food | cooking with ron
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ravy is such an accepted aspect of American cookery that the word – and the food concept behind it – has embedded itself in the American idiom. Boomerang parents, frustrated by returned-home
slacker adult children, finally warn them that it is time to “jump off the gravy train” and fend for themselves. When jobs are secure and relationships stable, we exult in good fortune, content that “all the rest is gravy.”
get on the
Such familiar language attests to the role of gravy as a cooked, meat-enhanced tomato sauce overseen by rich and soul-satisfying accompaniment to American grandmothers and aunts. foods. But this quintessential American food was most But for our purposes here we are sticking with the likely brought to America in the great waves of migrabasics: gravy made from the residue of meat cookery, tion from the British Isles, where gravy had long been a deglazed (loosened from the cooking pan) with liquid cherished by-product of meat cooking. In America, the and usually thickened with a starch, and used to frugality demanded by life on the frontier, where nothenhance cooked meat. ing would be discarded if it could possibly be used, That is the technique for making sawmill gravy, which brought a new cachet to gravy, which is essentially a is slathered atop biscuits for an economical and rib-stickway to use the drippings or exuded juices of cooked ing breakfast; red-eye gravy, which captures the essence meats to enhance the flavor and of country ham and is also the texture of cooked food. perfect accompaniment to Of course, enhancing flavor shrimp and grits; and milk gravy, a and texture is what sauces do, so classic addition to fried chicken or the question arises: What, if anyother “chicken-fried” meats, often thing, differentiates a sauce from served with mashed potatoes, a gravy? In one sense, the main thing that differentiwhich always call out for some sort of gravy topping. ates them is the English Channel. That is, sauces are Gravy making is relatively easy, but one common very French, and gravy is indisputably English. problem is lumpiness, which can be avoided by the In a more culinary technical sense, gravy is made proper addition of flour or cornstarch to thicken the from the sautéing, frying or roasting gravy. The starch molecules in flour or residues of meat left in the cooking vesother thickeners react very quickly to sel. A liquid is added to these juices and hot liquids, which then clump around browned bits of meat and fat, the the rest of the flour, trapping flour inside residue is scraped from the pan and a soft shell, making lumps. The way to incorporated in the liquid reduction and prevent that is to avoid adding flour voilà! You have gravy. directly to hot liquid. Flour and cornSauces, on the other hand, are made starch will mix smoothly with cold BY RON MIKULAK | PHOTOS BY ANDY HYSLOP in addition to and separate from the water, or with warm fats such as melted meat or fish being prepared. Sauces are a mixture of fats (butter butter or oil. To avoid lumps, add the starch to the melted fat in the or oil), flour (for thickening the sauce) and a liquid (to attain the pan and stir well, cooking the mixture briefly to cook out the raw proper consistency of the sauce and to add flavor). flour taste. (For additional nuttiness in a sauce, cook the mixture Some issues of nomenclature and popular usage must be longer, until the flour starts to turn a golden brown. Just take care addressed at this point. “Gravy” can have rather far-reaching and not to scorch it.) Alternatively, make a slurry by whisking flour or idiosyncratic connotations in regional American cooking. In some cornstarch into cold water, in about equal proportions, until that parts of the American South chocolate gravy – yes, made with mixture is smooth. Add the slurry to the bubbling gravy about a cocoa – is a much-desired accouterment to biscuits, and for gen- tablespoon at a time, stirring and watching as the gravy thickens. erations of Italian-Americans, “Sunday gravy” meant a long- Add more slurry as needed, or stop when the texture seems right.
GRAVY train
It’s what makes comfort food comforting
Breakfast biscuits and sawmill gravy (Serves 4) For the biscuits: 21 ⁄ 2 cups flour, plus more for cutter 31 ⁄ 2 teaspoons baking powder 11 ⁄ 2 teaspoon kosher salt 14 Spring 2017 www.foodanddine.com
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed and chilled, plus 2 tablespoons melted 11 ⁄ 2 cups buttermilk
For the gravy: 2 slices bacon, finely chopped 8 ounces breakfast sausage
⁄ 4 cup flour 2 cups milk Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
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For the biscuits: Heat oven to 425 degrees. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Cut in the chilled butter, until pea-