Sausage n Biscuits

So you read the Breakfast Sausage recipe and thought “nah, I wanna give my cardiologist both middle-fingers…“

Hardware

• Med-Large saute or frying pan
• Mixing Bowl
• Pastry Cutter
• Biscuit Cutter
• Fork
• A hand, two would be easier though.
• A mighty need
• Patience

Biscuits

Ingredients

[Read the notes below before going head-first into this part]

• 2.5C Buttermilk
• 6 cups Self-rising Flour
  • Extra for Kneading
• 1.5 tsp Salt
• .75 C Sweet Unsalted Butter (or Lard)
  • Plus .25 C Melted Butter, For Brushing

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 475 F.
2. In the bowl, sift in the flour and salt.
3. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, stirring gently with a fork just until it comes together. Dusk the work surface with flour and turn out the dough
5. Knead the dough 10-15 times
6. Add a little flour if it’s too sticky to knead
7. Roll out dough to ~1/2 inch thick and use a biscuit cutter to cut circles.
8. Place on baking sheet ~1/2 inch apart and bake for about 10 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown
9. Remove from oven and immediately brush on melted butter.

Buttermilk biscuits are done largely by look and feel, which comes with experience. There’s a reason the older folks are good at it. The trick is doing just enough, and never too much (kneading, handling, etc.). The age of the flour, how it’s kept, butter temp., and the ambient humidity all play a part in the final result. Welcome to the wonderful finicky world of scratch-baking.

Love, Not a Baker

Sausage Gravy

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 3 cups milk mixed with 1 cup half and half
• 2 lbs ground pork
• 2 tsp dried sage
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp dried marjoram
• 1 TBS brown sugar
• 1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 small pinch ground cloves (the bud, not the stem)
• salt and black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Mix the spices (except for salt and pepper) in a small bowl
2. In a larger bowl, add the pork and evenly cover with the spices
3. Mix together thoroughly
4. In a saute or frying pan over med-high heat, add the port as evenly across the pan as you can.
5. Allow it to fully brown on one side and start breaking it up and turning it over.
6. Once cooked, lower heat to medium and start dusting the pork with the flour about a TBS at a time, mix together, then add the next TBS.
7. After all flour is mixed in and sauted for a couple minutes slowly pour in the milk/half mixture while stirring/whisking.
8. Continue to slowly whisk the pan until simmering, lower the heat a bit and add salt and pepper.
9. You’ll be stirring and correcting seasoning until thickened, about 10min.
10. TASTE IT as you go. Taste is mild peppery up front, salty on the finish.
11. Turn out into a heat-proof bowl or vessel.
12. You’ve got a few options
    1. Bathe in it
    2. Serve in bowls and scoop up with biscuits
    3. Pour on top of biscuits on a plate

Bonus Round: Add a couple of fried eggs on top of that pile of gravy.

Love, Jimi

Notes

• Confession: I buy the frozen biscuits…
  • Simmer Down Laura Dean, I’ve had genuine scratch-baked buttermilk biscuits, I sort of learned to make them, and honestly… the ingredients are the same and they are, seriously, just as good as most if not all of the (dozens) scratch made that I’ve had–and that includes Old Southern Ladies’ recipes. I’m not joking, they’re really good, and save a lot of time and cleanup.
• I included the full recipe just in case you’re somewhere that doesn’t have good-quality frozen biscuits.