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1800s-present - Southern and Appalachian cooks stretching pork drippings into milk gravy

Biscuits and Gravy

Name: Biscuits and Gravy
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients: 2 cups all-purpose flour; 1 tablespoon baking powder; 1 teaspoon kosher salt; 6 tablespoons cold butter or shortening; 3/4 cup cold buttermilk; 1 pound breakfast sausage; 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, for gravy; 3 cups whole milk; 1 teaspoon black pepper; Salt, to taste

Biscuits and gravy grew from practical working food: cheap flour biscuits, pork drippings, milk, and enough richness to carry a hard morning. Modern sausage gravy is the familiar diner version, but older versions often used salt pork or any available pork fat.

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Difficulty

Easy

Prep time

25 minutes

Cook time

25 minutes

Total time

50 minutes

Servings

6 servings

Region

South and Appalachia

Era introduced

1800s-present

Introduced by

Southern and Appalachian cooks stretching pork drippings into milk gravy

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The Story

Biscuits and gravy is often described as humble food because its ingredients are humble: flour, leavening, fat, milk, and pork. In Southern Appalachia and the wider South, milk gravy and sawmill gravy helped stretch pork flavor into a substantial breakfast for laborers. The modern sausage-gravy plate became a diner and family-restaurant standard, but the logic is the same as the older salt-pork versions: build a roux from pork fat, add milk, and spoon it over hot biscuits.