Jul 05: Bacon Gravy

When I was growing up, I ate a typical breakfast - bacon, eggs, toast or a biscuit, but I didn't discover the joys of sausage gravy until college. A few years after that, when I met Shawn, she introduced me to bacon gravy. The whole concept of gravy for breakfast was a delicious new adventure for me.

My quest for a good sausage gravy recipe continues. I believe good sausage gravy is dependent upon the sausage being used.

Bacon gravy on the other hand is very straight forward and consistent. Bacon pretty much taste the same from name brand to name brand - smoke, salt and a little sugar. However, supermarket house brands can be iffy since it seems the house brands (I've tried) are more akin to salt pork where the bacon is mainly salty and the smoke flavor is very faint to non-existent.

Bacon Gravy
3 T Bacon Grease (I know grease has a negative connotation, but used in conjunction with bacon the results are yummy!)
3 T Flour
2 C Milk (I used 2%)
Salt and pepper to taste

After you're finished cooking the bacon reserve some bacon grease.
Add the flour and blend in and cook over medium heat for a minute or two.

Usually I don't measure the flour, I add enough flour to form a slurry that's about the thickness of hot peanut butter on toast. I'm not trying to make a flour ball. In fact, sometimes I just add enough flour to absorb a majority of the bacon grease but mixture remains frothy as it cooks. Note the little bits of bacon fond adding to the flavor.


Slowly add 1/4 of the milk and blend together. As you continue to add the milk the "dough ball" will be transformed into gravy. Initially I used a wooden spoon to mix, but I found that a fork (or a whisk) works better at blending the milk and roux mixture.


As you continue adding the milk, the paste will transform into a gravy. Eventually, you can add all of the remaining milk. If you're serving immediately, I cook until a scrape across the bottom of the pan takes about a second or two to fill in, as shown below. Salt and pepper to taste. However, if you're not serving immediately, you can leave the gravy a little loose. Flour/roux based gravies will continue to thicken when taken off the heat.


Come to think of it... I've never tried dumping all of the milk in at once. I add the milk a little at a time to minimize lumps (floury dough balls). However, if I can add all the milk at once it will save some time in the long run. In theory, a roux is supposed to mix easily with the liquid without lumping/clumping. I should try adding all the milk at once the next time I make gravy.

The Dish
Bacon gravy over refrigerated Grands biscuits, scrambled, potatoes and bacon.

Delicious bacony goodness. :-)

Apr 27: Biscuits and Gravy in a Box

I grew up on the West Coast where biscuits and gravy was not a common breakfast item. Biscuits and gravy is typical of the South and Midwest. In fact, I didn't know such heavenly goodness existed until my senior year in college. At least, I don't remember having biscuits and gravy before hand.

In my senior year, I was part of a group that went to Cleveland to present our aircraft designs in a student conference.

Why Cleveland? The city with the river that caught on fire? The city that's known as the "mistake by the lake"?

The funding for the project was provided by NASA. Each year a different NASA facility would host the student conference. That year NASA Lewis* (in Cleveland) was the host site**.

What does this have to do with biscuits and gravy?

Well, we were in Cleveland for about a week so we ate out daily.

One restaurant near the hotel was a Bob Evans. Bob Evans serves classic American food.
That's were I experienced my first order of biscuits and gravy. The sausage gravy was creamy, savory and peppered with little bits of tasty sausage. Gravy was served over crunchy on the outside, yet tender and fluffy on the inside biscuits. That entire week I ordered biscuits and gravy every time we went to the Bob Evans.

Imagine my surprise when I was walking through the supermarket and I spied the Bob Evans name on frozen Biscuits and Gravy. I had to try it out. It was on-sale for $2.50.


There were instructions for the microwave and the oven.
The gravy was heated in the microwave and the biscuit in the oven.

Overall, the gravy was flavorful, but a little salty/msg tasting. Indicative of a processed food. I was worried that the biscuits would be little dense, hockey pucks, but they turned out well. Crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. Also, ample amounts of gravy to coat the biscuits.

Although I know how to make gravy, I just haven't been able to create a decent batch of sausage gravy. I think it has to do with the sausage available at the local market. Even the much advertised, nationally known brand is plain and flavorless to me.

I'm still searching for a good breakfast sausage to make my own country gravy, but in a pinch and for $.250, it's not bad. One thing I'd do differently next time is not microwave the gravy the full 5 minutes. My microwave would get the job done in 4 minutes. I did notice a drop-off in flavor at 5 minutes compared to the stir I gave at 4 minutes.

Food evokes pleasant memories...
Comfort Food: food prepared in a traditional style having a usually nostalgic or sentimental appeal

Comfort Food: Food that is simply prepared and associated with a sense of home or contentment.

*Note: NASA Lewis is now known as NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field or just NASA Glenn.

** Note: The following year, the senior class went to Florida. Although I had a great time in Cleveland, I still would have preferred going to Florida!