14 Ways To Upgrade A Classic Sausage Gravy

Sausage gravy, the classic companion to biscuits, is an American breakfast staple. It originated as a working class recipe created from low cost, available ingredients like pork and flour and fed lumber workers and other laborers across Appalachia and the South, according to The Washington Post. Today, sausage gravy is served everywhere from greasy spoon diners to posh brunch spots, and is enjoyed by folks from all walks of life, ladled over everything from biscuits to hash browns to fried chicken.

The classic sausage gravy recipe is about as no-frills as it gets: sausage, flour, and milk are all you need, along with salt and pepper for seasoning. While simplicity is part of the draw, if you're looking to upgrade your sausage gravy game, there are lots of ways to easily elevate this iconic Southern dish. Use these tips to perfect your technique and boost flavor, and you'll have a better breakfast in the bag.

To create classic sausage gravy, you need to start with fat. This will end up mixing with flour to be the thickening base of your sauce, known as roux. You can use any type of fat, but rendering fat from the sausage itself will enhance the meat's flavor in the final gravy. Browning the sausage in the pot or pan you plan on using for the gravy is the easiest process –- once the meat is cooked through, remove it with a slotted utensil, leaving the layer of fat behind.

Setting the sausage aside while you complete the rest of the gravy will keep the meat from overcooking and drying out. What's left in the pan is not just the fat you'll use for your roux, but also browned bits from the meat, known as fond. This substance can be utilized to deepen and intensify your gravy's flavor –- just make sure it isn't burnt, or that unpleasant flavor will taint the whole dish.

If your sausage is made from lean meat, such as turkey, or a vegetarian alternative, it may not give off enough fat to make a roux. In this case, adding more fat to the pan is necessary or your gravy won't thicken enough. Whichever fat you choose will impart its flavor to the final sauce, so keep that in mind when deciding what to use.

Olive or other cooking oils will work fine, but won't add much in the way of flavor or richness. Butter is a great choice -– you can even use brown butter if you want to add a toasty, nutty dimension to your gravy. Other animal fats contribute their own characteristics and can intensify the savory meatiness of the gravy, like duck and bacon fats. Using a combination of different fats in addition to that from the sausage is a great way to add depth, richness, and complexity to your gravy.

Now that you have your flavorful fat and your kitchen is no doubt filled with delectable aromas, it's time to make the roux. This is arguably the most important step in the gravy-making process. Make it incorrectly and your gravy can be lumpy, watery, or stodgy while perfecting your roux means you'll have a rich, silky gravy every time.

A basic roux consists of equal parts fat and flour cooked together until they create a smooth paste. The longer you cook it, the deeper its color will get, and the more intense its flavor will become. A neutral white roux only takes a few minutes to make and will do a fine job thickening your gravy, though it won't impart much in the way of flavor. However, cooking the roux for a bit longer — at least until it's blonde — will add more depth and taste to your gravy and biscuits.

For a classic country sausage gravy, you don't want to go any darker than blond or you'll completely change the gravy's look and flavor. Make sure the flour is completely incorporated into the fat before you move on to the next step to avoid any pockets of dry, uncooked flour in your final gravy.

It may seem like an odd and very specific ingredient to add to a sausage gravy, but a little pinch of freshly grated nutmeg adds a surprising boost of flavor. It's an essential addition to classic French mother sauces like bechamel, which is basically what a sausage gravy is: a roux with the addition of milk.

You'll want to grate whole nutmeg to get the most flavor and aroma out of the spice, as opposed to using ground nutmeg from that old shaker that's been on your spice rack for who knows how many years. Grating the nutmeg into the fat at the very start of the cooking process will intensify its flavor even more, toasting it to release stronger aromas and helping its flavor infuse the sauce at every step. You'll be astonished by how much of a difference a tiny sprinkling of nutmeg can make, adding layers of dimension to an otherwise simple sauce and upgrading it into something truly mouthwatering.

The concept of umami can be hard to define. Compared to the other four basic tastes -– salty, sweet, sour, and bitter -– umami has a subtlety that's difficult to wrap your head around, as Vox discusses. But without it, much of the food we enjoy just wouldn't taste as good. Its rich, deep, savory character is found in items as disparate as tomatoes and soy sauce.

One thing is for certain, umami-laden ingredients will enhance the flavor of just about anything you cook, including sausage gravy. If you're finding your gravy to be bland or uninspired, it might just need a hit of umami. Stir in some soy sauce or fish sauce, a spoonful of miso, or a dab of tomato paste for a quick boost. Finely-grated parmesan will also do the trick. While it might not be traditional, you can even start your gravy off with some sauteed mushrooms along with the sausage to bulk up both the texture and umami flavor.

If your gravy is tasting a little one-dimensional, another way to upgrade its flavor is to add acid. According to Cook's Country, an acidic ingredient is anything that has a pH level below 7, which is water. Lemon and vinegar are near the most acidic end of the spectrum. If salt and pepper aren't bringing out the flavors of your gravy quite enough, a few dashes of lemon juice or vinegar might just do the trick.

The addition of acidity tones down bitterness in food and adds a little zip and zing of its own, while also enlivening and enhancing flavors. Too much can make foods taste unpleasantly sour, but just the right amount can give your gravy the perfect balance. Besides lemon and vinegar, other acidic ingredients to have up your sleeve include wine, buttermilk, sour cream, and yogurt, while tomato and parmesan both do double-duty as acid and umami bombs.

A classic sausage gravy is a beautiful sight -– creamy white with coarse chunks of black pepper dotting its glossy surface. Without a liberal dusting of pepper, it's just not the same. It's what gives the gravy its final pop of flavor. You can add pepper throughout the cooking process if you really want to layer its intensity, or simply sprinkle it over the dish at the end -– freshly ground, of course –- to keep the pepper flavor light and fresh.

While basic black pepper is traditional, there's no need to limit yourself -– the world of pepper is vast. Within the black peppercorn family, there are many varieties, each with its own unique qualities, like the complex Telicherry or the intense Brazilian. Green peppercorns are underripe versions of black and have a fresher, brighter flavor. White peppercorns are often added to cream sauces for aesthetic reasons but have a unique flavor too. Mix all three together to create a particularly potent and delicious peppercorn melange that is sure to upgrade your basic sausage gravy.

Other types of peppers to experiment with include long pepper and Cubeb pepper, each with its own pungent character, and Sichuan pepper, famous for its mouth-numbing property. Mix and match these styles to create a unique, spicy flavor profile, and you'll have a truly upgraded sausage gravy.