Sausage Gravy

Ingredients

• 1 lb / 450 g Breakfast sausage
• 4 Tbsp Butter
• ¾ cup All-purpose flour
• 5 cups Milk
• 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• To taste Salt
• To taste, plus more at the table Black pepper

Method

1. Set a wide skillet over medium heat. Brown the breakfast sausage, breaking it into small crumbles, until it is cooked through and no longer pink.
2. Add the butter and let it melt into the sausage.
3. Sprinkle in the flour and stir until every crumble is coated. Cook a couple of minutes so the flour loses its raw taste and turns a light tan. This is a blond gravy paste, not a dark roux.
4. Pour in 2 cups of the milk. Stir constantly while it thickens. Season with salt and a generous amount of black pepper, then stir in the Worcestershire sauce.
5. When the gravy is bubbling, pour in the remaining 3 cups of milk. Keep stirring until it thickens again and looks smooth. If it gets too stiff, loosen it with a splash more milk.
6. Taste. This gravy usually wants more pepper. Serve it over split biscuits, such as Buttermilk Pan Biscuits, or over toast.

Nutrition

Kitchen estimate only, not lab-verified. A rich breakfast gravy. The sausage brand is the main swing for salt and fat.

Guest diet / allergy swaps

Short kitchen notes for guests. A fuller gluten-free or dairy-free ingredient list, when we have one, is in the panels below.

• Low-sodium friendly

  There is no broth in this pot. Use a lower-sodium breakfast sausage if you can find one, and skip the added salt. Pepper carries the seasoning. Worcestershire is salty, so start with 1 teaspoon and add more only if the gravy tastes flat.

• Gluten-free style

  Stir in a cup-for-cup gluten-free flour blend, or rice flour, in place of the wheat flour. Keep it a pale gravy, not a dark roux. Serve over toast or biscuits labeled gluten-free.

• No pork

  Brown turkey breakfast sausage instead, or use Homestyle Seasoned Ground Turkey and continue from the butter. The gravy then drops the pork allergen.

• No fish

  Worcestershire often contains anchovies, which is why fish is listed. Use an anchovy-free bottle, or leave it out and add a little more pepper.

• Dairy-free

  Butter and milk are the body of the gravy. A dairy-free butter and an unsweetened plant milk will loosen and brown differently. The sausage still needs a label check.