Thursdays are for cooking….
Sausages – eat your heart out
Gravy
12 oz bulk pork sausage
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
3 cups of milk
Those are Pillsbury’s measurements. Me? I figure gravy is not a lost art, despite what some unfed Marines may think.
You need a fat and starch to make the roux for the gravy, and the roux is fat, which comes from the pig (or the cow) and starch, which is flour. The amount of fat (butter, bacon grease, sausage pan drippings) depends on which meat you cook first.
This is supposed to be a cream gravy, so using cornstarch to make a clear au jus gravy is just wrong! You can stretch the gravy with a broth like chicken broth, if necessary, because milk will burn.
If you cannot find bulk pork sausage, then buy the patties and crumble them up in to the bulk form. They’re already seasoned in most brands, so pick your favorite brand, unless you have a really cool seasoning of your own.
You cook the sausage to render the fat, then remove it from the pan. (This is for the benefit of people who buy canned gravy. Poor things!) If there is not enough fat from the sausage, add some bacon grease, about 1 tablespoonful (or a soup spoonful if you’re feeding a crowd), and let it melt.
Make sure you include all pan scrapings in this, too. That is flavor. You do not throw out flavor. That is blasphemy!!!!
Next, stir the flour a little at a time, into the fat. It should thicken enough to produce a little under a quarter cup of this roux. Add the milk to it slowly, stirring it constantly, on a low flame. VERY low flame!!!!! Add the seasonings and keep stirring. Use a clean spoon to taste the gravy to see if it needs more seasoning than the recipe calls for. The cracked black pepper that you have to grind yourself adds ginormous flavor to a cream gravy, and if the sausage is already seasoned, you may not want to add any salt. Gravy is always seasoned to taste. And Mrs. Dash has several blends that are salt-free and full of flavor.
Keeping the flame very, very low, return the cooked sausage (or pork) to the pan and stir it so that it is thoroughly mixed with the gravy.
I use canned flaky biscuits because it’s quicker than making them from scratch and some of them get buttered and swathed with strawberry jam.
If you didn’t fix the biscuits ahead of time, turn off the heat under the skillet and cover the gravy mixture, then follow the direction on the can.
If you did bake the biscuits ahead of time, then put two of them split in half on a plate and add a generous portion of sausage gravy to it. Add some strawberries or apple slices soaked in cider to the menu, on the side, and tuck in.
And since it’s what Chester used to call “soppy” on Gunsmoke, wear a big napkin.
Category: Economy
I should have read this before I went to Publix and bought 4 Lean Cuisine meals, 4 for ten bucks and ate a tuna wrap. That’s a wrap and I’ll sign off.
Make your own sausage, you’ll never get store bought again. And it’s stupid simple.
You’ll need:
2 1/2 pounds ground pork
2 tsp sea salt
1 ½ tsp fresh ground pepper
2 tsp chopped fresh sage, or 1 dried
2 tsp chopped fresh thyme, or 1 dried
½ tsp chopped fresh rosemary, or ¼ dried
1 tbl brown sugar
½ tsp grated nutmeg
½ tsp cayenne pepper
½ tsp red pepper flakes
You’ll do:
Combine all ingredients with the pork
Chill for an hour or so in the reefer
Remove, form into patties and fry ‘em up over medium high, serve.
No lemon powder? That’s what gives Johnsonville sausage its zing.
“Lemon pepper” perhaps? Not familial with lemon powder. With this recipe you get savory from the herbs, sweet from the sugar, heat from the cayenne and pepper flakes.
Plus you get to control the fat and “filler” content.
If the gravy is just for me or others that like it (not the wife) I will add about a 1/4 tsp of my homemade devil pepper. Gives a pan of gravy a nice little kick.
Here is the cut-down to smaller individual servings version of the official Army SOS recipe:
1/2 lb. ground beef or chipped dried beef
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
4 tbsp. sifted flour
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup water
2 tbsp. butter
Brown ground/chipped beef in its own fat. Remove excess fat and save for making roux. Season with salt and pepper. To make roux, place 2 tbsp. reserved fat in double broiler or heavy pan. Slowly add sifted flour, stirring constantly over low heat until thoroughly blended. Cook for five minutes. Do not brown. Combine milk and water. Add butter and scald (not burn) in double broiler or heavy pan. Add roux to scalded milk, stirring constantly until thoroughly blended. Add meat mixture and cook about 10 minutes or until desired consistency.
Serve over toast or biscuits with eggs to order. Add Tabasco if needed/available.
Best I can do, and here’s the disclaimer. I’m not a cook, never was and probably never will be, but my older brother was a cook for a couple of years in the Army and one of my sons was a Navy cook for 26 years.
Hope this works for all y’all./smile
Thank you, Claw.
If only your brother had been around to show my mother how to cook this dish, which fills up a kid’s stomach better than anything else.
Thank You, Claw, for the “Creamed Meat” recipe.
Am surprised that evaporated milk is used…who knew?
That makes 2 SOSs I am going to make…Skyjumper’s and yours. Bought the ground beef and found the chipped beef in a jar to try both.
Salute to your Brother and Son for taking care of World’s best Army and Navy….speaking of that…Go ARMY! BEAT NAVY!
😎🍽
Pat,
Make sure you rinse the chipped beef before use- it’s very salty.
I ruined a batch of SOS this way.
Thank You, Ed, for that tip…have ruined other dishes because of too much salt AND too much butter (we now always check to ensure we buy unsalted butter).
Does chipped beef still come in those little glass jars that you can use for juice at breakfast?
Hey, I still have two cans of Spam to use. I have to find some way to make Spam something that even Monty Python would appreciate.
Yes, the chipped beef still comes in glass jars. I see it all the time in Wally World in the same aisle as canned meat (Spam, Vienna Snausages, Deviled Ham, etc, etc).
One thing I failed to mention in my recipe post for SOS is that it’s best to soak the chipped beef overnight to leach out the salt. Throw the water away after it’s done soaking, don’t try to re-use it. And dice up the beef some with a knife unless you like it in strips or slabs.
Grill thick slices of Spam over low heat, and after the fat has rendered out slather with BBQ sauce. Return to medium heat to let the sugars caramelize a bit, serve.
A pal of mine does this when smoking a large piece of piggy to keep the wolves at bay.
I will probably catch hell for this suggestion, but that Buddig beef in the plastic package is a pretty good substitute for the jar stuff. Not as salty and is super cheap.
Evaporated milk takes it to whole new, wonderful level.
Thanks Claw,will have to add that to my list of food to cook.
I have fond memories of sitting down at the table with my Dad (WWII vet – Mortarman) sharing big helpings of S.O.S. that he made.
We were the only two that ate it……My Mom & brother wouldn’t touch the stuff!
One of the things Mom made that always turned out well was chipped beef. And I learned it from her. No recipe, just throw stuff in a pan, basically what Claw posted above, but easier clean up.
She used the stuff in the jar, tore it into pieces, threw it in a pan with some butter, crisped it up a bit then added about the same amount of flour as she had butter. She always said to add a little more than you thought you needed because it was always easier to add milk to thin it out than to add flour later. She never measured it but it looked like a couple three tablespoons of butter and flour, more or less, to the large glass of beef. She didn’t use black pepper, but I add some in here somewhere so that it also gets toasted. Then you add a bit less than however much milk you think you need, warm it all through, almost but not quite to the boil, until it thickens. Add more milk as needed.
I grew up in a military family. SOS was a staple.
In the Navy, I developed a fondness for Minced Beef.
I make both of these to this day.
Photo looks like Jimmy Dean bulk roll.
Love the stuff. Flatten out your own patties.
Usually one great big one.
Cleaning the pan is a pain with pork.
No, that’s Johnsonville in the pan. I looked at the seasoning list and the one thing that sticks out is that they use lemon powder in the seasoning, which gives it a great savory flavor.
I kind of like colder weather because the scent of cooked bacon lingers longer in my little house.
I find Jimmy Dean sausages to be too salty for my palate; hopefully Johnsonville (which I have not tried) will be milder when it comes to the salt…
Sometimes, you simply have to buy the unseasoned ground pork and come up with your own recipe. And that’s especially true if you’re trying to cut back on salt as a seasoning.
I’ve been using Mrs Dash in the various combinations for a while, and found that their use of lemon seems to be a good replacement for salt.
There’s also sour salt, which my sister, who is a kosher cook uses in a lot of things, including her stuffed cabbage rolls. I looked at the ingredient list and its major ingredient powered lemon.
Morton’s makes a 50% salt…I have been using that for about a year now…I like it!
I make my own bulk sausage. Not difficult and you can cut back on the fat. Stuff like Jimmy Dean has a tremendous amount of fat.
Another benefit is that you can control the amount of lips and anuses in the final product.
EARLY MORNING SPEW ALERT——“lips and anuses”/smile
The Army has an official recipe term for those.
Just check out Recipe No. 337 from TM 10-412 dtd 15 Aug 1944.
It’s called “Pig Ends With Sauerkraut and Dumplings”
Yum, Yum!!
Too much salt is the reason I buy Johnsonville. They use lemon as a flavor enhancer instead of extra salt. It’s also leaner than Jimmy’s product.
Thanks for the tip on which ends of the pig go into sausage. I haven’t had breakfast just yet.
I did discover that Smithfield not only makes great ham, but they also are a thrifty company. No part of the pig is wasted. They offer hog jowl bacon, both sliced and unsliced. It’s supposed to have more flavor than standard bacon for a dish like pasta carbonara. And being the nutball I am, I bought some.
All of this is really making me hungry! I promise that next week I will try and post my receipe for my famous crab meat turkey stuffing. Keep in mind, this will be very difficult for me since I cook by eye, taste and smell. All of it will be the best I can estimate what I use, but if you can follow along with it, everyone will just love the taste it gives the turkey!! See you all next Thursday!!
Talk about great timing, just got done making a pot of German creamy sausage, potato and sauerkraut soup & it’s simmering on the stove as I type.
Going to be my supper when I come in from the shop later.
Ingredients:
4 tbls. butter
1 medium onion finely diced
1/4 cup of flour
1 1/12 cups chicken broth
2 1/2 cups milk
14 oz. ring of Kielbasa sausage cut up in small chunks
1 1/2 cups cooked small diced potatoes
2 medium carrots cleaned and slivered with a potato peeler
1 cup sauerkraut, drained
1/2 tsp fresh parsley
ground black pepper to taste
Prep:
1. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.
2. Add onions and saute for about five minutes, or until tender
3. Add flour, stirring until completely combined.After one minute, add the chicken broth & milk.
4. Turn heat to medium and add the Kielbasa, diced potatoes, carrots, sauerkraut & parsley. Simmer for 5-10 minutes and remove from heat.
5. Served sprinkled with pepper.
Makes a cold day just a bit warmer & the tummy happy. (smile)
This was a great idea having a “Thursday Cooking Thread”!
Scheiße!!
After you add the chicken broth & milk (step 3), turn heat to medium high, stirring often until the broth begins to thicken.
Asche auf mein Haupt!
Thank You, Ex & Ed for sharing your recipes of Sausage Gravy and Homemade Sausage…gonna try those as well.
Ex: Our Family tried making homemade biscuits, but it was too much work, especially cleaning afterwards. We have been using Bisquik…in fact, we started making waffles and pancakes from Bisquik. Haven’t had canned biscuit in years…did not like the taste, a bit bitter, but since this is 2018, may buy a can to see if the taste has changed.
Wet Willy: Want to try your crab meat dressing…isn’t that the special treat you always feed your fur babies for Thanksgiving or Christmas?
😉
YOu are very welcome, Pat!
Remember The First Rule of Cooking-
“This is exactly how I wanted it to turn out.”
*grin*
Loves me some sausage, gravy, and biscuits. Even loves me some chipped beef on toast. Never had any canned gravy, at home anyhow; not even sure if state law allows canned gravy to be sold south of Atlanta. I have used, in a pinch, a Pioneer Brand packaged gravy that’s not half bad. Don’t use canned, or as we say, whump biscuits, but have found that some of the frozen ones do right well. I’m lucky that I have a number of folks I can get local beef and pork from, along with venison, do look forward to trying AW1Ed’s sausage blend. Some of the ones the boys get for me are a little too spicy and or salty. Trying to make that damned old doctor happy and eliminate the salt and the hotter peppers. If y’all haven’t weaned yourself off of as much salt as you can, get working on it. This whole stroke business, even TIA baby ones, aren’t fun. Nobody mentioned desserts today, glad I still got some homemade chocolate chip cookies that sister sent from Neb.
File this one under: “Kids, don’t try this one at home.”
I’ve been toying with the idea of doing some coffee roasting, and finally got around to it today.
Initially, I wanted to use a small electrically-powered drum roaster heated by an outside LP gas tabletop stove, but that turned out to be a minor disaster. Not only did the roasting process for a quarter-pound of green coffee beans take more than an hour, and still couldn’t get to a dark roast, poor Chinese engineering of the roaster caused it to keep walking off the heat source. It was also pretty much a fire hazard.
Falling back to Plan B, I decided to roast the beans in a pan on high heat using a 4-inch putty knife to keep continuously mixing and turning them. Something that took about 12 minutes to get to the external appearance of an espresso grade. Still, once ground, the coffee wasn’t quite as dark as I had hoped. For the next batch, I plan to turn down the heat and let the roast run somewhat longer.
It’s probably also a good idea to use a pan with a lid. When trying to get to a very dark roast, the coffee beans put out a lot of smoke and are just on the verge of catching on fire. Having a lid means you can snuff the blaze if it gets to that.
A reason for jumping through these hoops is that I recently ran across a source for “Peaberry Robusta” raw beans from an exporter in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam. Peaberry has a unique taste, and Robusta has much more caffeine than the typical Arabica. Cost of the beans was about $8 per pound and they’re not something you can buy in a store. A first cup made from the first roasting was very good.
Since Hondo might be wondering, I realize these are probably communist coffee beans which is why I’ve been keeping a sharp eye on the little bastards…
Friends who roast their own in small batches do so in cast iron on the kitchen stove. They like doing it that way. Maybe they aren’t going for as dark a roast as you like? (One of them does go pretty black, almost burned.)
Exactly. The beans start to turn very dark and oily at about the same time they start to smoke, and can smoke a lot until done to an espresso level. Another trick is that once they get to a very smokey and dark point, it helps to both turn the heat off and keep stirring the beans or they can catch fire.
Personally, I’m not sure I’d try the process indoors without a commercial-grade range hood. Something less common than a, for example, garden-variety outdoor gas grill.
Have you tried using a hand-cranked popcorn popper like the Whirly-Pop?
That might solve the roasting issue as well as the problem with the beans catching on fire. If you keep stirring them with the agitator, which is just a wire on a spindle, you might be able to get the dark roast you want without burning the beans.
Whirly-Pop – it’s not just for popcorn any more! Give it a try.
https://www.whirleypopshop.com/stovetop-poppers.html
That’s an interesting suggestion. The only minor problem I can see is that whatever pan or device you use is probably going to need to be just for roasting coffee. You likely wouldn’t be able to also use the Whirly-Pop for popcorn unless you wanted the popcorn to taste like coffee.
Well, what’s wrong with coffee-flavored popcorn? You could bag it and sell it! 🙂
The aluminum popper is the one I use. Nothing sticks to it, including scents, unless you burn the popcorn. Your coffee beans produce their own oil, anyway, so a good scrub with a non-scratching pot scrubber and some oil-dispersing detergent like Dawn, and that should solve the problem.
Now I want popcorn.
Perry, sorry I’m a day late and a dollar short but have you ever thought of roasting your beans in one of those old “hot air pop corn poppers”?
A friend of mine does it way using small batches of Honduran coffee beans. He likes dark roast coffee (same as myself) and roasts them until the “second Crack”. Best to do this outside or someplace where you don’t mind the chaff floating around a bit.
Just google “roasting coffee in a hot air popcorn popper” or something to that effect.
I’ll start you out.
https://ineedcoffee.com/roasting-coffee-in-a-popcorn-popper/
https://www.rootsimple.com/2012/12/how-to-roast-coffee-in-a-hot-air-popcorn-popper/
http://coffeegeek.com/guides/popperroasting
Let me know how it works for you if you try this method.
Sky, thanks for the suggestion. I’ve seen discussions about air poppers before, but not with the kind of detail in the links you included.
It’s probably fair to say that a key question to this is that of cost/benefit. Is it worth the time, trouble, and expense to roast your own coffee, or better to stick to store-bought? All things considered I’d have to say– with limited experience– that it definitely is worth it but there’s a learning curve and a need to be very careful during the process.
An additional handy tool for this, especially when doing a dark roast, might also be a thermometer able to accurately read high temps. The difference between getting a dark roast you want and scorching the batch is likely in the thin margin between 450 and and 475 degrees.
Another way instead of fried beef is Buddig’s corn beef. Two packages works great.
Oh, yeah, and it’s got lots more flavor because it isn’t as dried as the chipped beef in the glass jar!