How to Make Sausage Gravy, from Scratch

Okay, today I said I would share my son's favorite recipe for sausage and gravy to go on the biscuits of Hardee's fame. At Hardee's they take expired sausage patties and chop them up grab a scissors and open the dried sausage gravy mix and add water, simmer over a low heat.

Fortunately, for my son and you, that is not how I make sausage gravy. Along the way from there to here, I worked in some excellent restaurants. Most of the work I did was management and front of the house work; but because I was interested, the chefs were only to willing to show me how things were done. I've done my stints as a sous chef as well, but the business management and supervision was always more where my true talents lie.

Now, onto the recipe for scratch sausage gravy!

In a medium sauce pan over LOW heat, melt:

3 T. butter

With a whisk, after the butter has melted blend in:

3 T. flour.

It is important to have a cup of milk measured out and sitting on hand.

What you are making at this point is a roux. You want to bring your mixture to the bubbling point, but not burn it. The flash point between these two options is very thin. Once the butter and flour has been combined and is slowly bubbling, whisk the mixture slowly and add the milk. I use 2%. I tried to use 1% and it was a fail.

During the making of this gravy, preferably after all the ingredients have been added, you will want to bring this mixture to a boil for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. This can happen with just the butter and flour in the pan or after you have added the cup of milk.

Now add the additional ingredients:

3/4 cup additional 2% milk
1 tsp. black ground pepper
1/4 tsp. salt
1 /2 tsp fennel seed
a dash of paprika
a dash of crushed red pepper
2 bay leaves (Remember to fish these out, they are not a prize!)
2 sausage patties, cooked (I use the microwaveable type), and chopped into 1/4" size pieces

Simmer at the lowest heat you can for about 5 minutes. I typically start the gravy right after the biscuits go in the oven, and turn off the heat to the gravy and cover after it has simmered for 5 minutes.

This is enough gravy for the 12 biscuits you can make from yesterday's biscuit recipe. It should feed 4 to 6 people; unless of course, you are feeding basketball players looking for carbs, like my son.

Enjoy!