Biscuit n Gravy (Rea: live, flea market, drive)

[bentaxlecrew]

I just spoke to my Nan (grandmother) who is from Great Brittian. I asked her what they called biscuites and she thought for a while and replied "hotcakes" Then what Nan do you call pancakes? " pancakes" she said. As if I were silly. She makes these cookies (oops I mean biscuits) that are soooo good! Thier called welsh cakes. If you let me in on the cookie exchange I will mail ya'all some!

[Northwoods Voyager]

Got home late from the office. Hubby hadn't ate yet. Fixed Flaky biscuits, Jimmy Dean Maple Sausage, GRAVY and Cage Free eggs for him. I had Slim Fast all day, sooooooo yes I ate some of this also. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm good. Now I think I'll go sit back and relax or just play around here for awhile. Good grief, I am stuffed

[bentaxlecrew]

LOL! This thread has every one eatin biscuits and gravy this week! Stores are probably wondering whats goin on!

[MrsMo]

For the gravy I just brown a pound of good sausage, when browned well I stir in about 2 - 3 tablespoons flour and some salt and pepper, stir til the flour is browned, then slowly add 1 can evaporated milk, keep stirring so the gravy doesn't stick, I then add regular milk til I get my gravy to the right consistency. (The longer it cooks the thicker it gets.

[kareybear]

Great tip MrsMO... I won't be able to make biscuit n gravy for awhile. Dh has a cold and he wants me to make chicken soup. He looked at my eyes and said not the can kind. I said drats.... So off I go to the store to get a whole chicken and all them good stuff for the soup. No can broth either bummer. Got to get cooking.

[kareybear]

Yummmyyyy I had my first home cooked meal of Biscuit n Gravy last night done by ME. One of Bestest Friend named 2be gave me a perfect homemade biscuit recipe except I made my I cooked on pan of biscuit thin and they came out like hockey puck don't fret the second batch came out delicious. My Dh came home and made me pop one in his mouth... He loved it and the dah Gravy was delicious.Whooo Hooo thank you my friend... I love it. Gonna have the left over tonight. Yummy Yummy I can't wait.

[2beamissourian]

What chicken in a can ......... heck ya got it easy ya got to go to the store and get the chicken ................ lol

we do the heads off ... plucken here .......... (yea I hide inside and tellem dont u bring those things in my house to clean either!)

chicken in a can lol

[jdslady]

OH ya'll are making me sooooo hungry. I'll be so glad when I am retired an home more so I can cook more than just breakfast !!!!!!!!!!

[Tim-n-SEMO]

Hi

I'm a biscuits & gravy fan too.....but it's VERY rare that I find any as good as my own. My mother's are very close, but not quite there.

My family has had restaurants for generations now, and we've specialized in down-home food....I've trained lots of people to do this, and it takes a bit of practice & experience to get it down pat.

You'll notice there's not much of a recipe to either one, it's as much of a technique as a recipe....that's the key to it all. You'll want a pan with a HEAVY bottom, at least, to do the gravy--that'll help prevent scorching, and there's few things worse than scorched gravy.

Gravy (white gravy, milk gravy)

Basically milk sauce made with light roux.

Cook sausage, about 1#....mash it with a spoon or spatula till it's crumbly as you'd like.
Remove sausage from pan...SAVE the rendered grease (just leave it in the pan). You'll need about 1/2 cup or so, maybe less.....that should feed 4-6. Add a bit of butter if you got particularly lean sausage (or that saved bacon grease LOL).

Return pan to heat, add a roughly equal amount of flour & stir/whisk to form a medium paste (holds shape for a bit when stirred, but melts back down level semi-slowly). Stir & cook--see below.

Here's the part most people don't get--for good gravy, you need to cook your roux a bit, not as much as a Louisiana-style roux, but a light blond roux. What I've told people I train is "it'll start to smell like popcorn that is borderline burnt." If you don't cook your roux first, your gravy will have a "pasty" flavor/texture.

Add milk, at least double your amount of grease or flour, mix until smooth & reduce heat to simmer. Mix/whisk frequently (depending on how heavy your pan is), and JUST bring to a boil.

You'll be able to tell by this time whether you'll need to add more milk....add a little at a time, stirring in completely. Bring back to a boil/simmer (or nearly) between each addition.

HINT: Once your gravy is at/near a boil, the flour has no more thickening power. Gravy will thicken some more as it cools, but boiling more than necessary to thicken is a BAD THING. If you should accidentally get too much milk in, do not add flour directly to your hot gravy, mix it into a small bowl of milk first--this will avoid lumps. Make sure to bring the gravy back afterwards to a simmer/boil if you do that.

Once you're gravy is as thin/thick as you'd like, add your sausage crumbles back in, season to taste with salt & pepper.


BISCUITS

I notice you said you make your own pie crust.....making biscuits is a very similar process & recipe. Most traditional pie crust recipes call for a 1:3 to 1:2 shortening to flour ratio as the base (1 cup shortening to 3 cups flour, etc) I have found that 1:6 ratio works well for biscuits....1 cup flour will make maybe 2-4 biscuits, depending on size. I usually do 2/3c shortening & 2c flour for two of us & have extras.

When you've decided how many biscuits you want, put your flour in a large mixing bowl first. Add 1 tablespoon (T) baking POWDER for each cup of flour (maybe a heaping T), 1t salt (more or less to taste)per C of flour, and sugar if desired (a bit of sweetness & helps browning) 1T+ per C flour. Mix all dry ingredients thoroughly.

Add the appropriate amount of shortening (making with more than 1/2 butter will be too moist, btw) to the flour, and mix as you would for pie crust.

For me, that's tossing the shortening in the flour to coat, and then breaking the shortening into smaller pieces by hand. I toss the smaller pieces in flour to coat well, then take a handfull of mostly flour & some shortening lumps in my left hand. With my handful of flour & such, I then take my right palm and use a mashing/sliding motion (from my left wrist towards fingertips) to blend the mixture together. This produces large flaky-looking pieces. I drop whatever is left in my hands & pick up another handful of mostly unmixed flour & shortening and repeat. Continue until mix is fairly homogenous.

HINT: slide your bowl back and forth quickly on your countertop (8-12" or so) to make the big, unmixed lumps rise to the top.

When your mix is fairly even & about like VERY large oatmeal or so, you add your liquid. Add approximately 1/2 c liquid for each cup flour. Mix VERY lightly at this point, just till it comes together. You'll want a kind of loose dough, that mounds up slightly, but does spread.

LIQUID: most of the time, I just use (whole) milk, usually B&G is a spontaneous thing & I don't often have buttermilk around. Buttermilk does add an extra tang & a bit of richness. Buttermilk is also a bit more acidic than milk, which give the leavener in the baking powder a bit more ooomph. If using plain milk, you could add a bit more B Powder or you could also clabber your milk with a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice. It's pretty much a matter of taste, mostly. My mother & both grandmothers would also use milk that had turned slightly sour & it made great biscuits (and I'm still here to tell about it).

Next, HEAVILY flour your counter (maybe 2x-3x what you would for pie crust).

Pour your biscuit dough out (it'll spread some, but shouldn't run everywhere). Sprinkle heavily (& evenly) with flour, more than what you'd need just to handle it easily. Pat it out till it's even & somewhat regular.

Hopefully it'll just be thick enough to handle. Starting from one shorter edge, fold about 1/3 of the dough over toward the middle. Do the same from the other side. This should form an elongated, flattened spiral 1/3 the width of the original. Pat out to somewhere near the original size & repeat (including the heavy sprinkle of flour).

By this time, your dough will have absorbed some of the flour & be stiffer. If it's not stiff enough to cut & handle, sprinkle & fold again.

EXPLANATION: the heavy sprinkling of flour further creates "flakiness" in biscuits, in addition to the flour/shortening lumps. The flour layers make them split more easily, also.

Pat your biscuits out to your desired thickness. Cut to your desired size. A sharp cutter (round cookie cutter, etc) will work better than a dull one (like a tumbler/glass). The sharp cutter will cut through your layers you've created, whereas a dull one will mash them together & hinder the rise from the leavener.

When baked, they will roughly double in height, depending on several things: leavener strength/age, liquid acidity, liquid amount, spacing in pan, cutter sharpness, and oven temperature.

If you like biscuits thick & fluffy, pat out to 3/4" or a bit more & bake at 350....if you like them crusty & crunchy, pat out to 1/2" or less & bake at 425....or somewhere in between. Bake on a oiled cookie sheet until they're as brown as you'd like.


Hope that helps,

Tim

[Huckleberry3911948]

biscuits biscuits biscuits yes!!!