Sawmill Gravy With Sausage – I Really Learned Something Here & The Eclipse

I’ve been eating sausage gravy all of my life and have heard the term sawmill gravy for a long time and I thought I knew about these two gravies, but I learned something today.  When I read the post for Sawmill Gravy With Sausage on the “My Country Table” ) blog, I scratched my head as I thought sawmill gravy was sausage gravy.  So off to do research I went – I love the internet most of the time.

For the years I’ve lived in Tennessee, restaurant gravy and biscuits was usually good biscuits covered with this white paste-like stuff containing little to no meat.  Well, as I just learned that that is Sawmill Gravy.  

Here is what I discovered:

“Sawmill Gravy is a southern variation of a traditional béchamel sauce. This country version is a white gravy that features bacon or sausage drippings and uses cornmeal and flour, as opposed to the only-flour in béchamel.  The name sawmill gravy comes from its early logging-camp-food and old-time sawmill roots. It was originally made with only cornmeal instead of flour, which resulted in a somewhat gritty gravy. It's said that the loggers would even accuse the cooks of putting sawdust in their gravy!  The main difference is that sawmill gravy is made with sausage or bacon drippings only, none of the actual sausage. It also has some cornmeal in it.  Sausage gravy is made with sausage and the drippings, and only has flour, no cornmeal.”

I think most restaurants use sawmill and sausage gravy interchangeably as evidenced by the pics and recipes that show up when you do a search on "sawmill gravy."  Cracker Barrel's menu says sawmill gravy and their recipe for it is on line - contains no meat.

Now that I know this and to put my knowledge to use I made this meal using a Pioneer Woman recipe that contained some onion, which I’d never used before.  This is her pic.

Dad taught me to make sausage gravy which contained only breakfast sausage, flour, milk, S&P but The Pioneer Woman one adds some sweet onion and additional herbage to hers.  I’ll be surprised if I like it better than my normal, but it sure makes sense to give it a try.  I changed the cooking instructions a little but the original can be found by clicking on the link.

Sausage (not Sawmill) Gravy - Adapted from The Pioneer Woman

1 lb. breakfast sausage (I only had frozen patties on hand)

1/2 cup chopped sweet onion

1/3 c. all-purpose flour

3 1/2 c. whole milk (see note)

1/2 tsp. seasoned salt (I used Lawry’s)

1/2 tsp. ground black pepper, plus more to taste

1 tsp. dried sage or thyme, optional

Salt, to taste

Biscuits, for serving

Note:  We usually buy a gallon of milk as it cost just $0.70 more than a half gallon and we usually pour about 3/4 of it down the drain (it does help the septic tank work) so we have recently begun using Fairlife Ultra-Filtered Milk which is lasting us much longer.  Fairlife is $4.99/52oz vs. $4.69/gal of Mayfield's (a little more than double) but we haven't poured any down the drain yet.  For longer shelf life, our friends use half & half which is $5.99/64 oz so a little more than Fairlife.

Directions:

Add the sausage to a skillet over medium heat and cook, breaking up sausage, until meat is nearly done (don’t let the sausage develop a crust that holds it together then pile it in several layers after the first chop as the spatula can cut up the top part before it hits the pan bottom).

Stir in the onion and cook until it is softened.

Reduce the heat to medium-low. Sprinkle the flour over the sausage and stir to coat. Let it cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the flour is lightly toasted.

I did this the day before so all I had to do for breakfast was reheat it and add the milk and seasonings – I had guys coming to work for me and I was in a hurry.

While stirring, pour in the milk.

Increase the heat to medium-high. Once the mixture boils and thickens, reduce the heat to medium-low.

Add the seasoned salt, black pepper, and sage or thyme, and let it simmer for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until thickened.  (I added with the milk)

Season with more salt and pepper to taste if needed.

When I took Bev and Pat to the airport Friday, I went by Bojangles and picked up a dozen of their delicious biscuits ($12.99) for my gravy.  These are the nine I froze but I saved out three to get me thru a few days before taking a break.  

Meal one is a biscuit with gravy sided with a gravy biscuit - but more meals to come.

My phone died just as I took the money shot and I thought I got it but didn't so please just envision those biscuits above smothered in the gravy - similar to this shot from the web.

Can you believe this whole gravy making event started from a comment on my blog by Big Daddy Dave that Pioneer Woman was his go to source for sausage gravy.

The Verdict:

The gravy was delicious and I may like it better than my plainer version but I'd have to do a taste test to say for sure but I would recommend this recipe.  The flour to fat to milk ratio was just right for the gravy thickness that I like and it was especially good over these delicious Bojangles biscuits - don't know why I hadn't thought of buying theirs to freeze earlier - I may never bake another biscuit (Bojangles are $1 each and Frozen Pillsbury Grands are $.40 each plus the energy and time to cook them and wash the pan and I think the much larger and better Bojangles are well worth the extra $0.60).

ECLIPSE

I couldn’t find our eclipse glasses and I didn’t need to see another one as this is how we spent the August, 2017 version that went right over us.

For this one, it was overcast here so I just sat on the porch and took a few shots of the sky and while we were a little under 90% of totality here in East TN, I couldn't tell any difference with my eyes or my pics and the cows sure didn't seem to care.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

4/6/24 event date