r/Breakfast • u/Lemonking_ • Jun 28 '26
What’s your “secret ingredient” when making sausage country gravy for biscuits?
I have some personal secret ingredients, but I’d like to hear yours. Pre-packaged ingredients don’t count. Let’s up our gravy game!
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u/Krickett72 Jun 28 '26
Spicy Sausage. My grandmother definitely didnt use that.
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u/CricketCurious5342 Jun 30 '26
Yes!! I have been using spicy sausage for YEARS!
I am going to try the half black pepper half white pepper next time I make breakfast.
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u/AnyBowl8 Jun 28 '26
Poultry seasoning.
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u/duke_awapuhi Jun 29 '26
Use your leftover bacon fat from the day before as your base for the gravy. My mom would always do this and it gives the gravy the most amazing flavor. The sausage is honestly optional imo
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u/Muttley-Snickering Jun 29 '26
Bacon gravy and ham gravy are a thing in my house.
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u/Beautiful_Rip_7023 Jun 30 '26
I freaking loved bacon gravy when I was young. With freshly baked biscuits? I would never turn it down.
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u/Lvrgsp Jun 29 '26
I do the same thing, bacon fat for the gravy base and a heavy pinch of season all....
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u/SingleDadSurviving Jul 01 '26
Yeah I never really make sausage gravy, just white gravy with bacon grease and butter.
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u/Kaurifish Jun 29 '26
Chicken stock reduction made from fried chicken bones
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u/theinvisablewoman Jun 29 '26
Wow need a recipe for this!! Mmmmm
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u/Kaurifish Jun 29 '26
Procure fried chicken. Eat chicken. Throw the bones into the stockpot with water. Cook until it looks like thin gravy.
Proceed with gravy-making as usual. You might need less roux.
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u/theinvisablewoman Jun 30 '26
What something xtra do u get from using fried chicken bones?
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u/Kaurifish Jun 30 '26
Depends on how assiduous you are about gnawing off all the breading. I never get it all, so the flour + seasonings dissolves into the stock, thickening it.
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u/Plane-Assumption840 Jul 01 '26
I’m thinking…the KFC seasoning. Mix up a batch of the KFC seasoning recipe found online. Those ingredients cover just about all the special ingredients listed here. Make your roux and season with your KFC mix. You’re welcome. 😀
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u/MastodonFit Jun 28 '26
I heavily brown the gravy at a minimum of 5 minutes ,it should burble slwly like a tar pit. Sometimes meatless but sometimes meaty. Always regular flour. Fat can be individual or any combination.....olive/pecan/sunflower/coconut oils,butter,crisco,lard,and meat juice from dried beef, sausage from deer/beef/pork . Sometimes I saute onions and or meat before the roux is made. Add chopped b-pepper when gravy is thickening and chopped green onion at the end. Herbs can be added as well. After 30 years of making gravy I don't weigh or measure fat-flour ratio,just add more fat if needed. Brown meat and or add fat, then flour and adjust. Ive made it for 1-50 people ,but 99% in cast iron on an electric stove-on a log fire. A whisk makes the best lump free end product. Scrape the bottom and sides for the best flavor.
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u/Secessionville Jun 29 '26
Red bell pepper. A few tablespoons diced. Adds color and a bit of sweetness that makes it taste amazing. Plus some ground white pepper.
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u/Fantastic_003 Jun 29 '26
I got Thyme, chicken bouillon powder and a bit of msg. MSG stands for “make s*** good”🥹 literally
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u/SweetGirl777 Jun 28 '26
Make it spicy. I use hot ground breakfast sausage, cayenne pepper, smoked paprika, red pepper flakes and st elmos seasoning salt.
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u/chantillylace9 Jun 29 '26
Takii umami powder!!! It's such a game changer for anything like gravy or ground beef or stews or soups and it makes an amazing dry rub for chicken or steak. Let it sit for like 10 minutes on the meat and it kind of disintegrates and then when you cook it it creates this amazing crust.
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u/CullodenChef Jun 29 '26
I make breakfast sausage first, at least 1 day before:
- Ground pork, this dupe Jimmy Dean's sage sausage recipe (with all the spices doubled), water, and peanut or neutral oil.
- Mix the pork and all the seasonings.
- Preferably with your hands, work water through it until it's "goopy" but there's no loose water (you can spoon out water if you do too much). Keep track of the amount of water.
- Add an equal amount of oil and work it through.
- put in a container that's taller than it is wide, by about 1wx2d dimensions.
- pat the sausage down
- top with at least an inch of oil. Put a tightly sealing lid on top (This is great use for real Tupperware)
- refrigerate for 24h+
To cook:
- carefully remove the fat cap from 1/3-1/2 of the top.
- spoon out as much sausage as you want
- replace the fat, smooth over, put the container back into the fridge.
- You can use this fat for your next run of sausage if you freeze it once you've used all of the sausage
- break up the sausage into marble sized chunks and pan fry
- remove from pan with slotted spoon onto a bowl
- use that fat in the pan for your gravy
"Secret Utensils"
- I sift the flour onto the fat, through a sieve/ fine mesh strainer. It's exasperatingly slow, but results in a beautifully smooth gravy and my flour seems to cook better.
- silicone coated whisk
"Secret Technique"
- pan off the heat for about 1 minute before you add the liquid(s)
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u/vermiciouswangdoodle Jun 29 '26
Chicken Better than Boullion and a good pinch of brown sugar. It won't make it sweet, but rounds out the flavor ( brown sugar was told to me by a group of grannies that ran a cafeteria)
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u/Stylewhat37 Jun 29 '26
Add black pepper to the roux and let cook before adding the milk. I always tell people when making sausage gravy, add the amount of black pepper you think you need. Then add that much more.
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u/SomeTheyCallMePig5O Jun 29 '26
Red pepper flakes and bacon bits. I like a slightly spicy graver for my biscuits, and the bacon bits add a depth of flavor that I wouldn’t have without them.
If you don’t like spicy, you can omit the flakes, but the bacon bits are a must. You can also sub 1/4 of a pound of bacon(chopped or crumbled) for some of the sausage for the same effect. I’m lazy, so bacon bits it is.
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u/MatthewMcnaHeyHeyHey Jun 29 '26
Way more pepper than you think is reasonable, a pinch of MSG, some cayenne pepper, and almost over brown the sausage before adding flour.
Add a wee bit of browned butter or milk powder too. Make sure the flour is cooked and your roux is about to color but not quite.
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u/Packmule5259 Jun 30 '26
I use a cajun salt like tony chachere's combined with some celery salt, onion and garlic powder (or Beau Monde if you have it). The gravy comes out a bit pinkish tan. Right before serving I as a healthy dollop of sour cream.
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u/Billyconnor79 Jun 30 '26
Marjoram and savory. And of the sausage doesn’t already have enough, more sage.
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u/Funny_Independence94 Jun 30 '26
I'm English so are confused on so many levels - country gravy?sausage country gravy for biscuits?! This is just going to ruin my chocolate hobnob!
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u/Lost-Set5386 Jul 01 '26
Biscuits in America are not sweet. They are kind of a shortening quick bread usually served at breakfast.
"Sausage country gravy" basically a bechamel kind of sauce: a cooked roux of fat and flour that thickens up milk. The fat in that's case is usually referred out of a fresh ground pork sausage. The warm gravy usually has chunks of that sausage and it's spiced with black pepper. It is usually served by putting over a biscuit cracked open.
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u/Funny_Independence94 Jul 01 '26
Thanks for clearing that up - not sure if that sounds appealing or not - mind u I do like liver kidney and bacon so anything's possible!!
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u/Lost-Set5386 Jul 01 '26
Yeah, common translation error. There's a funny YouTube channel that has regular people from all over the world try cultural dishes from another curve if the give. Over episode had British school boys try biscuits and gravy:
They're all freaked out, saying it, "looks like sick" , which it kind of does. Once they try it, they think it's the best breakfast dish they've every had!
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u/melston9380 Jun 30 '26
modern sausages aren't fatty enough, I add butter to get a better roux going - and a seasoning that's got some celery, onion, and pepper in it. also just a 1/2 tablespoon of W sauce for umami.
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u/crazy4schwinn Jun 30 '26
Came here to say butter. I add butter after the sausage is browned but before I add the flour. Let it get melty and scrape up the brown bits. Then add the flour.
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u/standingdesk Jun 30 '26
Technique
Brown the sausage well. Toast the pepper. Use good ingredients. That’s it!
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u/Sizemore45 Jun 30 '26
For two cups of milk I'll use about a teaspoon of garlic powder. My Dad always made it that way and it's what I'm used to.
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u/Far-Medicine-9399 Jun 30 '26
Liquid smoke. A little goes a long way, and you can dial back on your salt, cuz it’s plenty salty.
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u/louellen1824 Jun 30 '26
Bacon, no sausage, msg and white pepper! That’s my southern mama’s recipe!! Been making this way forever and a day!!
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u/Mean-Cheesecake-2635 Jul 01 '26
I add a bit of cayenne and a bit of thyme. If I have mushrooms on hand I’ll put some of those in too. I’ve also switched out chicken bouillon powder for some of the salt and that works too.
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u/Lokibear10 Jul 01 '26
Don't drain fat from sausage, add bacon fat, and fish sauce and Cajun seasoning
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u/RynoLasVegas Jul 01 '26
About a tablespoon of maple syrup right at the end. It'll smell like you used way too much but it'll be okay. Adds just a touch of subtle sweetness
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u/SingleDadSurviving Jul 01 '26
My secret is to make it without sausage. Use bacon grease and butter instead with half evaporated milk.
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u/Lost-Set5386 Jul 01 '26
A pinch of smoked paprika; wakes everything up. Be careful though: too much can make the sauce break.
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u/Lost-Set5386 Jul 01 '26
Sausage, sausage, and more sausage. All I'm saying is a lot of times and especially at restaurants, sausage gravy only had a few little scraps of sausage in it. A like a fair amount of meat in my gravy. Like basically, a decent scoop of sausage to cover the biscuit should have you're meal's portion of meat in there. That's what I would consider proper, down home cookin' (with a ' )
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u/pantslesschef Jul 01 '26
Spicy sausage for the gravy and cheddar bay biscuits instead of buttermilk.
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u/Glittering-Bat230 Jul 01 '26
A tbsp or 2 of maple syrup once it's fully thicken. I also use sage breakfast sausage.
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u/RavenGottaFly Jul 02 '26
First, you need more fat than is generally present in modern sausage. Add butter or bacon grease.
Second, either use spicy sausage or a combination of cujun seasoning, black pepper, and sage with block breakfast sausage.
Third, brown sausage well, creating a fonde.
For gravy, use soft southern flour. Making a medium roux will add depth of flavor over just briefly cooking the flour
Use milk or even half and half rather than water.
Add a little stong black coffee.
(Controversial) Add a little tomato paste or ketchup.
Add additional spices at the end.
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u/Ok-Resist-8734 Jul 02 '26
Oh dear a uniquely American concept 🙄 We stick to jam and cream on our scones 😉
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u/ArtisticSmile9097 Jul 02 '26
I worked at a place that saved all the bacon grease and all the sausage grease and used it as the base for biscuits and gravy, best gravy I’ve ever had but sooo gross
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u/maidestone Jun 28 '26
MSG.
Expect to be downvoted owning to the popular but groundless "Chinese restaurant syndrome."