Sick day food craving NO NO'S

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I have to have milk to make sausage gravy.
That's the only way to make it.
Add butter and flour to the cooked sausage, then add milk till it's, you know, gravy.

What the hell else would you use to make it??

That's what I'm talking about!

[Reginald Ret]

A sausage is a closed unit, how does one add anything to sausage? with a syringe?

butter/fat/oil + water = tasteless gravy.
use the butter/fat/oil you used to cook the sausage/whatever for the taste.
water to make it thinner and flour/starch if you used too much water.
you can change the proportions of fat, water and flour to your preference but i've never heard of using milk.

interesting idea though. no idea what taste and texture that would give.

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

A sausage is a closed unit, how does one add anything to sausage? with a syringe?

butter/fat/oil + water = tasteless gravy.
use the butter/fat/oil you used to cook the sausage/whatever for the taste.
water to make it thinner and flour/starch if you used too much water.
you can change the proportions of fat, water and flour to your preference but i've never heard of using milk.

interesting idea though. no idea what taste and texture that would give.

oh honey.
you take the sausage out of the casing and cook it like ground meat. when it's brown you add a little flour to the fat in  the pan (adding a dab or 2 of butter if it's lean) and then add some milk till it's hot, thick, rich and gravy-like.
SAUSAGE GRAVY, usually served over biscuits or toast.



this. this is a southern staple (that i can't eat anymore)

[Freeky]

Why not?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

A sausage is a closed unit, how does one add anything to sausage? with a syringe?

butter/fat/oil + water = tasteless gravy.
use the butter/fat/oil you used to cook the sausage/whatever for the taste.
water to make it thinner and flour/starch if you used too much water.
you can change the proportions of fat, water and flour to your preference but i've never heard of using milk.

interesting idea though. no idea what taste and texture that would give.

Sausage is also sold loose:



She can't eat it anymore because sausage gravy is one of the fattiest things a person can put inside their body, and she has to watch her health.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

A sausage is a closed unit, how does one add anything to sausage? with a syringe?

butter/fat/oil + water = tasteless gravy.
use the butter/fat/oil you used to cook the sausage/whatever for the taste.
water to make it thinner and flour/starch if you used too much water.
you can change the proportions of fat, water and flour to your preference but i've never heard of using milk.

interesting idea though. no idea what taste and texture that would give.

oh honey.
you take the sausage out of the casing and cook it like ground meat. when it's brown you add a little flour to the fat in  the pan (adding a dab or 2 of butter if it's lean) and then add some milk till it's hot, thick, rich and gravy-like.
SAUSAGE GRAVY, usually served over biscuits or toast.



this. this is a southern staple (that i can't eat anymore)

Also a Western staple

I've been in every state between here and Texas, and I have not found one place that didn't have biscuits and gravy.

Also, chicken-fried-steak pretty much requires country gravy, which is made with bacon or sausage grease, flour, pepper, salt, and milk.

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

Why not?

cause it's some artery cloggin shit, yo.

I've been trying to eat healthier after the quitting smoking thing. I mean, if I'm not gonna have insurance than the least I can do is try to take care of myself a little bit. Right?

Nigel-- very true. it is a staple over there too. i think the chicken fried steak thing started in texas when the germans settled there and had their shnitzel but the veal was expensive so they used chicken... there's a story about it somewhere. i'm too lazy to look it up though.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Chicken fried steak is pounded beef here, breaded, fried, and served with milk gravy.

[Triple Zero]

what are the lumps made of in that pic??? please don't tell me it's flour globs?

and Regret:
you have the correct idea about gravy. except the taste is mostly not in the fat but in the dark brown bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. these dissolve in water (if they'd dissolve in fat, they wouldnt be stuck to the bottom of the pan)*. so you add the water (or wine, beer, stock/bouillon) to dissolve the tasty bits. yes you will scrape it off the bottom and not fear getting some carbon in your food the water doesn't actually make it thinner, if you stir a lot it will form an emulsion with the fat, which actually makes it thicker and more sauce-y. which is why you add the cornstarch (maizena) because emulsions are hard to make and the starch acts as a sort of emulsifier. which is why I suggest to try and add ketchup, because apart from adding tangy flavour and a bit of sweetness and acidity (always good) it contains an emulsifying additive stronger than starch (I found you really only need a few drops of ketchup).

About the saucage, sometimes people say "sausage" when they mean "sausage meat". Either way, can anyone explain me the difference between sausage meat and, say, minced pork?

Same I suppose when people say "gravy" when they mean "milk gravy"? Except more confusing.

* whoever tells you gravy is made from "the juices of the meat" is an idiot, by the time the meat is done and it's gravy making time, any drops of juice are evaporated and the browning and getting stuck to the pan part is essential for the flavour.

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

Chicken fried steak is pounded beef here, breaded, fried, and served with milk gravy.

DUH, that's what I meant. I worked 12 hours yesterday. Head not right.

000- the lumps are meat bits

[Jenne]

My mother's recipe, which is from the Bootheel region of Missouri (basically, NOT the midwest in culture, more like Kentucky, and the deep South near Mississippi), calls for MILK.  I have watched my (now deceased) great-grandmother from Sikeston, MO make her gravy in the morning after frying bacon and sausage, and it's milk that is used with flour to make it.  So NOT easy to get those lumps out, either.  (Not the meat-lumps, the flour-lumps.)  My mom always complains hers is not as smooth as Gangaw's.

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

Wire whisk, cast iron skillet.

Whisk it till your arm falls off.
Mostly lump-free.

[LMNO]

To have no lumps:

1) equal amount of fat and flour.

2) spread flour evenly across fat (no mound o' flour)

3) stir fat and flour together until smooth.  then add liquid, but slowly, stirring as you go.

Basically, all the flour particles need to be evenly coated in fat, before you add any liquid.

[Jenne]

(my mom's gravy is actually teh bomb, she just has that nasty tendency to complain about her own skills so others bring her up)

Great tips, guys!

[Jenne]

Wire whisk, cast iron skillet.

Whisk it till your arm falls off.
Mostly lump-free.

Ahhhhh...every good Southern/Western woman has herself an awesome iron skillet.