The Brits meet Dixie and she frightens them

My absolute favorite breakfast is my mom's (and now my) biscuits & sausage gravy. It's a Southern staple, and people who've never tried the real stuff are missing out. (Note: whatever they serve you at Denny's or from the big cauldron at gas stations is NOT the real thing. You must never let such an abomination pass your lips.)

So during the Christmas break I decided that I needed some biscuits & gravy and that WR needed to be introduced to the finer aspects of Southern cuisine. Turns out that a fun thing to do is tell a British person you are making them biscuits 'n gravy. Go on, try it sometime! They will look at you and say, "Biscuits . . . with gravy???" as they imagine someone taking a plate of Hobnob cookies and pouring a boatload of brown gravy over them. Then they start retching. It gets even better when you mention the sausage. Landlady J couldn't get over it, and started laughing through the dry heaves. Once I explained further she decided that I was making sugarless scones with white sauce and sausage. Which . . . okay.

I had to make the biscuits from scratch, since they don't actually make Bisquick here, and I had to forego the Jimmy Dean sausage in favor of Sainsbury's brand. But the end result worked, I think, even though the sausage-to-milk ratio was off in the beginning. And I wasn't too worried about whether WR would eat it, because the main ingredient is sausage, which I think might be his favorite section of the food pyramid.

So I served us both, took a picture especially for my blog friends, and proceeded to dig in. To my right I saw WR pick up a biscuit half with his hand and take a bite out of it.

WR: "Mmmmm . . . this is quite tasty!"

Me: "Oh my gosh, what are you doing???"

WR: "What?"

Me: "Um, you don't eat this with your hands. It's against the rules."

WR: "Why not?"

Me: "You just don't!"

WR: "But that's how the French eat it."

Me: "Aaaughh! Don't mention the French, my father will be reading this!"

WR: "Erm, not sure what the problem is here."

Me: "Because, people will see the pictures and they will know that I failed because you're not supposed to be physically able to eat this with your hands! The gravy is too thick and now everyone will know and the Daughters of the Confederacy will tell me that I'm out of the club and I'm not allowed to make biscuits and gravy anymore and I will die from the shame!"

WR: (calmly continued eating his meal, hoping that the rabid banshee next to him would eventually settle)

As soon as I finished my plate, I raced to the kitchen to add more milk to the gravy. The problem was that an English package of sausage is bigger than an American package of sausage, so I needed more milk to compensate. And that's all. I know what I'm doing. I do!

WR went back for seconds and ended up nearly finishing off the pan. I swear I've never seen anyone who can pack away as much food as he can. Also he was very complimentary and told me that he really liked it. That's the nice thing about cooking for WR--he always compliments the food and then usually offers to do the "washing up." And yes, he calls it that, which I think is adorable. Somehow in my egocentric world English people only use words like this because they know I get a kick out of it.

In case anyone wants to try this at home, here's the very simple recipe:

1 package sausage
3 or so tbsp flour
3 cups of milk
salt & pepper

biscuits (made from a mix or scratch)

Brown the sausage in a large saucepan--don't drain out the grease. Once cooked, sprinkle in the flour & stir to coat the meat. Add the milk and stir over low heat until the gravy thickens (about 10 minutes). If the gravy's too thin, let it cook down. If it gets too thick, add more milk and reheat. (Hint: If it's thick enough to eat with your hands that's bad!) Add salt and pepper to taste, serve hot over warm biscuits.

Extra points if you up the cholesterol quotient with a side of fried or scrambled eggs. Bonus extra points if you use a Southern accent for the entire meal.

Enjoy!

Posted in: England