Southern Sausage Gravy for Biscuits

This is the one that turns up on every breakfast table from Virginia to Texas, ladled over split American biscuits, which are closer to a plain savoury scone than anything in a British biscuit tin. It is a milk gravy, not a stock gravy, and the whole thing is built in the fat the sausage gives up. Get the pepper right and it tastes like a proper breakfast rather than white sauce with bits in.

Ingredients

Makes about 900ml, enough to smother six split scones

• 450g (1lb) pork sausage meat skinned plain pork sausages or Cumberland are the closest British stand in, avoid anything heavily herbed
• 1 tsp dried sage leave this out if you are using Cumberland, which is peppery enough already
• ½ tsp dried chilli flakes optional but traditional
• 2 tbsp bacon dripping or butter only if the sausage runs lean
• 40g (1½oz) plain flour
• 750ml (1⅓ pints) whole milk warmed, semi skimmed works but the gravy is thinner
• 1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper plus more for finishing
• salt to taste, the sausage brings plenty

Kit

• Large heavy frying pan
• Wooden spoon
• Balloon whisk
• Measuring jug

Method

1. Put the sausage meat into a cold, wide, heavy frying pan and set it over a medium heat. Starting cold lets the fat render out slowly instead of the outside seizing. Break it up with the back of a wooden spoon as it warms.

2. Fry for eight to ten minutes, pressing and breaking the meat into rough pieces the size of a fingernail. You want proper brown edges and a layer of fat in the pan, not grey crumbs sitting in liquid. Stir in the sage and chilli flakes for the last minute.

3. Look at the fat. You need roughly three tablespoons pooling in the pan. If there is more, spoon some off. If the sausage was lean and the pan looks dry, add the bacon dripping or butter and let it melt.

4. Scatter the flour over the meat and stir it about so every crumb is coated and the fat is taken up. Cook this for two full minutes over a medium heat, stirring, until the flour smells toasted and the mixture looks like damp sand clinging to the sausage.

5. Pour in about a third of the warm milk and whisk hard. It will go very thick and claggy at first, which is exactly right. Whisk it smooth before you add anything else, scraping the base of the pan as you go.

6. Add the rest of the milk in two goes, whisking between each. Bring it to a lazy simmer, where a bubble breaks the surface every second or two, and let it cook for five to seven minutes until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.

7. Add the black pepper, then taste and salt carefully. It will taste bland until the pepper goes in, so do not be shy. Take it off the heat and let it stand for two minutes, then serve straight away over split, warm scones.

Tips worth knowing

• American biscuits are plain buttermilk scones, not sweet ones and definitely not shortbread. If you are making the whole thing at home, a plain savoury scone with no sugar and no dried fruit is the right thing under this gravy.
• The gravy carries on thickening off the heat, so pull it a shade looser than you want it on the plate. A splash of hot milk brings it back if it sets too far.
• Grind the pepper coarse rather than fine. You want to see the flecks and get the odd hot bite, which is half the point of this gravy.
• Warm the milk in the microwave or a small pan first. Cold milk hitting a hot roux is the single most common cause of lumps.

Keeping and reheating

Keeps three days covered in the fridge, where it will set almost solid. Reheat gently in a pan with a good splash of milk, whisking until it loosens. It can be frozen for two months but the texture goes slightly grainy, so whisk it hard as it reheats.

Questions people ask