Grandma's Country Breakfast Gravy

"Are you hankering for the Country Breakfast Gravy like Grandma used to make? Maybe some of you have never tasted REAL homemade gravy over fresh baked biscuits. That stuff they serve at most restaurants these days is usually out of a gallon can, or started from a mix in a bag. You can easily identify it because it has a slightly-gray undertone, kind of like cream of mushroom soup's color and texture. Don't get me wrong - I love cream of mushroom soup. But I wouldn't put it on a biscuit. Give this creamy, rich GRAVY a try. You'll get the hang of it quickly, and pretty soon, as your fame spreads, people will be hounding you to make it for them."
 
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Ready In:
20mins
Ingredients:
7
Serves:
8

ingredients

  • 34 cup sausage drippings (maybe more) or 3/4 cup bacon grease, MELTED (maybe more)
  • 1 12 cups all-purpose flour (maybe more)
  • 3 (12 ounce) cans Carnation Evaporated Milk (Cream)
  • 1 cup water (or none, see below)
  • 3 cups whole milk, divided (if using 2% milk omit the 1 cup water above)
  • 1 teaspoon salt (to taste)
  • 12 teaspoon pepper (to taste)
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directions

  • Pour the Evaporated Milk, water and 2 cups of the whole milk into a large bowl; set aside.
  • Heat meat drippings/grease until hot, but not smoking. Slowly stir in the flour a small amount at at time until thoroughly incorporated and no lumps remain - (use a large, long-handled stainless steel cooking SPOON to stir the mixture with). Cook over medium-heat for a few minutes, stirring as needed to keep from burning on bottom. The texture should be a medium-thin paste in thickness; add a bit more flour, or melted grease, if needed, until proper thickness is attained. Cook and stir a few minutes until the rue begins to turn a LIGHT tan color.
  • Pour the cream mixture into the rue, and, using a large WHISK, quickly stir until all the ingredients are blended and no lumps remain. Stir in the salt and pepper.
  • Cook over medium-high heat, stirring often with the stainless steel SPOON, until desired thickness is reached. You may need to add the remaining 1 cup of whole milk it it gets too thick. (Rembember, the gravy will continue to thicken a slight bit as it cools.) Remove from heat; place a piece of plastic wrap directly on top of the gravy surface to keep a skin from forming if not serving immediately.
  • Note: You may stir in some breakfast sausage, (I use Jimmy Dean Original), that has been cooked and crumbled if desired. Just add this at the very end right before you remove the pan from the heat.

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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

My husband and I were married in 1978. We have two grown children, who have so far blessed us with 6 grandchildren. Our oldest granddaughter is expecting our first great-grandchild. We were empty-nesters for a while, but that changed when we welcomed into our home and became the parents of a sibling group of 3 young children. Our home is, and always has been, the gathering place for not only our immediate family ? but also for our large extended family, and various friends. People tell us that even if they?ve recently eaten, they?re always hungry soon after they arrive at our home. They like checking out our fridge for leftovers. Peeking into dishes or tins sitting on our buffet counter hoping to find something savory or sweet. (They hate to find an empty tin I?ve only set out for decoration.) And it?s almost impossible to cook anything in a crock-pot when company comes, because everyone is continually lifting off the lid to check the contents, and we know how much that slows down the cooking process. I?m a Kentuckian, and I mainly cook Southern foods. But I love to try out new types of foods and recipes. Mexican, Chinese, Italian. Indian, Greek. Irish. But no matter what I cook, if we have company they usually want me to fry a pan of potatoes to go with it. They?ve been known to fight over those ?browned? fried potatoes. And they?ll clamor for a pan of my homemade breakfast gravy any time of the day or night. (Notice I didn?t say homemade biscuits and gravy. The few times I?ve tried making homemade biscuits have made me decide to cheat in that area and buy store-bought.) As for desserts ? I love making them all. Cakes, pies, cookies, puddings. I love making the unusual ones, too. My poor family cringes when I get on a kick about making something entirely new. I?ll try out multiple recipes until I find one that?s just right. (Which means they had to first try all the versions that I didn?t really like, but wanted their opinion. You know how it is ? taste this? it?s terrible, but YOU HAVE TO TASTE IT.) I?ve tried out a few different recipes for Jam Cake with Caramel Icing, but I still haven?t found a good one. The cakes were either way too bland, or way too spicy. And my icing either had to be sawed when it cooled on one, or tasted like a plain sugar glaze on another. I can accept the fault for not being able to make the icing ? but the cakes should have at least tasted passable. Does anyone have a good Jam Cake with Caramel Icing recipe that they?ll swear by??? (Hope never dies.) Anyway, my favorite recipes are the ones handed down from generation to generation. And all the better if a story about them, or the people who made them, is handed down with them. I?ll never eat a strawberry, or a desert containing strawberries, without remembering how each June my parents would load us kids into the car and make the 3-4 hour drive down to Great Uncle Lawrence?s in Southern Kentucky so that we could pick the strawberries that grew wild on the tiny hillside along the road to the old plank house that he lived in. Those were the sweetest, most flavorful and juiciest strawberries that I?ve ever tasted. And I loved Uncle Lawrence dearly. He always spent as much time talking with us kids as he did with the adults. He?s long gone now, but I still remember how his eyes always sparkled and how he was always giving us one of his ready grins, usually accompanied by a heartfelt chuckle. Maybe he?s the reason those strawberries tasted so good. Neither my mother nor grandmother ever measured anything. When I decided to try to learn how to make some of my favorites that they made I used to drive them nuts following them around the kitchen trying to stop them from adding an ingredient so that I could measure it first. Now that I have children and grandchildren of my own I?m making a collection of my recipes that are my family?s favorites, so that they?ll be able to make them and pass them down one day. Hopefully they?ll look back with fond memories of something that tasted as good to them, as those strawberries did to me.
 
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