BISCUITS IN SAUSAGE GRAVY

FOR MY BROTHER’S SURPRISE 60TH BIRTHDAY, we all stayed in a Holiday Inn in Indianapolis, thankfully only a few floors from where we partied. It was a surprise that Jack swore he didn’t want, extracted promises that it wouldn’t happen and enjoyed enormously when it did. It was like every surprise party you’ve ever been to and what we all secretly hope will happen to us at some milestone in our existence—a roomful of kin, friends and acquaintances peeking from behind a door watching as we’re led unsuspectingly to a moment that overwhelms our insecurities and reinforces our always diminishing self worth.

Damn. They do care! Bartender, drinks for everyone.

And there were. The next morning we assembled in various stages of health and shuffled through a breakfast buffet line that surprised us as much as the night before party surprised my brother.

Normally, a buffet is where people reach under sneeze shields to grab dripping serving ladles lying askew in puddles of hardening sauces; oversized spoons set adjacent to steam trays of watery eggs and lukewarm fried potatoes; or long handled tongs sticking out of chafing dishes full of bacon that somehow remains rubbery even when overcooked or sausage links made of sage-infused sawdust.

The hot food is never as hot as it should be and the cold food never as cold. Whether it’s a $30 per-person upscale brunch buffet or an “all-you-can-eat-breakfast-included” suite special, the omelets are scrambled eggs and the scrambled eggs are runny. The eggs benedict are hard cooked with a Béarnaise sauce that wouldn’t separate under the heat from a blowtorch. Even the milk for the cold cereal—in a pitcher set on a bed of ice that keeps the bottom chilled (who drinks from the bottom?)—is warm.

But this breakfast buffet was actually quite good (except for the eggs benedict, which were hard-cooked to avoid food-borne lawsuits and the omelets, about which I have a thing). It had bagels and lox (probably my second favorite breakfast), creamy scrambled eggs, crisp bacon, fresh fruit and the best sausage and gravy over biscuits I ever had (until I tried my own).

A few months later, I woke up one Saturday morning thinking about that breakfast and decided to try my hand at sausage and gravy over biscuits. Although it’s billed as one of the most all American country breakfasts you can have—right up there with grits—its preparation is firmly rooted in French cuisine. The white sauce is simply a variation of Béchamel sauce, one of the classic French white sauces. Most people think of it as a heart attack breakfast, and they are right. You can use up more than half of your daily allowance of fat grams. But counterbalancing the fat with red wine, as I do with a steak dinner, just doesn’t work at breakfast.

If you’re determined to do everything from scratch, there are plenty of biscuit recipes available and they’re all fairly similar. If you want to make your own sausage, wait for my next book. For now, you can use store bought sausage and biscuits and enjoy the breakfast with much less hassle. This recipe can be expanded based on how many people you have for breakfast. And, it demands a working knowledge of making a roux—something critical to French and Cajun cooking, useful in many other cuisines and not as difficult as some people make it.

But let’s start at the beginning.Here’s what you’ll need for each serving.

Biscuits in Sausage Gravy:The Recipe

For each serving

Ingredients

2 biscuits (Use the frozen ones. They are hard to beat. Since they take about 20 minutes, put them in the oven before you start.

2 sausage patties (Buy regular breakfast sausage in a tube and slice off two half-inch slices. Better yet, make your own, but not that morning.)

1 cup milk, skim is fine.

¼ cup chicken broth, water is ok in a pinch.

2 tablespoons butter, for the roux.

2 tablespoons flour

Dash of Worcestershire

Dash of ground sage

Salt and pepper

First: Fry the sausage patties in a skillet—an iron skillet preferably—breaking them up as they cook. While they are cooking, warm the milk in a saucepan. When the sausage is done, dump it into the milk. Use the chicken broth or water to deglaze the fry pan and pour the resulting liquid and browned bits into the milk.

Second: Make the roux. Melt two tablespoons of butter in the fry pan. When the butter stops sizzling, add two tablespoons of flour and stir for about five minutes to make a roux (see page 228). It’s that simple. Just make sure the pan isn’t too hot—medium low is fine—and don’t let it sit still without stirring for any longer than it takes to pour a cup of coffee.

Third: Pour the warm milk and sausage mixture slowly into the skillet, stirring constantly. Increase the heat to medium and continue stirring. Add a dash of Worcestershire; a few shakings of ground sage or a pinch of rubbed sage (if needed), and salt and pepper to taste. Continue stirring until mixture thickens—about three to five minutes. It will be thick!

And finally: Keep the mixture warm until the biscuits are done. Split the biscuits pour on the sausage and gravy, and serve.