And then there’s Baltimore, with its French Fries and gravy.
And of course poutine
Look for those tubes of premade biscuits in the refrigerated section of your grocery store. All you need do is bake them.
Oh sure, good homemade biscuits are better but when you are biscuitilly challenged, such as I, you learn to make do. Besides they are really just a vehicle for the gravy and these ones are fine for that. Concentrate on making good sausage gravy and don’t sweat the biscuits.
Biscuits and gravey is a very southern (actually south-eastern) dish. Don’t expect that everywhere in America.
Heresy! The biscuit and the gravy have an equal partnership. If one of them isn’t good quality, then of course, the other will take up the slack and carry the load, but to abandon the poor biscuits that way is shocking!
Don’t listen to him, jjimm! You can do it!
It’s popular here. I know my uncle makes it all the time for family gatherings and from what I can tell it doesn’t seem out of place.
This must be some sort of elaborate road-runner trap.
Just don’t buy the Acme Biscuits!
Damn, now I have a taste for sausage gravy and biscuits, which I haven’t had in a while. And I don’t have any of the ingredients in the house, even if I were inclined to try making them for the first time.
Another common reason for tough biscuits is using the wrong flour. Too much protein makes it hard for the baking powder to do its job, and you get something that might tend toward hockey-puck.
Personally, I don’t use All-Purpose flour for just this reason. If it’s available where you live, you’re better off using flour labeled “Southern”, “soft”, or “winter wheat”. White Lily brand is my favorite. I used to think my biscuits were doing okay with AP flour, but I discovered soft flour and never looked back. Huge improvement.
If you can’t find that type, you can cut AP flour with cake flour. A 2:1 ratio (AP:cake) does a good job.
:rolleyes: We’ve already had people from all over the country report on biscuits and gravy.
I’ve heard that before, and I’m going to have to try it for the biscuits I make for Christmas dinner. I’ve always just used AP flour–and I have to admit, I’ve had a few batches just turn out like crap even when I was sure I didn’t mess anything up.
And as I found out recently, Holiday Inn is based out of Atlanta.
Oh, sure. Just bring up the White Lily fiasco again! 
Wow…I totally missed that. I’ve even bought White Lily since then unknowingly. And I thought my last couple batches of biscuits didn’t rise enough. I chalked it up to too-old baking powder.
I feel like crying.
ermm… pardon me, but
and may I just say, fried okra…mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Ohhhh… one of the earliest memories I have is of waking up at my Grandmother’s house to the aroma of fresh coffee, biscuits and sausage gravy. She also made a milk gravy with the crusty leavings in the fried chicken pan which was heavenly too, so your memory may not be faulty at all.
I’m a southern girl who can’t make biscuits, but there is a frozen biscuit made by Mary B’s which substitutes as an acceptable gravy substrate. It may be a regional product, though.
While I love this dish with a passion bordering on evangelism, I think the purchase of a transatlantic ticket to visit a country where they actually sell such tubes in the supermarkets would be a step too far, even for me.
No kidding. I grew up on biscuits and gravy and chicken fried steak. You can find them in pretty much any local diner in Utah. My parents made both dishes all the time. And there is no black population in Utah. Neither is Salt Lake City anywhere near the south.
Alton Brown has good pointers. If I recall correctly, it is basically scone batter that you should be making. Don’t stir too much, lumps are ok!
Argh.
I got out of bed, made coffee, started a fire, but haven’t eaten anything. And I read this thread! Now I’m hungry.
I got my biscuit recipe off the back of a tin of Clabber Girl baking soda. I haven’t made biscuits in years, but they’ve always turned out fine. (I tend not to have milk when I think of making biscuits, as I seldom have milk.) I use a tumbler of the right diameter (about two inches) to cut out the biscuits from the dough.
I prefer sausage with my breakfast, but I rarely buy it. Bacon is more usual. To make my gravy I fry up six rashers of bacon and remove it from the pan. As described earlier, I mix about an equal amount of flour into it, stir the lumps out, and toast it a bit. Then I add milk, salt (as needed), pepper, and the crumbled bacon.
But as usual I have no milk. And the bacon is in the freezer. And I have to start working in an hour. The four-day Christmas weekend is coming though, so maybe I’ll get to it. With sausage.