Cream/Milk Gravy

Cream/Milk Gravy


The proper gravy for chicken fried steak is the flour/milk based gravy that is also called cream gravy, sawmill gravy, bulldog gravy or just country gravy and perhaps others I don't know. This is the gravy made out of country sausage and served over biscuits. In truth, this is just a variation of white sauce in which the roux is made in the left over fat from frying meat and is often made after pan frying chicken.

Cream gravy is made with a roux and perhaps the first thing to explain is what a roux is, well to make it simple it is the French word for flour cooked in oil or grease, as a 50-50 mix. The cooking gets rid of the raw flour taste and if browned it adds flavor and color to our sauce/gravy. It needs to be a 50-50 mix or slightly more or you end up with lumps.

As to how much roux to milk, that depends on how thick we want it. 1 tablespoon of flour per cup of milk will make a thin gravy, three pre cup will make a very thick gravy, most will want to stay in the middle at two tablespoons.

Taking the middle road and making our gravy not real thick and not real thin and using equal amounts of grease, here is a simple chart:

1 cup milk to 2 tablespoons flour.

1 pint milk to 4 tablespoons flour or ¼ cup.

1 quart milk to 8 tablespoons flour or ½ cup.

½ gallon milk to 16 tablespoons flour or 1 cup.

1 gallon of milk to 32 tablespoons flour or 2 cups.


Of course if you want it thinner you can reduce it by up to half or completely double it to make thicker. Practice will let you know what you want exactly and can fine tune it.


There is one thing I'd like to mention before getting into the nuts and bolts of how to build the gravy. The milk should be whole milk, I know, some are just shocked that I would say that, but notice up above I mentioned you have to have enough fat to keep the gravy from getting lumpy? Yeah, so if you reduce the fat in the milk you will have to make it up anyway.

If using the drippings from making chicken fried steak, there likely will be enough grease to make a proper roux. When making sausage gravy, there maybe, or not. If I end up using sausage made in a large packing house aka National or Regional brand there usually is, sometimes far more than needed. I most times use sausage that is made in small town locker plants and right in the meat department of the grocery store and this often needs lard added to it to make gravy, I'm not compaining though, because that means it's good quality.

So we reach a point where I guess some sort of recipe is needed although most here know I seldom use one, the amount of sausage used can be less if you are cheap or even more if you want.

Lets just do sausage gravy to feed 8 and I'll even follow recommended servings although we all know this don't cut it with big guys who have been active and enjoying comaradery out in camp.

This will give each a cup of gravy to put on their steak, that should be plenty, or 1 cup to put on 2 split regular size biscuits, not enough for guys on a cold morning who are going to be active outside all day, even with a good on meal. But we have to have a base point. To make gravy out of pan drippings just make sure you have the right amount of grease to make the roux, adding or removing to get the right amount.

Oven size is not critical on this, a 12” being the optimal size, but any larger one would be fine, the deep making it easy to work the gravy as it cooks with out slopping over.

Besides the oven we need something to stir the gravy with, a whip works fine but I've come to prefer the heavy wire type potato masher, these work a lot better when you are dealing with a gallon or more of gravy.


Sausage gravy

Serves 8?
¾-1 pound Country Sausage
½ gallon of milk
1 cup of flour
Salt and pepper to taste

Fry the sausage up in the dutch oven, if not good at guessing measure to make sure you have a cup of drippings in with the sausage. Add the flour and bring up the heat as you stir, cook the mixture till the flour is slightly browned. Remove from heat and let cool a couple minutes. Add milk, return to heat, stir till it starts to boil. Boil for one minute, remove from heat and the mixture will thicken as it cools.