Homemade Southern Sausage Gravy
Homemade Southern Sausage Gravy is a staple at any breakfast table. Crumbled cooked sausage, velvety white roux make a delicious breakfast whenever you need comfort and a rib sticking start to your day.
What is Sausage Gravy?
White gravy has been called many things. White gravy, sawmill gravy, Béchamel, just to name a few. In the south, we just call it gravy or a White roux.
Like so many other basic cuisines, this one found its way to the American South from French cooking. The White Roux is a great base for all kinds of sauces and gravies. For our easy method of making this culinary confection, see our WHITE ROUX RECIPE.
It is basically what you will find here but learning the origins and basics of how to make this will show you how you can turn it into most anything. This Sausage gravy starts with it and it truly shows what a good White gravy does. Serve over our HOMEMADE BUTTERMILK BISCUITS and you will have some happy bellies!
How to Make Sausage Gravy from Scratch.
Cooking scratch made recipes doesn’t have to be intimidating, this is one of the many recipes you will find here that will teach you tried and true basics of scratch made cooking. Once you have the basics, you will get to thinking of ways you can use these fundamentals in other dishes too. That is the beauty of cooking!
So let’s not waste any more time talking about it, let’s get to cooking!
~Ingredients~
- 1/2 pound ground pork sausage
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons plain flour
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- up to 2 cups of whole milk
~Method~
- In a large Iron or heavy skillet, crumble and cook pork sausage until browned. Drain and set aside. Reserve 1 tablespoon of grease from sausage to remain in pan.
- Melt butter in the same pan with reserved pork drippings. Once melted and combined, add in flour, salt and pepper. Mix well into melted butter and reserved drippings. This will form a paste or ball. Cook flour mixture for one minute, stirring the whole time.
- Once the flour smell has gone, drizzle in milk, taking care to whisk mixture the entire time to break down the roux paste into the milk. Bring to a boil over medium to high heat and cook until desired thickness. This should only take 3 to 5 minutes.
- Lower heat to simmer and add cooked sausage back into gravy. Simmer for 3 minutes or so until sausage is heated through. Taste to make sure it doesn’t need more salt or pepper to your taste.
- Serve over Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits.
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Tips and Tricks for Making Sausage Gravy
Stay with it!- When preparing the base or roux, it will happen very fast. It is so important to remain with the roux as it cooks and I recommend whisking the entire time. If you be patient and stay with it, it will thicken up in no time. Whisking while it thickens is important so that the gravy will not burn. That can happen fast too!
Is it Thick enough? – You will be able to tell pretty easily. You will be able to feel as it thickens while whisking, it will get a little harder to move the whisk. I also recommend doing the back of the spoon test. Dip the back of a spoon in the gravy, cool it a little and then run your finger down. If the gravy doesn’t bleed into the space your finger left, it is thick enough! Keep in mind, it will thicken as it cools as well.
Is a Cast Iron skillet necessary? – Some will tell you no. And if you don’t have one that is fine. If you are using a regular skillet, you will come up to full heat quicker so take extra care. I prefer a cast iron when making a roux as the heat is more evenly distributed and maintained. So if you don’t have one, follow the link at the bottom this post and make a sound investment in one!
Homemade Sausage Gravy Made Easy
We hope this shows you how easy scratch made cooking really is. You can take a basic recipe like this one and make it into almost anything. It is also a good, basic recipe to have around when you just need a little bit of a comfort meal to warm your soul.
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Homemade Southern Sausage Gravy
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound ground pork sausage
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons plain flour
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 2 cups of whole milk
Instructions
- In a large Iron or heavy skillet, crumble and cook pork sausage until browned. Drain and set aside. Reserve 1 tablespoon of grease from sausage to remain in pan.
- Melt butter in the same pan with reserved pork drippings. Once melted and combined, add in flour, salt and pepper. Mix well into melted butter and reserved drippings. This will form a paste or ball. Cook flour mixture for one minute, stirring the whole time.
- Once the flour smell has gone, drizzle in milk, taking care to whisk mixture the entire time to break down the roux paste into the milk. Bring to a boil over medium to high heat and cook until desired thickness. This should only take 3 to 5 minutes.
- Lower heat to simmer and add cooked sausage back into gravy. Simmer for 3 minutes or so until sausage is heated through. Taste to make sure it doesn’t need more salt or pepper to your taste.
- Serve over Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits.
Looks delish, sounds just like my gram’s… I am making this tonight to go along with our breakfast-supper 🙂 THANK YOU!
Phyllis in SC
Great! Thank you so very much!
That Is So good and Hearty I Love to make it You People are the Greatest for Bringing such Great Recipes Please Don’t stop And Thank You
Thank you, Thank you!