Why does my (biscuits &) gravy taste like glue?

[im2kull]

The biscuits are fine (they came from a can), the gravy however is horrible...and to make things worse..its homemade! (From scratch, not one of those "just add water" mixes)  Now seriously, I can not make country gravy for the life of me...anyone got an easy recipe?  I usually just fry up some sausage, toss about a half cup of flour in with 3 or 4 cups of milk, shake in some pepper, let it hit boiling, and call it good.  Not to say its ever tasted good, its quite the opposite.  Its always kinda got a slimy texture, is as thick as a two dollar steak, and tastes like pure watered-down flour.  What am I doing wrong here!?!?!

[Sportster]

Hmm.
Sounds to me like time and butter are the only things missing.
Try adding 2-3 tbsp butter to the roux (sausage grease)
Don't boil it either - your burning the flavor right out of the sausage and scorching the milk.

After you take the sausage out of the renderings, lower the heat to medium and add 2-3 tbsp of butter. 
Start adding the flour - SLOWLY - whisking constantly. After you've added the flour, start adding the cold milk, again, whisking constantly. (to mix up the flavors)
Start adding the sausage back in after you've got the milk in - continuing to whisk as it thickens.
Once you've got it to the desired conssistancy, add salt and pepper to taste.

That ought to get it - just don't boil it.
Oh, do it in an iron skillet too - much better results and more heat control.

That's how we do it in Sportster-land!


Sportster
...not a chef but i play one in my kitchen

[loftguy]

OK Sportster, obviously there's more than one way to skin a biscuit.  I agree with most of your post, but want to offer some slight variations on the theme.  (I've given gravy lessons a few times over the past couple of weeks, so the topic is timely.)

Where S. added butter, you can add a olive oil, canola, corn, crisco, lard, etc...  unless you've got really juicy sausage, then perhaps you need to add no oil. (see * below)

Agree with add the flour sloowwwly, mixing it into the oil with a fork or a wisk.  You just want to add enough flour to "just" absorb the oil and certainly to smooth it out and break up clumps that form.

Now Sportster and I diverge a bit.  I use both milk and water in my gravy.  The use of all milk, in my opinion, mutes the flavors of the roux.  I use about half and half.....and I bring both the milk and the water to room temperature in the microwave, that way the liquid does not bring down the temp in the pan and slow down the cooking process.  Stir, stir, stir.

Here's where S. and I disagree.  You've got to boil the mix.  A simmering boil, but a boil none-the-less on a high-medium temperature.  Gravy is meant to be cooked, and if you don't boil it, it ain't cooked.  The critical part here is to constantly stir the mixture while cooking, being careful to scrape all of the bottom of the pan continuously.  How long?*  A couple/few minutes.

I too am a believer in the use of iron skillets.

You can really personalize gravy by the spices you add to the making.  I typically add garlic powder and cayenne to country sausage gravy.  This I just mix into my flour prior to adding it to the oil.  I knew a lady who owned a restaurant who added special herbs from her garden to sausage gravy which made for interesting days and a  most faithful clientele.

*Practice and experiment.  Gravy seems such a mystery, but with the outline from Sportster and maybe trying some of my suggestions, after a couple of times you're going to see, and taste, results.

[kcdcchef]

oh im2kull..................................

[im2kull]

What  The real chef has no input, haha..

Well anyways, I am ready to re-try this thing tomorow morning.  I shall post the results..I have some leftover gravy from the previous batch (Due to it tasting so poorly) and will make sure to get some pictures for comparisons sake.  I think I've figured out based your guy's help what I'm doing wrong, and why I'm ending up with a Jello like consistency.  Reading those posts really brings back memorys of how my late grandmother made her amazing biscuits and gravy.  I think I need to do a few select things different:

1. Add butter (and possibly water)
2. Use less heat (possibly boil)
3. Slowly mix in flour, then milk, after cooking the sausage...rather than just dumping it all in at once, lol..that could be why its so "chunky" in its current form


Lastly, Anyone think using pre-cooked sausage pattys and choppin those up makes a difference?  I never thought of it before, but now I believe it makes a huge difference.  I'm sure the lack of grease from the precooked sausage contributed greatly to to underperformance of the gravy .  I'll go get a roll of the real stuff tonight.  This may sound like an easy thing for some to do (Make gravy) but for me its quite the contrary.  I am by no means an anemic chef, I cook all sorts of amazing foods from scratch...I'm Italian!  My family actually has a published cookbook that I would gladly offer to sell to anyone if interested...or better yet...here's a link http://sorellaskitchen.com/  The single best thing in there is the "Oooey gooey butter cakes"--> They're amazing! 

Sadly my grandmother passed last spring, and since then I have not tried to cook anything that reminds me of her normal sunday breakfast for the family.  I don't know why exactly...maybe just because I don't want to tarnish how those things taste in my mind.  I used to cook all those things from scratch, but since then I've been using all "just add water" mixes for gravy, canned biscuits, and what not.  I'm getting back to cooking more "real" food, rather than eating all this processed and precooked stuff, but I have to tell you...I'm rusty as an old nail now! I'm really surprised that I can't even remember how I used to cook country gravy, but none-the-less I'm sure I'll figure it out.  I'll let you guys know what works!  Thanks for the advice!

[kcdcchef]

i will put the recipe we used at my last hotel on here for you. gravy is simple home boy.

[im2kull]

i will put the recipe we used at my last hotel on here for you. gravy is simple home boy.

Awesome!  Its all gravy...right..haha...(Pun intended!)

[mean]

Just make sure the roux is cooked. I never use butter, just the pork fat from the sausage, but you really have to make sure that the cereal flavor from the flour is cooked out. Let it go a few minutes before adding anything, and make sure you add enough milk. The longer you cook the roux the less thickening power it has, so if your gravy tastes like flour and is too thick, you aren't cooking the roux long enough. Let it go a while, let it get a nice golden brown color (don't let it go too long--we're not making etouffee), then add the milk.

I always boil my gravy because at least in my experience, you never get the full thickening power of the roux until the mixture boils. But don't add the milk when the pan is too hot or you'll scald it. Just cook the roux down to a light or medium golden brown, take it off the heat for a minute, then add the milk and whisk the shit out of it.

My $0.02.

[Sportster]

My family actually has a published cookbook that I would gladly offer to sell to anyone if interested...or better yet...here's a link http://sorellaskitchen.com/ 

Well hell!
There's your problem!
You learned how to "cook" on The Hill instead of learing how to cook in The North End!  (the old neighborhood) 
Stop using garlic in em and they'll turn out fine!  LOL!

Let us know how yoiu fair this morning! 

Sportster
...remember, use the skillet!

[barkerr]

Because you're not eating at Wheatfields??

[im2kull]

Stop using garlic in em and they'll turn out fine!  LOL!

Let us know how yoiu fair this morning! 

Sportster
...remember, use the skillet!

Haha...Well when it comes to Red Wine Risotto & Cannoli's i'm your man!  Otherwise its best left to the women I didn't get it done this morning (Wendsday) as I was out on two wheels from sunrise to sunset...as I'm sure Sportster understands, but luckily I still have enough biscuits laying around to give it a try this coming morning.  I shall post my results...glorious or not!

[shinatoo]

I had some Italian Sausage that was supposed to go in Spaghetti sauce last week but never happened. Insted of letting it go bad, I decided to try it in sausage gravy. I stuck pretty much to Loftguy's method and in the spirit of Italian cooking used EVOO as my oil. The sausage rendered very little fat. Overall the consistency of the gravy was fine. It tasted OK, but I didn't care for all the Italian seasoning. I also missed the taste of the butter. My wife loved it.

[im2kull]

Yeah, my second incarnation of the gravy looked alright..and tasted O.K...but was deffinately not good enough for me to eat it all up.  I shall post a thorough report later tonight.

[butter_breath]

After you cook your meat( add oil if needed, not whole butter because the milk solids will burn) add flour just so the mixture comes together. Don't add so much flour that you have a thick paste. You'll want this mixture about twice as thick of your finished sauce. Cook the flour over med low heat for about 5 minutes then add either warm milk, warm water or warm stock in batches of three whisking until smooth (this will keep your roux from poaching and causing lumps). You will want to bring this to a simmer over low heat (flour needs slow and low heat to help the proteins swell to their fullest. I prefer to use bread flour because the gluten is higher and you require less flour). Once the sauce comes to a simmer and you have been stirring the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to keep the roux from scorching, slide the pan off center of the flame by 3/4. Simmer it this way on medium. The sauce should roll from one side to the other this will keep it from scorching and boiling over. It needs to cook for 20 minutes for the flour to be cooked out. Adjust seasoning & thickness now.

[nota]

Simple sausage gravy-

Jimmy Dean sausage.

Brown it thoroughly in a skillet. Chop it up as it cooks. It should be a bit brown, not just grey.

Add a few tablespoons of flour one at a time. Then COOK it for a bit. Low heat. The cooking is what gets rid of the floury taste and melds in the sausage flavor.

Then add your milk. Standard is probably a cup of milk for each TB of flour. I like to make it a bit thicker, so either use a bit more flour or a bit less milk.

Cook it gently to boiling. Gentle boil. Immediately turn down the heat and cook a bit more till it is the consistency you want. The cooking is what gets it past the floury taste.

Whisking almost constantly is imperative for all the above except browning the sausage.

NO BUTTER, NO OIL. The sausage fat is plenty, even with lean sausage.

If you're into rich, use whole milk or even add a bit of half and half or cream to taste. I use 2% milk always. Rich is not necessary.

Regarding biscuits, the Pillsbury frozen biscuits that you bake at home are top notch. Just as good as my home made buttermilk biscuits and much easier. Make extra - you will love them.

[kcdcchef]

me personally, i dont insist on a cast iron pan, but i do insist on a good heavy bottomed pot. but those are much more common in hotels and restaurants, not so common in your home kitchen. generally people have real shitty pots and pans at home for gravys, and browning in general, so cast iron does work best at that point. i also generally never use a whisk in my kitchens unless i am working on a very large batch ( 5 gallons plus ) of a soup, or an emulsion. for something involving a browning, i use a wooden spoon. i find it works the bottom of the pot best.

this recipe i am providing, is the one i used at my last hotel. i cut it down, since my recipe yielded 2 gallons of sausage gravy. so i cut it down to a 1/4 recipe. it still yields about 2 quarts, nay, a half gallon, however, a half gallon isn't that much. to cover 3 biscuits you need about 2 cups of gravy, which, is a quarter of the recipe. happy breakfasting. ( note, at home i use this with turkey sausage, as a jew, i tend not to eat the swine!! )

sage sausage gravy
3 sausage links
3 sausage patties
1/4 of a white onion ( preferably vidalia )
2 pieces garlic
1 tablespoon chopped chives
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tablespoon celery salt
1/4 cup roasted garlic puree
1 1/2 tablespoons black pepper, table grind
1 tablespoon sage ( dry or fresh )
1 tablespoon each of garlic and onion powder
1 1/2 quarts of 1/2 and 1/2

chop raw sausage , garlic, and onions very very fine. brown in a heavy bottomed pot with a wooden spoon. add seasonings.
add in butter to browned, caramelized onions and sausage, allow to slightly brown also
add in flour to make a roux
allow sausage roux to cook until lightly browned

add in 1/2 and 1/2, slightly simmer. allow to simmer for about 15 minutes. add a 1/2 cup of water to thin back out.

this is the recipe we used at my hotel for biscuits and gravy on weekends. good yummy nummy stuff. from time to time would take sausage out and put ham in to make chipped ham.

[im2kull]

Damn Chef, I can't even make sense of that complex reciepe right now...its too late for serious reading, so I'll have to pick it up in the morning.

Thanks a ton though, this is most deffinately an on-going experiment to create just the right mix for my liking.

[im2kull]

Now I know it may seem like I had forgotten about this thread..but I hadn't! After all these years I finally figured out what was wrong..and decided to post those pictures I took back in 2009. Here's the original batch of biscuits and gravy I tried to make..





It may not look that bad, but trust me it had no flavor and the consistency was that of elmers glue!

Now here's my modern version, which is amazing!



The only difference being that I actually used real breakfast sausage now, instead of the crap I was trying to use before (Pre-made sausage chunks). It makes me feel a little dumb to think that I even tried to use pre-made links and pattys cut up instead of a roll of real sausage, but what can I say..I was young and dumb! I'm no chef nowadays either, but I don't doubt that my biscuits and gravy can hang with the best of them!

[mean]

Oh, you were using pre-cooked sausage? Yeah, that won't make very good gravy. As you seem to have learned, you have to cook raw sausage and render the fat out of it, then make the gravy with that fat.

[Joe Smith]

I once had a roomie who, while not a great person, but a great drunk, was one of the best make anything from scratch cooks I'd ever known. He was such a good homestyle cook that I let him slide quite a bit on his rent. His specialty was buying the cheapest ingredients he could find, beans, flour, etc..and making some of the best food I've ever had. Made the best biscuit and gravy I've ever had. He showed me how to make it, but I'm way too lazy to scratch cook.

Just cheat and use Family Gourmet Country Gravy mix. It's really good and very easy.

I do second not using pre-cooked sausage. Cook that yourself.