Monday, November 3, 2008

Homemade Sausage That Is To Die For

This might be the last Fall Into Flavor recipe exchange so I want to be sure and give you the best recipe I have. And I'm sure there will be some other mighty fine recipes over at 2nd Cup of Coffee so don't forget to stop by and check them out!

Being from the south, gravy is considered one of the major food groups. We like to put gravy over just about everything. Oh y'all from other parts of the country may call it sauce or some such, but it's just gravy in one of its many forms. You can have white gravy, brown gravy, red eye gravy, pepper gravy, and my all-time-favorite, sausage gravy. Which is really just white gravy with sausage, but keep that under your hats, 'kay?

When I signed on to be a missionary, it was with the understandin' I wouldn't have to give up my gravy. And because a dear friend gave me her amazing recipe for homemade breakfast sausage, I can have some of the best biscuits and sausage gravy anywhere in the world. And you can, too, 'cause I'm gonna share it with you.

Now I realize y'all have access to some mighty fine sausage right at the local Winn Dixie. I'm not exactly a sausage snob but I do like Jimmy Dean for that right amount of fat and seasoning which is absolutely essential to a good gravy base. But folks, this recipe might have you just by-passing the sausage section and heading on over to the ground pork. Because it is BETTER than store bought!

HOMEMADE BREAKFAST SAUSAGE

1-1/2 lb. ground pork (or you can mix it up with 1 lb. ground pork, 1/2 lb. ground beef/veal/venison)
1/2 teaspoon ground thyme
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground sage
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon dried sweet marjoram
1/8 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon salt (I use coarse salt)
Simply add seasonings to meat and mix together well, forming patties to fry.
NOTE: If you use really lean meat, you will have to add oil to the skillet or it will stick. Having the butcher grind a little fat into the ground meat is a good idea in terms of both flavor and the need for fat to make gravy.

SAUSAGE GRAVY
1 lb. breakfast sausage (homemade or store bought)
butter as needed
2-3 tablespoons flour
2-3 cups milk
salt and pepper to season
As you can tell, this is not an exact science. I fry up the sausage until it's done, then move it to a platter while I make the gravy and then I crumble up the patties and mix them back in.
To make the gravy you need to make sure you have a few tablespoons of grease in the pan. If the sausage was too lean, you'll need to add butter to make up the deficit. Once it's melted, add the flour. And as to how much flour? That depends on how much grease. You want to make a roux with the flour and grease that is thick but not impossibly so. And you want to stir that constantly for 3-4 minutes over the medium heat so that it starts browning just a little but not burning. Take the skillet off the burner for a minute and add in the milk. Again, this is a by-the-seat-of-your-pants skill that you learn as you go. If you added about 2 tablespoons of flour, you can figure on adding 2 to 2-1/2 cups milk, if you added more flour, it will take more milk. What you want to end up with is a gravy that's not runny but isn't so thick you have to cut it either.
Once you have the gravy to the right consistency, add the crumbled sausage back in, and season as you like with salt and pepper. And for goodness sakes, enjoy over steaming hot biscuits for the best breakfast in the world!

And just a quick update on our absentee ballots. Tracked 'em to Memphis yesterday! So it's looking pretty good that they'll be delivered in time. Yippee!

8 comments:

Sarah DeSalvo said...

Yum yum!!! I will have to try that recipe. I don't get pork very often here. It's kind of weird because all over most of Indonesia, no one eats pork because of their religion. But here in Papua, pigs are highly prized. And actually it's sort of become a "rite of passage" for new Christians - "Eat this pork to prove you're really a Christian!" Anyway, the pigs are so highly prized that they're stinkin' expensive. We can buy it in the market for about $10/kilo. We bought a pig for a Hawaiian luau we did, and thought it would be cheaper but after butchering it ourselves, the meat was probably more expensive than $10/kilo! So we sure enjoy our pork when we get it! I ground up some of my pork with seasonings (I found a recipe on the internet) but I dont think I had all the right spices, because it's good but not *that* good. Glad you enjoyed yours! I haven't made gravey with mine yet. I have been putting it on pizza - yum!

2nd Cup of Coffee said...

I know that I have some ancestry from the South. But even if I didn't know it with my head, I'd know it with my heart. My heart for gravy. Biscuits and gravy is my favorite breakfast. Yum. Thanks for the sharing a real cook's way of doing this.

Chel's Leaving a Legacy said...

I love making white gravy with sausage, but I am gonna HAVE to try this sausage.

I have 3 boys, and I've started cooking them breakfast because cereal doesn't hold them until 10 am! It will be great to have this stored up for them!

Esthermay Bentley-Goossen said...

Nice story behind your recipe. :-)
This will be printed out and saved for Christmas. In college, I used to get sausage/gravy/biscuit combo at McDonald's at least once/week (I'm sure your's is MUCH better than McD!) But I do love the sausage gravy. I usually make it once a year. THANKS!
Happy Monday!
(If Linda quits Fall Into Flavor, let's keep it going.... ssshhhhhh Don't tell her.) :-)

riTa Koch said...

You've got my mouth waterin', you've been ravin' about that breakfast for two posts now! And I didn't have time for lunch, just grabbin' a salad as I write, it's 3:39! I'm hooooongry! But your recipe sounds like ya hafta be a Southern girl to do it just right. I usually forget to stir, stuff burns, (or I throw out the soup stock!) Promise you'll make me some when I come visit. :)

Sarah DeSalvo said...

Hey, just wondering, do you have a good southern-style biscuit recipe? We used to get the BEST biscuits at Cracker barrel, Hardees, McD's, etc when we lived in Tennessee. Just can't find a recipe that comes close! I know that it will have a lot of fat in it, but that's okay!

Anonymous said...

Ditto the biscuit recipe request...

Skoots1moM said...

so so good...
thanks for the recipe

so glad your votes made it...
praying continually throughout this day...