Riding the Gravy Train: Sausage Gravy and Biscuits

Man, these Southerners are a lot of work. Just because they lost the war, they think they have the right to turn their noses up at all things and ways Northern: our iced tea, our hospitality, our peaches, our porches (OK, anyone who has moved here recently can give you examples of Seattle hospitality, aka the “Seattle Freeze”). Yet of particular issue is that of biscuits. We Yankees just can’t get the biscuits right, according to them. They are either too light and crumbly or too dense.

Well after making biscuits for Dale, I have figured out the problem: Southerners. You see, Southerners have two different kinds of biscuits in mind. The first is light and crumbly and is perfect with jam, honey or other preserves and lots of black coffee. The second is more firm, dense, and stands up to the onslaught of gravy with sausage bits. Prepared biscuit mixes don’t pass and most recipes don’t either. Biscuit mixture is more like a batter than a dough, so recipes that lacked enough liquid were pretty quickly passed over. Not surprisingly, the first recipe that passed Dale’s muster and received the highest accolade “These are just like my Mom’s!” came from Cooks: Mile High Biscuits. The interior was fluffy while the top was crisp; they rose high, but retained a tender crumb. My aunt’s freezer jam—which I hide from Dale—was delicious on them, and the entire batch was gone before the second pot of coffee brewed.

Interestingly enough, the original recipe adapted by the CI Bostonians was Floridian Shirley Corriher’s Touch-of-Grace Biscuits. After the triumph of her Lemon Meringue Pie, I couldn’t wait to try these. The recipe was extremely different from Cooks, but I nevertheless expected the same fluffy, tender biscuit. Wrong. In fact, they were so different I thought I might have done something wrong, until Dale explained that no, these were perfect gravy biscuits, and were just like his good grandmother’s. These were dense and not as flavorful as I used lard (even though it called for shortening, not butter. Even lovingly spread with butter and fresh strawberry jam we couldn’t finish them. (But the squirrel we tossed a chunk sure loved it as he devoured a chunk that proportionally for us would be size of a beach ball.)


The secret to both of these biscuits is a very wet dough, dropped into flour for ease of handling, then placed in a baking dish. The dollops of floured dough, as you gently pass from one hand to another feel like large powdered yolks, which threaten to spill into gooey globs at any second.

This Labor Day though, for all of his hard work on our cocktail party the day before, I made Dale Biscuits with Sausage Gravy. Of course, I used Corrihers Touch of Grace biscuits, but used butter instead (out of lard). They were out of this world. They were delicious as batter, with jam, with sausage gravy; they were tasty hot, cold, and even one day old. The crumb was firm, yet airy; the flavor was embracing, but let the preserves and the sausage shine. And the verdict from Dale? “These are better than my Mom’s and even she would agree.” For the hell of it, I included the Cook’s recipe but I say: One nation, one biscuit.

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Touch of Grace Biscuits Adapted from Shirley Corriher


2 cups self-rising, low-protein flour (aka Southern flour such as White Lily, Martha White or Red Band
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Baking -------
4 tablespoons shortening or lard or butter
2/3 cup cream
1 cup buttermilk (approximate)
1 cup all-purpose all-purpose flour, for shaping
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Note: I used 1 ½ cups All-purpose flour with ½ cup cake flour and 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder with 1/8 tsp baking soda.

1. Heat oven to 425 F and arrange one shelf slightly below the center of the oven. Spray an 8- or 9-inch cake pan with nonstick cooking spray.

2. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the dry goods (minus the shaping flour). Work the shortening or lard in with your fingertips until there are no large lumps. Gently stir in the cream, then the buttermilk. (It may take less than 1 cup of buttermilk, or if you are using a higher protein flour, it may take more.) The dough should not be soupy, but should be wet and resemble cottage cheese.

3. Spread the all-purpose flour on a rimmed baking sheet. With an ice cream scoop or spoon, place 12 even mounds of dough in the flour. Sprinkle flour gently over each mound. Flour your hands, then gently pick up a mound, coat it with flour and gently shape into a round, shake off excess flour, and place it in the prepared cake pan, with 9 along the perimeter, and three in the center. Continue shaping biscuits the same way, placing each biscuit up tight against its neighbor in the pan, until the dough is used. Brush with melted butter.

4. Place pan in the oven and bake until lightly browned, about 20 to 30 minutes. Let biscuits rest two minutes. Invert into a towel or napkin-lined basket, turn right side up and break apart. Let rest a few more minutes to let the steam escape and serve.

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Seattle is famous for its seafood and coffee but it is also getting national raves for its charcuterie. Whether it’s a pound of kielbasa for the grill or a sausage sandwich from Uli’s Famous Sausages or a ¼ pound of lamb prosciutto from Salumi, these small producers of forcemeat are part of a small but growing national trend to embrace real meat cured or processed in time-honored, traditional ways.

Sausage Gravy Adapted from Uli’s Famous Sausages

1/2 pound of sausage, preferably spicier versions such as linguica, chorizo, or andouille
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 cups of milk
1/2-teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Remove casings and chop sausage. Cook sausage in medium saucepan over medium to high heat until browned, stirring to crumble. Drain off all fat except about 2 tablespoon. Stir in flour. Cook stirring constantly until thick and bubbly. If there is no or little fat, just keep stirring to cook the flour until thick. Gradually whisk in milk, salt and pepper. Cook stirring constantly until thickened and bubbly. About 5 minutes. Makes 4 servings.

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Mile High Biscuits Adapted from Cooks Illustrated

Dough
1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour (7 1/2 ounces)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour ( 2 1/2 ounces)
1 tablespoon double-acting baking powder
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons unsalted butter (cold), cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1 ½ cups buttermilk cold, preferably low-fat

To Form and Finish Biscuits
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (5 ounces), distributed in rimmed baking sheet
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 500 degrees. Spray 9-inch round cake pan with nonstick cooking spray; set aside. Generously spray inside and outside of 1/4 cup dry measure with nonstick cooking spray.
2. For the dough: In food processor, pulse flours, baking powder, sugar, salt, and baking soda to combine, about six 1-second pulses. Scatter butter cubes evenly over dry ingredients; pulse until mixture resembles pebbly, coarse cornmeal, eight to ten 1-second pulses. Transfer mixture to medium bowl. Add buttermilk to dry ingredients and stir with rubber spatula until just incorporated (dough will be very wet and slightly lumpy).
3. To form and bake biscuits: Using 1/4 cup dry measure and working quickly, scoop level amount of dough; drop dough from measuring cup into flour on baking sheet (if dough sticks to cup, use small spoon to pull it free). Repeat with remaining dough, forming 12 evenly sized mounds. Dust tops of each piece of dough with flour from baking sheet. With floured hands, gently pick up piece of dough and coat with flour; gently shape dough into rough ball, shake off excess flour, and place in prepared cake pan. Repeat with remaining dough, arranging 9 rounds around perimeter of cake pan and 3 in center. Brush rounds with hot melted butter, taking care not to flatten them. Bake 5 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 450 degrees; continue to bake until biscuits are deep golden brown, about 15 minutes longer. Cool in pan 2 minutes, then invert biscuits from pan onto clean kitchen towel; turn biscuits right-side up and break apart. Cool 5 minutes longer and serve.