick bacon. pan of fresh cathead biscuits. whoowee! good stuff.

**not tomato sauce gravy** some folks call tomato sauce tomato gravy. i'm talking southern comfort food 'mater gravy.

Never heard of it. Tell us more. miles

I only use corn starch instead of flour in making gravy. Just mix in warm water and pour slowly into pan with drippings. No lumps...nice texture. Try it, you may never use flour again.

Corn starch always makes me think Chinese food sauces.

It certainly works though! And is considerably quicker.

It does leave a sauce clear, depending on other ingredients, and does not develop the nutty richness of roux however.

Works great with pan sauces as it is usually very rich to start.

Arrowroot works great as well.

fry some bacon. pour off excess grease and add flour to make a roux. fresh ripe tomatoes are best but you can use a large can of tomatoes. chopped, seeded and then added to roux along with all the juice. add milk, little at a time. remember to whisk, whisk, whisk. add lots of fresh ground pepper and a little salt. serve over a split homemade biscuit along with the bacon. add eggs if you're working the farm that morning.

here's a link

http://thesouthernladycooks.com/2011/08/22/tomato-gravy/

some people saute a little onion in the bacon grease. i don't but that's my taste and how i was taught.

I think that I will just slice a tomato and eat it as a side dish. I like sliced home grown tomato's with white gravy and eggs. miles

White gravy rocks. Sausage gravy is so easy to make yet so many manage to [bleep] it up.

White gravy using the quail drippings. I do the same with fried squirrel too.

Spend 1.29 tear open Pgk, add water 1 cup , wisk till it bubbles over med heat

Yuk

LOL!!!!!!

so disappointing...

Good thread. I've taken copious notes. Roux with liquid is a helpful formula. I dunnot why sometimes mine turns out right, other times bland. Far as I know I'm doing the same thing.

Biscuits squirrel n gravy is classic comfort food.

Thanks for the thread, Mannlicher. Your hot-water pastry tip has been the ticket for mini-game pies around here.

Ella

Good brown gravy.