As taught to me by a friend from Texas:

quote:

Biscuits and Gravy

1 pound of your favourite breakfast sausage
1 onion, chopped*
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed*
1 tablespoon chicken-flavoured Better Than Bouillon*
1/2 to 3/4 stick of butter, as needed
1/4 to 1/2 cup of flour
Milk, as needed, as needed
Salt and pepper, to taste
A few red chili flakes and/or a bit of sage or parsley, as you choose*
2 cans of biscuits, or make them from scratch

* Optional

Crumble or cut up the sausage, brown it in a 9- or 10.25-inch cast-iron skillet over medium heat. When the sausage is nearly done, add the onions and cook until the onions begin to brown, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and cook for a minute more, then add the butter and Better Than Bouillon.

Stir the mixture until the butter is melted, then add the flour. Stir the mixture some more, taking care not to let the flour stick or burn to the bottom of the skillet. When the sausage us well-coated with the flour/butter mixture and the roux starts to brown, add enough milk to nearly fill the pan.

Stir the gravy often while bringing it nearly to a boil. When it starts to bubble, reduce the heat and continue to cook the gravy, stirring often to keep it off the bottom of the skillet. Add salt and pepper to taste, along with any other herb or spice you choose; be generous with the pepper. Continue simmering the gravy until it is at the desired thickness, then serve over split biscuits and enjoy.

Being Australian, to me a biscuit is something you eat with a cup of tea, what Americans call a cookie.......so what exactly is the " biscuit " we hear about in western movies and such?
Does someone have a recipe they would share so that I can make some for myself?

Roger

Roger,they are akin to approx. 3" diam. flaky,light "roll?"made from flour, salt,baking powder,+ buttermilk.They are very good + quite popular. The problem we have here in Texas is if you want some at the local cafe,you had better get there before 5:00 in the A.M.otherwise all the old coots will have eaten them all.Yep,they get there early,drink up all the coffee + eat all the biscuits + gravy then go home.Those of us who work are left with nothing.

.....still want to make some!

Roger

Here is a start

https://www.cooks.com/recipe/2...powder-biscuits.html

Do not over work the dough and just get the Fat of choice slightly mixed in

Another version, with a photo.

https://www.kingarthurflour.co...wder-biscuits-recipe

Yuma--My dad made the best biscuits I've ever eaten. As simple as the recipe is, I never could duplicate his, but mine are edible. I did give this recipe to another guy from Australia and I think it was buttermilk he couldn't get there so he substituted something. I have no idea what he came up with, but he liked it and a café there added it to their menu.


Here is how my dad made them. If anyone tries this, would appreciate feedback.


Use salt, self rising flour and buttermilk and make a somewhat moist mixture, if too dry add buttermilk and too moist add flour. Form biscuits by hand. (an Aussie not knowing what a biscuit is the best way I can describe is about like a hockey puck, maybe slightly thinner). Place on a greased platter and then turn over, so top and bottom is greased. Bake until tops slightly brown. That's it folks. Salt, buttermilk, self rising flour and grease for the baking platter.

That is SOUL FOOD!


.

quote:

Originally posted by JTEX:
That is SOUL FOOD!


.

Amen to that!

From the three recipe's supplied, thanks for them, they appear to be what we would call a Scone...pronounced sconn ...depending on whether they are made sweet or savory.....sweet with jam-Scone....savory- Cowboy Biscuit.

Roger

.....as a Biscuit, say for breakfast, would you cook them in the pan after the bacon or whatever?

When in civilization I rarely have a breakfast that doesn't have biscuits & gravy included. Gweenies in Anchorage has some of the best ever!

Biscuits and gravy with rare deer tenderloins my favorite meal.

For us South Pacific dwellers a scone is probably as close as we can get to the American biscuit . Probably a little drier in texture , but a scone , none the less

The best biscuits ever are by Joyce - frostbit lovely wife.

Made from scratch and just awesome.

Mike

First time I sampled biscuits and gravy I was at the home of Michael458 in South Carolina and they were absolutely delicious.

Like all Australians I was originally suspect as to why anyone would have gravy with "biscuits" but found that both elements of the meal are quite different in definition to both "biscuits" AND "gravy" that we use here.

Generally speaking "gravy" here in Australia is a brown coloured thickening "sauce" served with meats and usually made with the drippings left in the pan.
Yes, the biscuits are similar to our scones but not as dry.

The gravy served with biscuits in the U.S is generally light/white or creamy in colour, or at least it was in Sth Carolina and several other Southern States that I had them in after my first sample.

A very nice, light breakfast serve, or any other time of day for that matter.

My rule of thumb is that any liquid left in the pan becomes either a sauce or a gravy.

True,the dog is lucky if he gets the smell.

Somehow spinach gravy doesn't sound so good even though I like spinach.

quote:

Originally posted by carpetman1:
Somehow spinach gravy doesn't sound so good even though I like spinach.

Ok, I have some limitations...

quote:

Originally posted by Paul Truccolo:
First time I sampled biscuits and gravy I was at the home of Michael458 in South Carolina and they were absolutely delicious.

Like all Australians I was originally suspect as to why anyone would have gravy with "biscuits" but found that both elements of the meal are quite different in definition to both "biscuits" AND "gravy" that we use here.

Generally speaking "gravy" here in Australia is a brown coloured thickening "sauce" served with meats and usually made with the drippings left in the pan.
Yes, the biscuits are similar to our scones but not as dry.

The gravy served with biscuits in the U.S is generally light/white or creamy in colour, or at least it was in Sth Carolina and several other Southern States that I had them in after my first sample.

A very nice, light breakfast serve, or any other time of day for that matter.

The color of the gravy served with biscuits and gravy comes down to how long you cook the flour and how much milk you use. All the gravy is, is flour browned in pan drippings/grease with milk maybe a little butter. It is harder to do than the ingredient list. Some places call it saw mill gravy. I like mine a little darker than most and all you see in Restaurants.

Some folks in South California I supped with added Worcester sauce to it.

If you use milk you get white gravy and if you use water you get brown gravy.

quote:

Originally posted by carpetman1:
If you use milk you get white gravy and if you use water you get brown gravy.

No, it is how long you cook the flour in the pan and to a lessor extinct how much milk you use. Use milk, with browned up flour cooked longer and get a brown gravy, milked based gravy that you use on biscuits.

In cook books it is called saw mill gravy and pictures will be white. Cook that flour a little longer in the pan and you get even more flavor and brown coloring. All things being equal I do not prefer my milk granpvy as pale as a ghost.

Let me clarify. Yes, you can use water and get a brown gravy. But you do, can, and will get a brown milk gravy simply by cooking the flour longer in the pan. Try that and report back.

When I make some next week. I will take a picture and pm it to everyone who wants to seee brown, milk gravy.

LHEYM--Use water instead of milk and report back what color.

Traditionally around here in the coffee shops they serve white cream gravy w/ the biscuits.Both taste pretty fine however.

Anyone ever had biscuits and red sop. Not rd eye. Rd sop is a gravy made with coffe stired into the pan drippings. That is good eating.

Where my kinfolks came from, West Texas and Georgia, Milk was ALWAYS used to make white gravy or ANY gravy for that matter and "red eye" was made the same EXCEPT for adding in a bit of strong coffee AND cayenne pepper(or any kind of pepper) and basically burning it a bit to get the brown color...like making a roue, the color coming from the length of cooking time...

...and it was called "red eye" because it was made for very EARLY mornings when you got up for roundup or hunting, etc, and had "red, bleary eyes". Most of my men kinfolks(uncles and cousins) were railroad people(some cattle men) and "biskits'n'gravy" was a staple for breakfast...or that was the story from grandmothers.

I make it that way to this day, but I cheat, I use prepared gravy mix and frozen biscuits(still use milk instead of water) mostly and know EVERY good B&G restaurant withing 150 miles of my place...not many I can assure you, most use canned gravy and frozen biscuits...a few make their own biscuits or get them from local bakery's but most use canned gravy as it is labor intensive to do good gravy...those are the ones that feed me.

You ALSO HAD to include crumbled bacon or sausage OR BOTH and pepper for it to be "real" B&G gravy otherwise it was just considered "white sauce" to pour over certain veggies, stuffings and meats usually at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

In any event there are as many recipes/ways to make B&G as there are fleas on a dogs back...and most are well known to people of a certain age and older but not to many younger ones at least/unless they get them from "stop and robs"...my daughter-in-law never had B&G until she married my son and learned how to make it from my Mother...and my grand-kids???, they will eat the biscuits but NO the gravy...go figure.

Good Hunting

Yep,I cheat as well these days.The kids are grown + gone so why make the effort? But boy oh boy,they ate like kings when I still had them here.That's the beauty of the holidays;I can do it again,if only for a day.

I'm thinking that scones are not anywhere near as light and fluffy as a good biscuit!
I have never been able to make good biscuits, thought those that can make it seem simple and easy.

All those I know that make great biscuits say the trick is to work the fat in the least amount to get it throughout and do NOT work the dough any more than 'absolutely necessary!

One of the best I have seen (Bill W. up in MO)used the basic recipe on the back of the "Calumet Baking Powder" can and for the first time ever I do not have one here, bought store brand last time.

Biscuits and gravy
Biscuits and butter
Biscuits and butter and Good Syrup
Biscuits and butter and jelly
Biscuits and butter and Honey
So many ways to enjoy, but the secret is still starting with a GREAT biscuit!

Hi, guys -

Great replies, so far...I'm really liking the variations and discussion.

NOTE TO THE AUSSIES - I make Irish Soda Bread now and then, and in my opinion, it's just one great big biscuit. If you are familiar with that or have made that, just think of a bunch of little ones, about the width of the mouth of a pint glass, maybe a bit smaller.

My own opinion, but once I ekarned how easy it is to make the sausage gravy homestyle, I've never used a packet or can of gravy for Biscuits and Gravy, since. Fry up the sausage, add a little more fat of some kind and butter, then add flour, stir to coat and brown a little, then milk or cream. Reduce if necessary to desired thickness and season to taste. Easy Peasy.

Here's the one I swear by. A little more detailed than most.

Edna Lewis’s Biscuits

INGREDIENTS
• 3 cups sifted all-purpose flour 1 scant teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon baking soda 4 teaspoons Royal Baking Powder
• ⅔ cup lard
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk

PREPARATION
1. Take a large bowl, sift into it the measured flour, salt, soda and baking powder. Add the lard, and blend together with a pastry blender or your fingertips until the mixture has the texture of cornmeal.
2. Add the milk all at once by scattering it over the dough. Stir vigorously with a stout wooden spoon. The dough will be very soft in the beginning but will stiffen in 2 or 3 minutes. Continue to stir a few minutes longer.
3. After the dough has stiffened, scrape from sides of bowl into a ball, and spoon onto a lightly floured surface for rolling. Dust over lightly with about a tablespoon of flour as the dough will be a bit sticky. Flatten the dough out gently with your hands into a thick, round cake, and knead for a minute by folding the outer edge of the dough into the center of the circle, giving a light knead as you fold the sides in overlapping each other.
4. Turn the folded side face down and dust lightly if needed, being careful not to use too much flour and cause the dough to become too stiff. Dust the rolling pin and the rolling surface well. Roll the dough out evenly to a 1-2 inch thickness or a bit less. Pierce the surface of the dough with a table fork. (It was said piercing the dough released the air while baking.)
 
5. Dust the biscuit cutter in flour first; this will prevent the dough sticking to the cutter and ruining the shape of the biscuit. Dust the cutter as often as needed. An added feature to your light, tender biscuits will be their straight sides. This can be achieved by not wiggling the cutter. Press the cutter into the dough and lift up with a sharp quickness without a wiggle. Cut the biscuits very close together to avoid having big pieces of dough left in between each biscuit. Trying to piece together and rerolling leftover dough will change the texture of the biscuits.
6. Place the biscuits 1/2 inch or more apart on a heavy cookie sheet or baking pan, preferably one with a bright surface. The biscuits brown more beautifully on a bright, shining pan than on a dull one, and a thick bottom helps to keep them from browning too much on the bottom. Set to bake in a preheated 450-degree oven for 13 minutes. Remove from the oven, and let them rest for 3 to 4 minutes. Serve hot.

Those recipes are basic to biscuit/bread making, I've read a thousand of them going back to my great, great,yada,yada, yada grans cooking book and notes...all are basically the same with some various refinements and cooking methods...the internet is full of great recipes.

Every now and then I go on a kick and download a few of the more different ones and try them out. The all taste about the same more or less, I found nothing wrong with any of them so far, but I still go back the my basic recipe of milk (or buttermilk), wheat flour, salt/pepper, some leavening, Crisco (or lard now and then), a hot oven and a 3" round cutter(an antique tuna can that came from one of my grans) and mix the ingredients on an oval, pecan wood, hand carved platter some early kin made from a tree from a pecan plantation before leaving Georgia headed for the west coast.

"flat breads" or "biscuits" are ubiquitous to areas where wheat, refined to almost any degree, was available...for as long as wheat, "Emmer" has been available...wherever it was available. For those interested a few minutes of wheat's history would be useful/interesting...

For me, Scones are "biscuits" with sugar added to make them sweeter, a bit of leavening AND a finer grind of wheat to make the texture more like dinner rolls...of course you cut scones into shapes...triangles, squares, long rectangles, whatever...and you eat them with jams or jellies rather than gravy.

Aebelskive and Popovers are two other "biscuit" like breads with similar ingredients that came from other countries that make excellent munching.

There are a thousand ways to take wheat flower, a little liquid and a few other ingredients...put then together and cook any way you can.

What is what is also basic to what you were raised on/with.

AND... no matter what recipe you use or how you cook them...WHAT you were raised on determines what those gobs of wet wheat mean to you...BUT...THEY ALL TASTE GREAT...really basic "feel good food".

Good Hunting(and eating)

My wife's an Oakie, she has a Doctorate in BandG.

Well,that went over my head.But I must reinterate that the best time to get biscuits + gravy is before 4 A.M. ,when the old farts start showing up,otherwise they are gone.I do miss setting at their table when they recounted tales from the 30's ,etc.One does'nt get to hear that history 1st hand that often.

I love biscuits and gravy. My wife has used a gravy recipe for the last 40 years that she received from her best friend in Tacoma, Washington who used to own and run the Burger Hut down on the Tacoma tide flats. Seems that all of the Long shore men loved to come in early mornings (4-6 am) for breakfast and most of them had SOS (SHIT ON A SHINGLE). Choice was either on biscuits or on freshly made hash browns( from freshly shredded potatoes). The freshly made gravy has a 'ton' of fresh pork sausage in it and it is so addicting! Everyone who has it wants more and it never lasts! Damn, it's making me hungry just thinking about it!

DAMN;you're making me hungry as well. I can just taste it in my mind.

My mother in law made biscuits and gravy for breakfast Sunday morning. I ate so much I am still full.

NormanConquest and LHeym500:

Canned biscuits. Sacrilege.

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
Canned biscuits. Sacrilege.

I vividly remember one early morning whilst staying with friends in the U.S.
I had gotten up earl and was going to fix some scrambled eggs for breakfast.
My mate's wife found me in the kitchen with the fridge door open and asked what I was looking for.
"Eggs", I replied.
"Well, they're in the door, Paul"
As hard as I looked I just couldn't see the damned eggs.
Out of frustration (not a morning person) "where the frik as these eggs".
She walked over to the fridge and pulled out a cardboard carton with "eggs" in it. !!!!!!

You Americans have far too many conveniences !

Well Paul,I for one have lived w/o fresh water or indoor -plumbing for months at a time.I did'nt like it,but I did it.I find that that experience does wonders to appreciate what one has.Enjoy the eggs in the carton my friend+ thank GOD if you have some bacon or ham to go with it.