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Here’s my default gravy recipe. It starts with meat drippings and a roux, presuming there is some meat product roasted in some vessel.

Software

2 T drippings
2 T all-purpose flour
Beer or wine as a deglazing agent
the deglazed liquid

Hardware

the original pan
Whisk
Small cast-iron skillet, or equivalent

Method

1. Take two tablespoons of the meat drippings and put them over medium heat in the small cast iton skillet.

2. Meanwhile, add some wine or beer to the original pan to deglaze it. Scrape up the brown bits from the bottom.

2. Whisk in the two tablespoons of flower in small batches slowly in the side skillet. Once combined, let it cook for two to three minutes while you whisk.

3. Whisk in the rest of the pan juices in to the side dish, or move the roux from the smaller dish into the big one.

4. Cut the heat to whichever vessel. Continue to whisk. Once it is able to coat the back of a spoon remove it from heat. Transfer the gravy to a boat.

It’s past time a gravy recipe graced gravybo.at’s pages. Let’s have my favorite!

Sawmill gravy is one of those Southern delicacies that Yankees somehow are genetically incapable of appreciating, according to my Dixie-side family.

I know this to be patently untrue. Northerners know their pork products, and they know their gravy. French Canadians have poutine, for cardiac’s sake! Gravy is a side order staple in Ontario. Wisconsinites and Minnesotans have their cheese curds.

Here’s the sawmill gravy recipe.

Software

1 lb breakfast sausage
1.25 ounces all purpose flour
2 cups whole milk
kosher salt to taste
fresh ground back pepper to taste
1t to 1T red pepper, depending on heat desired
2 T butter, just in case the pork ends up being lean (it happens)

Hardware

Cast iron skillet, or whatever skillet you have on hand
Spatula, slotted
Whisk or fork

Method

1. Cook the sausage in the skillet with the red pepper flakes.

2. Once cooked, remove the meat to a plate or dish. Keep 2 ounces of fat behind. If you end up with too little fat, add some butter.

3. Whisk the flour into the fat a little bit at a time. Let it cook over medium heat for about 3 minutes.

4. Kill the heat. Move the skillet off of the burner. Whisk in the milk a little bit at a time.

5. Move the skillet back on the burner. Turn the burner back up to medium high heat. Whisk while the gravy comes to a simmer and thinkens.

6. Add crumbled sausage back in. Taste. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Notes

Pour it over toast, biscuits, English muffins, cornbread, johnycake, grits, or whatever.

You are welcome to try turkey sausage, ham or pork, soy milk, or any other attempts to cut the calories or fat. If they work, please post them here.

Credit goes to Alton Brown’s Good Eats recipe. His isn’t as spicy as I remembered Mom’s, though, so I tweaked.

Still looking for that “Gravy Boat” feel. If anyone has a recommendation, post it in the comments.

The pour

Rich and dark, almost syrupy.

The head

Frothy and robust, almost three fingers worth on a somewhat lazy pour. Lots of lacing left on the glass.

The Aroma

Smoke. Caramel.

Flavor

Very smooth. Rich taste.  The malt really comes out on the back of the tongue.

The pour is a rich yellow brown. Think tanned leather bag.

The aroma is somewhat fruity but had to nail down. Allspice, maybe? A kind of Jamacan jerk jive?

The head is rich and foamy. It stays and it laces the glass well.

Oh, the taste! Damn, that’s good!

Initially you realize it tastes different. Not bad, mind you, just a different ale. Toward the vack of the mouth the taste starts to stand up and say ‘howdy’. In the back of the throat I feel the same tingle I get from my salsa (on the hot side) or a really well made spicy Caesar.

It’s important to note that the beer isn’t hot or spice, at least to my tongue.

The flavor really brings forth the fruitiness of the peppers.