How To Make Sausage Milk Gravy
My friend, Michael, called me this week and threatened to put a hit out on me if I keep proliferating our once guarded recipes. He said “It ain’t right you giving all of these things out!”. I mentioned Paula Deen and he quickly let me know that he wasn’t too happy with her for her betrayal of our food heritage either. Michael was being good natured about it, heck I was thrilled that he had actually read my site, but it still doesn’t hurt to know that his Mama has been reading my site as well so I have a built in bodyguard in Miss Nita.
I also have some canned apple butter that he is hoping to get his hands on…
Today, we’re going to make a real staple. This recipe is going to separate the men from the mice, as they say. In our case, it would be one of those things which literally draws the line in the sand. Suppose a person of the northern persuasion (my new politically correct way of saying “yankee”) were to inflitrate our lines and pose as a native. Suppose, just suppose, that discovering who this person was would affect our like…..national security or something. Lets say they wanted to deface our big statue of the boll weevil or some other horrific crime. Well, this gravy alone could detect who the imposter was. Keep reading, I’ll show you why.
Note: No yankees were harmed in the making of this tutorial. They were fed obscene amounts of gravy and southern cooking and will be staying a spell so we can have time to pump them full of dumplings, apple butter, grits, sweet tea, and any other good stuff we can come up with.
You’ll need: Milk, Flour (self rising or plain, doesn’t matter), and sausage.
Don’t you just love simple recipes? That is one of the best things about southern cooking, its just plain simple and just plain good. Always unnerves me when I see a recipe for sausage gravy with an ingredient list that reads like a scientific classification. I think southerners are just trying to show off to folks of the northern persuasion when they do that. Theres no need.
Milk, Flour, Sausage = Sausage gravy.
See that sausage in the pic? You know you’re from my neck of the woods if you took one look at that sausage package and immediately started humming this song. Just for kicks, I like to sing the first part out loud… “For real country sausage, the best you ever tried….” Then wait to hear my kids finish it off… “Take home a package of our Tennessee Pride!”. Thats how I know I raised them right. A person of the northern persuasion would not know this song, of course.
*Conversely, though, you could use this to spot a redneck in your midst. I’m afraid I’d pass (or fail, depending on your point of view) this test with both hands tied behind my back.
It will look something like this. See that brown stuff in the bottom? Thats gonna be your gravy!
Remove sausage once it is done and place on paper towel lined plate to drain. You will have a good bit of grease left in your skillet. You need about two tablespoons, so if you have more drain it off to leave about that much.
Sprinkle three to four tablespoons of flour in your skillet.
Pepper it to taste.
Salt it to taste.
Add milk. I added about a cup and a half here.
Most folks will take a biscuit and set it on their plate and spoon gravy onto it. They might cut it in half first and spoon gravy on both halves.
Thats not how we really like it though.
We REALLY like to tear our biscuit up in our bowl…because that’s what our mamas did when we were little. 
However, some of them may look at you awful funny – I think you’ve spotted your yankee at this point. Get out your best plates, give them the head of the table, and provide them with the best apple butter and biscuits you have to offer.
We want them leaving with a good impression, by god!
Bring on the sweet tea! We got company!
I bet they won’t wanna mess with our Boll Weevil statue after all…
Posted by Christy Jordan
on Jul 20 2008. Filed under Breakfast, FEATURED Southern Favorites!, Sauces/Other, Southern Classics.
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Hi Christy! Thanks so much for visting my blog! I just loved yours and am so glad I found it! All your foods are right up my alley……..my family enjoyed the banana pudding and I can’t wait to try your crockpot chicken and dressing! If you happen to do any canning this summer I would love to learn more about that
Many Blessings,
Jill
Hey Jill!!! Good to see you!
I did can some crock pot apple butter but didn’t put the instructions for canning, just for how to make the crock pot apple butter (super easy).
I’m not sure what else I will can this summer but I need to get thinking about it! Next time, I will do a tutorial on the canning process though!
Your dolls are beautiful!
That looks so tasty! I love simple recipes.
I made that wonderful peanut butter frosting for my son’s birthday cake on Saturday. It was absolutely delicious and is now my favorite frosting ever! I posted about the cake on my blog if you want to check it out. Thanks so much for the recipe. Speaking from a “yankee” point of view, I’m sure glad you’re posting all these “secret” southern recipes – I love them!
OH STEPHANIE!!!! I just went to your blog to see the cake, it was SO CUTE!!! BUT
not near as cute as the little boy eating it!!!!!
Thank you so much for letting me know you tried it and I am SO glad you liked it!!!!!
It means a lot when you comment, I LOVE comments!!!! I’m so excited now!!! Gonna go print off a pic of your little one with his face in cake and show it to my grandmother!!! hehe!She is going to think that is the cutest thing!
OH I forgot you were in AL You should have come met up with me! We went to Hunstville and i am sure it won’t be the last time!
OMG
Pinky, I LIVE in Huntsville!!!!
LOL!
love your blog. I just found my way here from the Homesteading Carnival at HowTo.
I will be back for more.
okay…I will admit it, I’m one of those Yankee’s. (or maybe not….a westerner? Is there a difference? ) And I had never heard the Tennesee Pride song…but now it’s stuck in my head. ~grins~
I love you recipes and can’t wait for your cookbook!!
(I made your banana bread this morning and my husband ate one whole loaf!!)
Debbie
Grandma Rosie, so glad to meet you! I just went to your blog and my mouth is still watering thinking about banana waffles!!!!
Debbie:
I just love that jingle, I don’t know why! You kinda have to dance about as you sing it too!!!
I’m so glad your husband liked (or it sounds like engulfed!) the banana bread!! Thank you for letting me know you tried it and Thank you for trying it!!!!
Hmm….yankee or westerner…I guess the difference depends on who you ask. How about we just exempt you from either one and just call ya “neighbor”.
hehe
see you soon!
Christy
“Neighbor” is great!!
Thanks.
Have a great day.
Debbie
Have MERCY! I’m ashamed to say I’m from GA and have never made sausage gravy… don’t tell anyone!
I just finished my last bite of this and I think I have one happy husband this morning. I know I loved it! This could be a very, very bad thing that I know how to make this now.
When I got up this morning and mentioned sausage gravy over drop biscuits to my husband his eyes lit up. I knew where to come for the recipe. Thanks Christy!
I have just found your site and love it; it brings back SOOOOOO many memories. My mom was from Texas, so we have most the same–grits, biscuits, tea, my gravy is made the same way, but with bacon drippin’s, LOL
Ruth m
Hi Christy, I just have to say I LOVE your writing! The way you weave in your family stories; talk so lovingly about your mama; and say things like “person of a northern persuasion” etc., absolutely warms my heart. I’ve never lived in the South but you’ll be a great source of yummy recipes that lets me get some South in my mouth (and into my kids’ mouths too).
Aloha from one of your newest fans,
Erika
(BTW, it was humid today, sorry to say)
Hey April!! You are so very welcome! I cannot thank you enough for all of the smiles you bring to Southern Plate!!!
Ruth: I love having you here!!! I need more bacon drippings in my cooking, don’t I? You are sooooooo right!
Erika: You have just lit me up like a Christmas tree with your complements! thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m so thrilled to have you here! you holler at me if I can be of any help or if you have any special requests! Hope the humidity passes soon but if not, it is actually a great took to fight against signs of aging! (Always a positive side to everything!)
Gratefully,
Christy
Hey there I just stumbled on this site and fell in love. I was looking for a good biscut and gravy recipie (thank the lord for google) and found ya’ll. Now I aint from the south, but love to pretend that I am. My grandparents were from Texas, (great great and so on grandpa founded Peacock Texas) so as a little girl I can remeber getting up in the morning and watching my grandma cook up a storm. Now my grandpa built thier home and they had no electicity or running water (yep real little house on the prarie home) but hey it was awsome. So reading all the recipies ya’ll have on here really brings back the memories and now I cook like my grandma and my daughter (only
gets up to watch me with her 3 yo brother. They both beg me to make the biscuts and gravey for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Even my daddy says that I can bring back his chilhood memories with ya’lls recipies. So a really big thank you from the state of Washington for giving us a little bit of the South.
Oh Darlynda,
I cannot thank you enough for this comment. This is what Southern Plate is all about.
You’ve just made my entire week.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Gratefully,
Christy
You are so very welcome and I am making the biscuts and gravy for dinner tonight my kids and daddy cant seem to get enough of them. I am even contemplating making the Sweet Tea. The only why that I get it is from a can or jusg and i am so in love with it. My husband got me hooked on it just before he passed away. So I thank you once again for this wonderful site.
Hey Christy,
Just an update. I made the sausage/milk gravy tonight and we LOVED it! I even found Tennessee Pride sausage to use! I have to confess I didn’t make your biscuit recipe tonight. I cheated, making Bisquick biscuits, so I know for certain they weren’t as good as yours (dare I say, y’all’s?) … but the gravy was what we call in the Southernmost state in the U.S.A., “winnahs!”
I was born a person of the Northern persuasion, but I’ll definitely be making this Southern classic again and I PROMISE to try it with your biscuit recipe, when I’m not pressed for time!
Hugs from Hawaii!
– Erika
Ooooooh, I love sausage gravy! It has to be, hands down, one of the best comfort foods out there. My mom would always make it for us on Christmas day. Of course, the biscuits were always canned and ended up getting burned on the bottom, but that was a tradition.
I’m so going to make me a BIG batch soon! The best thing about this is that it is sooooo yummy as leftovers. I always consider it to be even better the next morning! If there is any left, of course.
Thanks for the reminder.
Happy New Year!
I grew up in Florida, which doesn’t really count as the south with all the New Yorkers, but my grandparents were from Huntington, WV and so I miss all the delicious southern cooking that sadly never had the opportunity to be passed along. At 26, I’m ashamed to say I didn’t know how to make sausage gravy, but you make it look so easy! I’m sure it will be delicious for supper tonight.
Ooooooo, that was so good! I’m in pure Southerner bliss right now. I think we’re gonna have to start doing this every weekend. Possibly a couple times a week. My 2 year old is licking his bowl. I wish I had done that!
I made this last night Christy and it was wonderful. I’ve never had a gravy so good before and the kitchen smelled wonderful. Thanks so much!
Yum, it has been so long since I have had biscuits and gravy. I think I will have some for dinner tonight. It always amazes me how many people/restaurants can screw up such and easy thing. As for your friend not liking you telling all our recipes, shoot, tell him they more they are out there the easier it will be to find good food.
I am at 3700 ft. in Idaho .. and can not get my Mom’s biscuit recipe to work. I’m using Rumford baking powder because of the “no Aluminum” thing .. and I have seen the east coast high rise powder at King Arthur but have not tried it. Any comments?
I’m on the Oregon Trail and I wonder how many people starved to death trying to figure out to add water and then subtract water etc. as they went/cooked over the “hump” .. from almost sea level to a mile high .. and then back to normal in Oregon or California .. on the “trail.” I’ve read a lot of their letters and no one mentioned these “thangs.” They did say they made their own yeast before starting by letting a mix set in flour and dry and then broke that up.
[...] Sausage gravy [...]
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I so enjoy this site and have taken several recipes from it already. They are all delicious!
I’ve been making sausage gravy for a long time and would like to share a variation of the above.
I prefer to use some type of Jimmy Dean’s sausage (preferably sage) because it yields very little fat/grease. I don’t make patties, but rather break it up as if for spaghetti sauce…then I sprinkle 2 or 3 tablespoons of flour over the meat after it’s cooked and stir it up to coat the meat well. Then add milk a cup or so at a time and stir until thickened, adding more milk until you reach the consistency you prefer. I like to add a bit of extra milk and let it simmer and reduce to the desired thickness and let the flavors develop a bit more. Of course, salt and pepper to taste as the gravy cooks.
I find one pkg of Jimmy Dean’s (12 oz size) will provide plenty of gravy for about 8 nice biscuits. I normally make bisquik drop biscuits, but can’t wait to try this with your hoe cake recipe!
By the way, I lived in Huntsville back in 86/87. I managed the local ComputerLand store there. I really liked Huntsville and have many fond memories!
I love biscuits and gravy but always had trouble making it the right consistency – until I found this recipe (on another site)
crumble 1 lb sausage in skillet – fry till browned/done.
Sprinkle approximately 3 tbls of flour over the sausage to coat it (the flour is soaking up the grease and will look kinda like floured raisins – or maybe not!!)
then Stir in 2 cans of evaporated milk – stirring often. It won’t take long for it to thicken – serve when it gets to the consistency you like. If it gets too thick just add a little water.
Enjoy
I only found one thing wrong with this recipe. You didn’t make nearly enough gravy!
[...] eggs”, something my newphews and son dearly love! They are also great served with a little Sausage Gravy and Buttermilk [...]
I was raised in Missouri and always thought of myself as Southern until I moved to Georgia. They set me straight on that real fast. So I will claim this as part of my Mammo’s Kentucky lineage. We always cooked the sausage chopped up and left in the gravy. The first time I made this for my true Yank (Illinois) husband he didn’t want to eat it. He was 24 and I couldn’t believe he had NEVER had biscuits and gravy for breakfast. After I convinced him that he had led a neglected and abused childhood he gave it a taste and now it’s his favorite breakfast. He even thinks he makes it better than me. I have graciously allowed him to continue in his fairytale land because this gives me a break from Saturday morning cooking from time to time.
Smart lady!
Just tried this dish, and it’s absolutely delicious. It could have been a little spicier, so I think next time I’ll pick up some spicy sausage, or maybe put in a couple splashes of Tabasco. I’m also going to give the southernplate biscuit recipe a try next; canned biscuits will do in a pinch, but I’m not going to think of myself as an accomplished Southern cook until I make biscuits and gravy completely from scratch. Thanks Christy!
I keep missing the PRINT button on the recipes…?? This is classic dish…will have to make it your way next time… yummm…..
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Christy Jordan, jerry miller. jerry miller said: How To Make Sausage Milk Gravy – http://bit.ly/cY4ktt [...]
Hi Christy.
I was introduced to Sausage gravy and bisquits about 10 years ago .. and I just love it……but….livng in Canada, Nova Scotia to be exact, we can’t buy sausage like in the states…..I buy ground pork and spice it up…. but have never come up with the right taste….. do you have ideas or recipes to give it the “southern” taste. ? That is what we miss, mine tastes OK but it lacks tthe “southern flavor”. Hope you can help me. Thanks
Hey Rosemary! Have you tried sage?
I’ll add making homemade sausage to my list of recipes I need to get up but sage is probably just what you need!
Gratefully
Christy
Thanks Christy, I will try that…..never did add sage
This is just the way my family has always made it… the way Granny made it, the way my dad taught my mom (who is from Idaho) to make it, and the way she taught me to make it. Once when I was a kid, my dad made it for us on a Saturday morning and he was so proud of how it turned out, he kept saying “that’s good gravy, ain’t it”… my sisters and I of course agreed, and he kept saying it so much we got to laughing about it. NOW, years later, whenever ANYTHING is good, we say still “that’s good gravy, ain’t it”… This post made me miss my sweet Granny, I might have to make some sausage gravy this weekend to remember her….
Now I have to start by pointing out that I’m a transplant. I’ve lived in the South for about a quarter of my life and before that I lived in the northernmost end of Michigan. My grandma (born, raised, and only left to visit the grandkids in Iowa) used to make milk gravy out of pretty much whatever meat she used, so I never really associated it with just sausage much less a biscuit.
When I married a southern woman, and learned that such gravy was a staple, I was thrilled, but for some reason in this region they seem to leave out the “brown stuff in the bottom” and just use the flour and milk. No sausage, no pepper, no salt, no taste.
I’m wondering if it is a regional thing or if I’ve just hit a run of bad luck.
Your recipe makes me nostalgic for my grandma’s cooking, even if it was not Southern.
(And I’ll take sweet tea over unsweetened tea any day, thank you.)
Christy I would like to tell you how much I enjoy looking at your Southern Plate Website and all the wonderful recipes you have on there.. One day I saw it come across news feed on the computer and began looking at all the nice recipes. I immediately sent this website to my son. Later on he called me and said mom I have never heard of the website you sent me, but she sure does have some nice recipes on it. I am going to save it and I will be using it a lot. Thank you so much Christy for setting up this website.
I just wanted to say that when I met my husband (online) he was living in Minnesota and I was livin here in east TN. Needless to say after about the 3rd time he called me on a Saturday mornin to ask me what I was doin and my answer was makin homemade biscuits and gravy that man was high-tailin it to East TN and I still can’t feed him enough gravy and biscuits.Southern food is a powerful thing. He’s originally from western KY so he’s not a total yankee but he’s still got some weird ways. He still can’t believe how different and wonderful our cookin is or how all our kids have such thick southern accents like mine. I told him its genetic and wouldn’t matter where we lived I would make sure my kids were southern through and through. I love your site and can’t wait to try some more of your recipes.
This is a beautiful story!! I feel like it’s the start of a movie I’d love to watch
Love your site. My mother, from the Texas panhandle, would fry floured chicken as well as plain ole floured round steak and then make some of the best milk gravy ever.
There just isn’t much better than some good ol fried chicken is there Frederick?!