Dear Og, you don’t have a can of bacon grease in your fridge?
Those of us originally from the South shudder in horror at the thought that not everyone has said can of greasy goodness to bail them out for gravy-making.
Besides, it’s just damn good in biscuits and gravy.
You know, I really ought to have one. I make so much bacon I could probably sell the stuff but I usually just toss it down the drain. Poor form I know, I just don’t have a container appropriate to the situation. Plus I don’t bake so I think my supply would out strip my need quite often.
My personal technique:
Chop up bacon into little bits. Fry until they are getting a bit crispy and the fat is rendered. Add flour - as much as will make a really thick paste with the bacon grease. Add milk, simmer. Add salt and pepper to taste. If necessary, add more flour, milk, etc. Simmer until you get a thick gravy.
Pour over whatever bread-like substance you can find (OK, biscuits, fine), smother with hot sauce and experience true american-style ecstasy.
And I should also add that the afore-mentioned bacon grease is a must-have for greasing the cast iron pan for cornbread.
It’s also great for sauteeing green beans in, or pintos for re-fried beans.
Save that bacon grease, damnit!
Do you know how to make ground beef stroganoff? I’ll have to look up my mother’s recipe-it makes for a GREAT biscuits and gravy meal!
You’re not the first to bring up “hot sauce” in this connection. Where does that come from? Being raised on this stuff in the 1950’s and later South, I never had hot sauce on my biscuits and gravy.
Bet your plumber loves you :rolleyes:
Coffee mug makes an excellent “can” as well.
I have wanted to make corn bread in my cast iron skillet forever! I have no idea how, though and have never remember to look up what to do. 
Of course, I don’t eat bacon at all, let alone have a can of grease sitting around. Bummer.
I went wild last night and my roomie and I made biscuits and gravy for dinner. I just got a tube of Jimmy Dean sausage and went for it based on what was above in the thread. I think I put too much flour, as I had to put a toooon of milk in before it would thin out to something resembling anything but paste.
My only complaint is that it was somewhat bland. All I put in was a ton of fresh cracked black pepper and a bit of salt. I suppose next time I’ll put in some more pepper, but are there any other suggestions?
It’s probably just too much flour. We like our gravy to be very meaty, which gives the gravy the flavor. Otherwise, you’ve just go cream sauce with a bit of meat, which is pretty bland. You might try putting some chicken bouillion cubes or paste into the gravy next time though. The “Better Than Bouillion” flavor bases are tastier than the cubes or powders, and are sold in the same section. Remember to refrigerate them after opening.
I make a quick-and-easy stroganoff, but I think it’s tasty. I use cubed steak, but I suppose it can be made with ground beef. Brown the meat with some chopped onions and some salt and pepper. Drain the fat. Add a pint of sour cream and a can of cream of mushroom soup and some Worcestershire. Stir occasionally while it heats through.
My grandmother had a set of tins of various sizes. The largest one was probably a gallon, and the smallest was maybe two cups. They’re brushed steel with black plastic tops. I’ve no idea how old they are, but dad got them when she died in '68. They’re probably from the '40s or '50s. The tops had moulded-in legends that were painted white (from largest to smallest): Flour, Sugar, Coffee, Tea, Grease. The one for grease had a perforated insert that would strain the bits out of the grease. I got the containers when dad died, but they’re packed away. I was in a thrift store and found an identical set, and those are the ones I use at the house.
But the grease container is packed away somewhere. I only use grease for gravy, or I’ll use a tiny bit when I fry eggs if I happen to be having bacon. So I don’t need grease sitting around forever until I use it.
I don’t know about everybody else, but I’ve been putting Tabasco on my eggs since I was 6. Then it got tossed onto the hash browns. It was a natural extension to try it on the biscuits and gravy on the plate as well. No turning back after that. Just don’t add it to the gravy before serving. It turns it a nice shade of pivk, which is rather off-putting in breakfast food that isn’t ham.
All this has gotten me thinking. I wonder what would happen if you made the biscuits, then made the gravy and put the gravy into a cake decorating bag, inserted the nozzle into the biscuit and made gravy filled biscuits….could this actually make portable biscuits and gravy? You would have to really crumble the sausage down, but it could work.
The main problem I see with that idea is the same one you get with any filled pastry: the insides squirt out when you bite it, and hot fillings are painful. If you let it cool, the gravy will turn to cement. Hmmmmm…I sense a project happening.
My worry is the gravy::biscuit ratio. I like a lot of gravy - the biscuit is really a conveyance mechanism for relaying gravy from my plate to my mouth, and it gives a little bit of texture. There’s no way I could get enough gravy inside my biscuit.
What about mini biscuits filled with the gravy? Then they’re bite sized B&G poppables, so no worry about the squirt factor. It’s either that or you would have to go with a rather high viscosity gravy to prevent the Cadbury Egg effect.
You still have Whynot’s problem to deal with, which I also agree with: biscuits are a base for as much gravy as is possible to fit on the plate. I fear the minibiscuits will be a tad…dry.
Well you said it my friend, I feel a project coming on. It’ll have to be a time that I’m not in the mood for B&G, or I’ll be cranky if it doesn’t work.
Perhaps if I could come up with a way to put a sausage pattie inside an uncooked biscuit, and then introduce the gravy…more of a self contained sausage biscuit with gravy sauce kind of a thing…This is going to be fun.
Yeah - dippable or something. I can see that. Kinda.
Please read recipes carefully. The first time I made gravy was from instructions from my mother for turkey gravy. Unfortunately, when she told me “combine an equal amount of flour and fat”, she didn’t mention that I didn’t need all the fat. By the time I was done, I had the entire roasting pan full of something that can only be described as hardening concrete. If you are only making enough for a couple of people, a few tablespoons is more than enough fat and flour. If you need to thicken it more later, add the aforementioned butter/four mix (buerre maniere).