Southern Sausage Gravy
“Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” Matthew 5:13
I’ve noticed that foods that I consider “comfort foods” are those that take me back to my childhood. My Mom’s pineapple upside-down cake, my Pop’s manicotti, and my Grandmother Bryson’s sausage gravy and biscuits.
Taking a bite of this gravy is like stepping into a time machine, dialing the time of arrival to 1983 when I was 3 years old, and stepping into her kitchen. I remember standing on a stool next to her while she let me pat out the biscuits and put them in her baking pan.
Even though I was a pretty good cook when I got married, I did my best to recreate the foods that my loved ones served, to my new husband.
Gravy was one thing that I had to attempt several times before I got the consistency just right. There were times that I served my husband gravy so thick and pasty we could have spackled dry wall with it. There were other times that the gravy looked more like a creamy soup. But now, lucky for him, I’ve got it just right.
To make this Southern Sausage Gravy, you will need:
1 lb bulk sausage
3 1/2 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups whole milk {I’ve used 2% and it’s fine, I just prefer whole milk}
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
Step 1: Heat your skillet over medium high heat. Crumble your sausage into your skillet and cook to a golden brown. DO NOT DRAIN YOUR GREASE! This is the fat you need to make this dish.
Step 2: Thoroughly incorporate your flour, salt and pepper. Stir and cook for about a minute being sure scrap the bottom of your skillet. The flour can stick and burn if you aren’t careful. {I find using a whisk and a cast iron skillet are the best tools for this job.}
Step 3: Vigorously stirring with your whisk, pour in your milk. Stirring continually will work out any lumps giving you a smooth, creamy texture. Continue to stir and cook for a couple of minutes or until your gravy is the perfect, velvety consistency.
Step 5: Serve over Dana’s amazing biscuits to some of your favorite people.
Enjoy!
Recipe of the Month: Sweet Tea
1 Kings 8:36 Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk, and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance.
Oh sure, we could have posted a recipe of some kind of food, but we thought we would give it a twist this month.
We all need a little something to wash all the good food down with so we decided to share our sweet tea recipe!
Whether your sharing it with family or friends or taking to a potluck you can’t go wrong with sweet tea!
I mean, really, who doesn’t love sweet tea???!!!???
Hope you enjoy this!
We do love us some sweet tea our homes, and we drink a lot of it.
I, Dana, make a fresh gallon at least every other day.
I always get compliments on my tea, don’t really know why, I don’t do anything special, I just make it.
I think the secret lies in the amount sugar you add, like sugar is a big secret since it’s been around for ages and ages!!
Anyway, I get lots of request on how make it so good, (LOL), so I thought I would share it with everyone!
INGREDIENTS
1 gallon size Lipton tea bag or 3 regular size Lipton tea bags
2 cups sugar
Ice cubes
Fill a medium sauce pan with water and bring to a boil.
Turn off the heat and drop in the tea bag. Allow tea to steep for about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, pour the 2 cups of sugar in a gallon size tea pitcher.
Gently swirl the tea bag around in the water to release the flavor of the tea. While holding the bag in the sauce pan, pour tea into pitcher. Stir until sugar is dissolved.
Leave the tea bag in the pan and fill the pan with fresh cold water and pour into pitcher.
Remove tea bag and fill pan with ice cubes and pour into pitcher. Stir until almost all the ice is dissolved.
Finish filling the pitcher with fresh water. Fill a mason jar with ice and pour yourself a glass of cold iced tea!
Garnish with lemon if you wish. I like lemon if I am just going to be enjoying it as a refreshing beverage.
But not so much if I am washing down my food with my tea!
Recipe of the Month: Boiled Country Ham
Psalms 95:2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
Psalms 100:4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
I love fried country ham, but a boiled country ham is just about the best!
The only drawback with boiling a country ham is it’s not instant gratification. It takes over 24 hours before you can eat it, and that’s after you have boiled it for an hour or so.
But, I will have to say it is well worth the wait.
Since we aren’t big turkey fans we often boil a ham for Thanksgiving!
Ingredients
1 country ham
Directions
Wash your ham and place it in a lard stand.
Fill stand with water until water is at least 1 inch over the top of the ham and cover.
Bring to a boil over high heat and let it boil for about an hour to an hour and a half.
Remove from heat and set it on an old blanket or several newspapers.
Wrap the outside of the lard stand with newspapers and then wrap in several blankets. You will need to secure the blankets with some type of rope.
Leave it this way for at least 24 hours. The blankets hold in the heat and the ham keeps cooking.
After the 24 hours, unwrap your stand. Remove the lid, the contents will still be very hot, so be careful.
Dip out as much water as you can and let the ham sit for about 30 minutes to cool it a bit.
After 30 minutes or so, sit your pan that ham is going in right beside the stand.
Carefully and quickly, transfer the ham from the stand to your pan. Be very careful, the ham will still be hot.
Let rest for another 15 minutes or so and then cut up into pieces.
Yum, Yum!
*Sorry I don’t have pics yet. I should be able to post pics soon.
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