Perfectly Southern Fresh Milled Biscuits and Gravy

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This is an easy, southern-style sausage gravy paired with perfectly flaky and buttery homemade fresh milled biscuits. This meal has quickly become one of our absolute favorites.

After you try these biscuits smothered in homemade sausage gravy, you won’t want to order biscuits and gravy from restaurants anymore. Other versions will pale in comparison to this amazing recipe. And good news – it is SUPER simple to make!

This sausage gravy pairs perfectly with our Buttery Flaky Fresh Milled Biscuits

How To Make Sausage Gravy Recipe

Homemade biscuits and gravy is an absolute must-try for the whole family. From the main course to all of the classic sides you can name, gravy is that perfect comforting staple to turn any meal into a delicious one. No Thanksgiving dinner is complete without a good old-fashioned gravy, and my favorite combo is warm gravy over the tops of the biscuits. Buttermilk biscuits made from whole grains, producing flaky layers and that signature buttermilk tang. Drizzled with this homemade sausage gravy, it makes the ultimate comfort food combo.

• 1 pound ground Italian or breakfast sausage
• 1/2 cup fresh milled soft white, einkorn, spelt or kamut
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 batch of our flaky fresh milled biscuits

In a sauce pan, brown the ground sausage over medium heat. 

 Reduce heat to medium-low and add the flour. Stir. 

 Pour in the milk, salt and pepper.

 Continue stirring while the mixtures heats and thickens. 

Serve over Fresh Milled Biscuits for a delicious and hearty breakfast.

What’s The Essential Ingredient To Perfect Gravy?

Fat! And in this recipe you don’t even need to separate the fat from the meat, all of that delicious sausage and fat goes right into the gravy, packing a ton of flavor.

This is also why whole milk is my preferred choice for this recipe over vegetable broth or water. It’s thicker than vegetable broth and maintains that creamy and smoky flavor we’re pairing together with the Italian sausage. 

I prefer to buy pasture raised pork from our friend’s farm down the road. If you haven’t tried pastured pork, you are in for a real treat! My sons are interested in raising a couple of pigs for the family – but until then, I will gladly support small local farms.

I also source our raw milk from a farm down the road. I love keeping our main food sources as local as possible.

Can I Substitute Flour For Cornstarch?

Cornstarch can be a reasonable substitute if you do not have fresh milled whole grain flours on hand, but there are a few things to keep in mind.

Cornstarch, because it’s pure starch, will have a slightly more thickening quality to it.

Because of this, you want to make sure you do not use too much of it or your gravy will become gummy and tough. I would recommend starting with a tablespoon of cornstarch and working your way up.

Cornstarch will lose some of its thickness if refrigerated and reheated.

But, if you are saving this recipe to use at a later time, just add a cornstarch slurry (1:2 ratio of cornstarch to water) and heat the gravy to thicken it up again.

Cornstarch also has very little nutritional value.

Cornstarch is composed only of starch, and can potentially raise blood sugar. This compared to using freshly milled flours, that contain a good source of fiber, vitamins, and minerals, including iron, magnesium, and potassium. So if you are trying to maximize the health benefits
of these recipes, opt for whole grains over cornstarch.

In addition to freshly milled flours health benefits, I find that flour-based gravy holds up better to being reheated again for leftovers, which is why I will always prefer using flour over cornstarch, and over all purpose flour.

4 Mistakes To Avoid When Making Gravy, And How To Fix Them

What I love about gravy is its simplicity. It’s quick, it has simple ingredients, it’s easy, and it’s also anti-waste, using all that fat that has collected in the bottom of your pan that you’re often instructed to throw out. Even still, there are pitfalls, and I want to help make sure you avoid them!

1. Your Gravy Is Too Thick

The longer you simmer gravy, the thicker it will become, and it can be easy to turn your back and end up with congealed and gummy gravy. I will go over this in the next portion, but adding a flour slurry or even a little bit of vegetable stock is a good fix to bring your overly thick gravy to the consistency you desire. If you do add vegetable broth, taste test the flavor to make sure the vegetable broth did not dull the seasoning you added.

2. Your Gravy Is Too Thin

The worst outcome, but easily fixable! If your gravy is still on the stove, you can just heat it a little longer to give it time to thicken up. However, if your gravy is simply too thin and the taste is exactly where you want it, cooking for a longer time might make your seasoning overpower. Here is, again, where you will make a slurry! Scroll down for that recipe.

3. Your Gravy Tastes Burnt

This can seem like the worst outcome to making gravy, but there are a few fixes and ways to avoid. One of the reasons your gravy can taste burnt is because of the time the Italian sausage was on the pan without stirring. You want to make sure the fat and the meat is being moved enough to not settle and sit on the pan, making it quicker to burn.

If you did all that and still ended up with a burnt flavor, no need to worry. An effective solution, and hear me out, is to add peanut butter! Peanut butter has just enough fat and flavor to mask that strong burnt flavor that can overpower your gravy. Peanut butter’s nutty flavor can not only mask the flavor, but can really complement the flavors in the homemade gravy we’ve created. Remember to add it to taste, and conservatively.

4. Your Gravy Is Too Greasy

Fat is an essential part to gravy, but sometimes that flavor can be overpowering.
If your gravy is too greasy to the taste, or has the appearance of a curdled or oily top layer, it likely just has too much fat and not enough starch. This is another thing that may be fixed by adding a slurry or vegetable stock. The excess fat will bind with the dry ingredients, reducing the greasy appearance and flavor.  Baking soda works in a pinch, baking powder does not.

4 Ways to Fix Lumpy Gravy

If you end up with lumpy gravy, pockets of your flour mixture, don’t worry — you do not have to dump it and start from scratch, and you do not have to spend a lot of time working those lumps out. So what is the best way to fix lumpy gravy?

A whisk. This is the first thing I would recommend. If you wanna save those chunks of Italian sausage, this is the best way to beat out the pockets of flour but leave the Italian sausage pieces undisturbed. It requires more effort, but should get the job done.

An immersion blender. If you have one on hand, I find that an immersion blender is the simplest fix but will sacrifice those sausage chunks unless you run it through a mesh first. You just stick it right into the sauce pan that you cooked your gravy in. Honestly, this is a great tool to have on hand when you are in need of a quick fix. But, if you do not have an immersion blender, don’t worry! I’ve got you covered.

A blender. Once your gravy has cooled to room temperature, pour the gravy into a countertop blender and blend on high speed until smooth. This method is an incredibly fast and easy mess-free fix. If your gravy comes out frothy, don’t worry. Once it has settled, it will thicken right back up again. Again, unless you catch the sausage in a sieve before you blend, you’re going to have a much smoother gravy with the Italian sausage turned more into a flavor than an incorporation. A food processor will yield similar results.

A sieve. This is a good method that always requires very little effort. With this method, make sure you have some of your thickening agent (flour) on hand, as running your gravy through a sieve will catch all of the lumps, including the sausage. Once you’ve used a sieve or fine-mesh strainer, pick out the sausage pieces and place them back into the gravy, and dump the flour lumps.  To avoid making the same mistake again, make a flour slurry in a separate bowl and add to your sausage gravy.

How To Make a Flour Slurry

If you’ve found that your homemade sausage gravy isn’t as thick as you’d like, and you want to add more flour to thicken it up, use a slurry to avoid adding pockets and lumps of flour to your gravy recipe.

In a small bowl, simply whisk flour and water in a 1:1 ratio to create a flour slurry. 

Be sure to use cold water, as hot or warm water will cause the flour to clump together.

Don’t confuse a slurry with a roux. The difference between the two is that a roux uses a combination of fat and flour, while a slurry is water and flour. Roux is added at the beginning of cooking, while a slurry is uncooked, needs no fat, and is added at the end of cooking. Slurry based gravies are silky a smooth, while roux-based gravies are a bit less silky. They both have their place in the kitchen.

Can You Freeze Gravy?

Yes, you can definitely freeze gravy! I love saving gravy to use in other dishes, and this is a great recipe that freezes well. Gravy can be easily frozen and will turn into a solid just like any other liquid.
If you don’t plan on eating up the gravy in a week, you can freeze it in an airtight container, freezer bags, or even ice cube trays. This flour based gravy will keep for a long time, from three to six months in the freezer. Remember to allow it to completely cool to room temperature before spooning it into your storage containers, you do not want to heat your plastic containers.

To thaw your frozen gravy, simply put your gravy in the refrigerator and leave it to thaw overnight. Then place the gravy into a pot and heat over low to warm. Stir frequently! Remove when gravy is thin and starts to show the first signs of boiling.

If you’re pressed for time, you can thaw your gravy containers in cold water just like you would with frozen meat. Just enough to pop out into a pan and heat over low heat just the same.

Why Is Biscuits And Gravy So Popular?

It’s not just a Southern thing!

The hearty meal of biscuits and gravy is a classic for a reason. Gravy used on biscuits is a centuries-old cooking method because of its filling nature and inexpensive ingredients. Because it consisted of cheap ingredients and easy to find ingredients to make your biscuit dough, like milk, salt, flour, and pepper, buttery biscuits and gravy became a simple go-to dish with little extra cost.
It’s a staple at most breakfast and brunch restaurants.

What Makes Sausage Gravy Taste Better?

The biggest mistake I find when making gravy is being too conservative with spices, you end up with a gravy that is wholly under-seasoned. This recipe is packed with flavor thanks to the use of Italian pork sausage, milk, and spices. Along with that is of course the signature flavor of our freshly milled flour, which often has a whole and nutty flavor that complements our other ingredients.

Should I Make My Own Freshly Milled Biscuits?

Biscuits are one of the best intro recipes once you’re on your way to milling your own flour because of the short ingredient list and 0 rise time makes it the perfect trial run and fool-proof recipe. That short ingredients list I mentioned is only flour, cold butter, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk. How much easier could it be? More good news is that you don’t even need any fancy tools, opting instead to use our hands over a pastry cutter or pastry blender, and you you’re free to use a biscuit cutter to cut the biscuits into their disc shapes.

Freshly milled flaky biscuits made with whole wheat flours are also going to far healthier and more nutritious than commercially made drop biscuits, which contain refined flour, added sugars, and unhealthy fats. So not only do these whole wheat biscuits taste better, they are also a whole lot better for you.