Recipe Gran’s Sausage Gravy and Biscuits

RECIPE: GRAN'S SAUSAGE GRAVY AND BISCUITS

W e don't have a lot of details about Margaret "Gran" Sheldon, but we know she was a single mom when that wasn't really a thing, and she was also her own cat, often sunning in the window of her little diner, Gran's Grits. The name of her restaurant, and the fact that sausage gravy and biscuits were served at her funeral, suggest she might have been Southern.

This gravy recipe came from my very Southern Step-Mother-in-Law, a lovely woman from Kentucky. I tried several different recipes for the biscuits before I settled on this one (in no small part because I had no patience for rolling out perfect circles and always forgot to soften butter ahead of time!).

Drop Biscuits - Ingredients:

2 c flour

1 T baking powder

1 T sugar

1/4 t salt

1/2 c butter - melted

1 c milk

Directions:

Heat oven to 450 degrees.

Mix flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.

Add melted butter (not too hot!) and milk

Stir until just moistened.

Immediately drop by heaping serving spoon onto a parchment lined pan. You can shape them slightly, but don't overwork them!

Bake for 10-12 minutes until light brown all over.

Serve warm and slathered with sausage gravy!

Sausage Gravy - Ingredients:

16 oz tube of Jimmy Dean Sage ground sausage

4 T butter

4 T flour

2 c milk

Directions:

Brown sausage in a large frying pan. Drain and set aside.

Heat butter over medium heat in a sauce pan until it is starting to bubble.

Slowly add flour, stirring thoroughly and frequently until it's smooth and bubbling. Let the flour simmer a little or you will end up with an unpleasant raw flour flavor.

Slowly (again!) add milk, stirring constantly.

Bring to a low simmer, still stirring, and let it thicken. Don't stop stirring! This is a recipe that wants a lot of attention.

When gravy is a smooth, saucy consistency, add sausage. The original recipe calls for the entire tube of sausage, but I often add only about 60% of it, and reserve the rest for other recipes.

Serve piping hot over fresh biscuits! (It's also good on toast!)