Biscuits and Gravy

Growing up, my father sometimes made biscuits and gravy.  He used canned biscuits, which I personally think are kind of gross.  Once you've had homemade, it's just hard to choke them down.  He would also make the gravy by frying the sausage and then coating it in flour.  This is simple, but I've found it yields very inconsistent gravy.  I prefer to use a roux.  Roux sounds fancy, but it's very simple- just a mixture of equal parts fat (usually butter) and flour, used to thicken sauces.  But if you want to impress people, you can add in that it's the base of the three "mother sauces" used in French cooking.

Let's start with the biscuits.

Buttermilk Biscuits

You'll need-
2 cups flour
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup fat (I prefer lard or butter, but you can use shortening)
3/4 cup milk

Preheat your oven to 450F.  Mix the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Cut in the fat- a pastry cutter is the easiest way, but if you don't have one, just mash it up with a potato masher and the rub the rest in with your fingers.  Do this until it looks like this-

Stir in the milk.  The dough will be soft and sticky, but it should still be workable.  Knead on a lightly floured surface (or with a kneading attachment on your KitchenAid mixer like I do).  Roll it out until it's about 1/2 inch thick.

Cut in to rounds with either a 2 in round cutter, or the bottom of a glass.  If you want the sides a bit crusty, put them an inch apart on the baking sheet; if you want them soft, have them touching.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.

I have 4 biscuit crazed children, so I usually double the recipe.  Now for the good stuff- the sausage gravy.  Mmmm.

Start by frying a pound of sausage in a cast iron skillet or dutch oven.

When it's cooked through, remove it from the pan and set aside.  There's hardly any fat, so don't worry about draining it.  Now to make the fancy roux.  Over medium heat, melt 1/4 cup of butter or lard and then whisk in 1/4 cup of flour.  It should look like this-

Next, you're going to SLOWLY whisk in 2 cups of milk.  Do it slow so it has a nice, smooth consistency.  Once it's all whisked it, keep stirring it over medium heat until it's nice and thick.  Don't add in any salt yet; the sausage is salty, so if you try to seasoning the gravy now, it's very easy to over salt it.  Once you have the gravy the consistency you want it, add the sausage back in and then salt and pepper to taste.  Serve it over the biscuits and it's pretty much heaven.