I felt foolish when I announced to my friend that I made biscuits and gravy similar to that of which her grandma had made for us when we were in high school and she informed me that her family makes bacon gravy, not sausage gravy. I had never heard of bacon gravy! Admittedly, the recipe was pretty much nothing like her family’s biscuits and gravy. I mean for crying out loud, it was made with canned biscuits. So as soon as Donna informed me I got the recipe wrong, I set out to make her family’s biscuits and gravy. Or something close enough.
She texted me her family’s recipe. This is what she said:
- I’ll need to get the biscuit recipe but know that it was never written down so it’s all by how it looks/feels.
- Self rising flour buttermilk and bacon grease to top the biscuits
- ½ c buttermilk for every c of flour
- Mix the flour and buttermilk, then when you put it on your cookie sheet (it will be thin/runny) you spoon a little bacon grease on top.
- Cook bacon. Use some of the grease to start your gravy by adding flour
- A pound of bacon cooked. Then use about 3-4 TB spoons of grade (grease) to 2 TB spoons of flour. Then if you need to add extra grease or flour you can. You use all purpose flour with gravy. Salt the rue (?) a little., brown it (have to watch it because it will burn). Then add some milk (use the bowl you will pour your gravy into and fill ¾ of the way full (if you want that much gravy)…depending on your bacon grease/flour amount, you add your milk in parts). Add some milk, stir in mixture, you can always add more milk.
- You can’t add more grease/flour cause that’s it’s own process.
- Stir milk, turn to medium high, it thickens and bubbles, then can turn it on low and stir occasionally as you finish your stuff but you have to stir often enough so it doesn’t create film on gravy.
So I followed Donna’s recipe to a T for the biscuits but ended up with a stiff dough instead of a dough with runny consistency. So I treated them like I would other biscuits and cut them out instead of dropping them onto my cookie sheet. Here’s my rendition of Donna’s family’s biscuits and gravy recipe.
biscuits and gravy ingredients.
- 1 lb bacon
- bacon grease
- bacon gravy
- biscuits
biscuits and gravy directions.
- Fry the bacon over medium-low heat, reserve the bacon grease.
- Make the biscuits. While the biscuits are baking, make your gravy.
- Assemble the dish. Pile the gravy and bacon on top some biscuits. Or dunk biscuits into a bowl of gravy mixed with pieces of bacon.
biscuit ingredients.
- 3 c. self-rising flour
- 1 ½ c. buttermilk
- bacon grease
- sea salt
biscuit directions.
- Heat oven to 425 degrees. Grease a pan with some bacon grease.
- Measure the flour into a medium-sized bowl. Scoop the flour into a one-cup measuring cup, level, dump and repeat two more times.
- Make a well in the center of the flour. Pour the buttermilk into the flour and use your hands to fold the flour into the buttermilk. You will get a shaggy lump of dough. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and fold once or twice. Cut out dough with biscuit cutter. If you don’t have one you can use a drinking glass. Refold the dough scraps and continue to fold and cut until there’s not enough dough left to make anymore biscuits.
- Place on prepared sheet. You want the biscuits to be nearly touching. This will prevent them from spreading out. Brush with bacon grease and sprinkle with sea salt. (I used flakey sea salt.)
- Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until lightly golden brown on top. Eat immediately.
bacon gravy ingredients.
- 6 T. bacon grease
- 4 T. all-purpose flour
- 2 c. milk or heavy cream
- salt and pepper to taste
bacon gravy directions.
- Over medium-high heat, mix the grease and flour together to make a roux. Cook for a minute or two until the roux is bubbling. Don’t let it burn.
- Add in the milk or cream and stir vigorously to make sure the gravy is free of flour lumps and clumps. Add more milk if you want to thin out your gravy. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately as a skin will form over the gravy when you let it sit.
Making biscuits and gravy is really a lot easier than what one might think. It’s also a bit experimental. Though I know you’re not supposed to add more grease or flour to the mixture once you’ve added the milk, I did. I added more bacon grease because I tasted the mixture and it didn’t taste bacon-y enough. I’m not sure how much I added but it incorporated into the gravy perfectly nicely if you need to do the same thing. I can’t vouch for adding more flour though if you think your gravy is too thin. I would recommend cooking it longer. It also seems to thicken abruptly when it begins to cool.
I am in love with this recipe. Too bad it’s so easy to make. It means I’ll probably make it more often now!
Recipe rating:
Food Snob 