Northerner needs to learn how to make Sausage Gravy

[6bg6ga]

ground beef for SOS is a abomination

Properly made SOS is great. Improperly made its dog food.

[MaryB]

Grandmother on Mom's side used to make hamburger gravy... 1 pound of burger, gallon of water, and lumps... to this day I can not eat it... The memory of that bad hamburger gravy triggers a gag reflex... and no I did not learn to cook from that Grandma! Dad's mom was the farmhouse chef!

[texasnative46]

MaryB,

Would you like to have the OFFICIAL 10th Mountain Division recipe for SOS??
(GREAT stuff, imVho)

yours, tex

[6bg6ga]

Getting rid of the lumps is a simple matter. Simply put flour or flour and corn starch in a pint jar with warm water put the lid on and shake like hell. The lumps will be gone. Simply pour a little of the thickening mixture into your sauce and keep stirring a little at a time. The result will be a lump free gravy.
My wife used to drive me nuts with her gravy to the point where I strained it before putting it into a gravy boat. Naturally straining it irritated her to no end and when I introduced the shake and combine method everything went back to normal. No lumps no more.

[AllanD]

MaryB,

Would you like to have the OFFICIAL 10th Mountain Division recipe for SOS??
(GREAT stuff, imVho)

yours, tex

Don't ask, just post it already!

Though I'll tell you just to be truthful, I'm not a cook that works from a recipe except as a starting point.

In point of fact I don't make things like Hamburger helper without reading the instructions and doing something very different.

Like the hamburger helper stroganoff, the instructions call for both milk and water, I use only milk(I've been known to ad Half&Half cream!), plus I add Onions and Minced Garlic, sometimes I even add a couple tablespoons of smoked paprika to convert it to a kind of milky Goulas.

I should note that I have an "unfair" advantage called Talent (inherited) in addition to any kitchen skills (learned) because my Mother was a great cook and some of it rubbed off, but she came from a Family that ran a "Bed & Breakfast" in conjunction with a sort of "Dude Ranch", in thee 1940's and 1950's
(until the horse barn burned down in 1952) and my grandfather was one of those cooks who would mix up pie shells or biscuits in the flour sack, which is something I've never actually never tried.

[Outpost75]

S.0.S. Recipe - U.S.M.C. Style, from Sgt. Grit Newsletter Dec. 3, 2009

Everyone recalls the famous pre-invasion Marine Corps breakfast of steak and eggs. However, that was not the normal morning meal served aboard transports as they slowly plodded across seas to deliver Old Breed Marines to their next combat venture.

Once in a while a great document of historical importance concerning the Marine Corps comes to light. This is not one of them, but worth printing for those of you who miss the famous, everyday meal commonly called S.O.S. One note of interest, did you know Marines had their own 'special' recipe, which differs from any other branch of service?

S.0.S. Recipe - U.S.M.C. Style 1-1/2 pounds extra lean hamburger or ground chuck
2 tablespoons Butter (Oleo only if none)
1 cup freshly cut chopped onion
2 tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons granulated garlic
4 tablespoons Soy Sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
2 cups milk
Salt and pepper to taste

Brown meat, add butter and stir. Add onions and cook until they are translucent. Add flour, stir and cook two to three minutes. Add garlic, soy sauce and Worcestershire. Mix thoroughly. Add milk and stir till it thickens. Serve on a shingle (toast}.

It's now time to rush to the grocery store to get any ingredients you don't already have. One must keep this in mind before leaving the house. You either: (1) miss the Corps terribly and should volunteer for fleet duty, (2) have a great desire to do bodily injury to yourself, (3) suffer from dain- bramage or, (4) have neighbors you can't stand and want to invite them to a special dinner. Before doing option #4, suggest you dig a slit trench in the back yard in case of emergency gastric distress imposed upon your guests.

Written (with tongue-in-cheek) by Historian, FMDA

[Thundarstick]

Ok ok, I'm going to try to save your soul(at the risk of losing mine), but here goes.

Number one. I realize sausage recipes are very regional! We have a large processing plant here that makes sausage for distribution to the whole country. When my uncle worked for them the employees could buy overruns very cheaply so the family got to try out all kinds of regional fair, that ironically was produced there, but couldn't be had in local stores. Try to get Southern sage sausage. Get you some Pioneer brand Country Sausage Gravy Mix, yes, powder in a pouch, I know, I know. Crumble up and fry the sausage til brown, reserve the pan and grease. Make up the gravy according to instructions, except use about a quarter cup more water per pouch. Now pour that into your sausage skillet on simmer and desolve the scrapings and grease into the gravy, add the sausage back into that, and it ain't half bad. Not scratch, but not half bad.

I'll trade you for some smelt and pasties! O, and fall fresh MI apples!

[redriverhunter]

The not so healthy version. 1 pound of breakfast sausage--1 stick of real butter--whole milk--flour--
Fry the sausage in a pan I use a potato masher because I like my sausage in small bits, once cooked put in the stick of butter under low heat or just turn off. I take about a pint and a half of milk and put it in a jar add (I am guessing) 1/4 to1/3 cup the flour the milk. I take a small whisk with a round hand and run it back and forth (like you were trying to start a fire with a stick) in the jar to mix the flour and milk. you want the milk and flour all mixed up. get the sausage and butter between warm and hot add the milk and stir until desired thickness

[MaryB]

Nope, can't eat it, it literally would trigger a barf reflex after Grandma Nelson's bad food... just the look of it makes me queasy

MaryB,

Would you like to have the OFFICIAL 10th Mountain Division recipe for SOS??
(GREAT stuff, imVho)

yours, tex

[Nueces]

A few times after I got my commission was I able to partake of the SOS in an airman's dining hall. We could eat there when on duty and the O Club was closed. Man, nothing since compares with the hearty breakfast served there. Fresh scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, SOS on a toast, short stack, coffee and OJ. I recall it costing me maybe a little over 2 bucks in the 70s and 80s.

Can any of you worthies provide the recipe for USAF SOS? Those of you who grew up on the Army, Navy or Marine versions understand that I want the home team version, no matter how good y'all think it was in the other services. It'll be like being back in the squadron.

[frankenfab]

I started putting a little bit of dried minced onion in my gravy after had it that way on a food truck 15 years ago.
The cook was a black lady who made a very mean bowl of sausage gravy with potatoes, biscuits, and eggs.
I put just a good sprinkle on top, right after I put the milk in. A minimal amount.

[Lloyd Smale]

easier way is to mix the flour in with the meat before you add the liquid.

Getting rid of the lumps is a simple matter. Simply put flour or flour and corn starch in a pint jar with warm water put the lid on and shake like hell. The lumps will be gone. Simply pour a little of the thickening mixture into your sauce and keep stirring a little at a time. The result will be a lump free gravy.
My wife used to drive me nuts with her gravy to the point where I strained it before putting it into a gravy boat. Naturally straining it irritated her to no end and when I introduced the shake and combine method everything went back to normal. No lumps no more.

[6bg6ga]

easier way is to mix the flour in with the meat before you add the liquid.

I think your making a rou? Don't know how to spell it. I'm so used to doing it my way that its hard to change. The wife does it that way when making SOS and still get lumps. My way=no lumps and I can control the thickness.

[rockrat]

roux --I think

[shooterg]

OK on sausage gravy - but I like to make gravy with fatback grease - milk,flour,pepper. And the fatback is tasty on those hot biscuits too - sometimes with fried apples or apple butter. This thread has changed my breakfast plans for tomorrow !

[Blanket]

Made SOS for supper tonight. stick of butter, 16 oz of dried beef, cooked together, add 1/4 cup of flour, cook a while longer. Stir in 2 cups whole milk, grind in a bunch of black pepper and cook to thicken. Served over toast yum

[William Yanda]

You're making a North/South thing out of a city/rural thing.

[AllanD]

You're making a North/South thing out of a city/rural thing.

I think you are right...

[Thundarstick]

Y'all just need to stick to the bagged powder stuff.

[6bg6ga]

Made SOS for supper tonight. stick of butter, 16 oz of dried beef, cooked together, add 1/4 cup of flour, cook a while longer. Stir in 2 cups whole milk, grind in a bunch of black pepper and cook to thicken. Served over toast yum

SOS is hamburger not dried beef.

Dried beef with creamed gravy is another delicacy and should be served with mashed potatoes between two pieces of toast that are cut diagonally.