Biscuits and gravy
American biscuits have nothing to do with cookies — they are buttery buns raised with buttermilk and soda, layered like a scone but softer and usually savoury. The gravy is simpler still: a roux built in the meat fat and let down with milk. What matters most is the pepper, of which you need far more than instinct suggests.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Biscuit dough 15 min
- Baking 15 min
- Sausage 10 min
- Gravy 10 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneGrate frozen butter into the flour
Heat the oven to 220°C (conventional). Grate the frozen butter on a coarse grater straight into the flour with the baking powder, soda, sugar and salt, and stir with a knife. The grater gives even flakes without your hands touching the butter — the warmth of your hands melts it, and then the biscuits will not layer.
Ingredients: 400 g plain flour · 4 tsp baking powder · ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda · 1 tbsp sugar · 1 tsp salt · 140 g butter · 300 ml buttermilk · 15 g butter for brushing
Add cold buttermilk and mix as little as possible
Pour in the cold buttermilk and mix only until the dough comes together. It should stay shaggy and visibly uneven. The soda reacts with the buttermilk's acid immediately — from that moment the clock is running, so there is no point smoothing anything.
Ingredients: 400 g plain flour · 4 tsp baking powder · ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda · 1 tbsp sugar · 1 tsp salt · 140 g butter · 300 ml buttermilk · 15 g butter for brushing
Fold the dough four times
Pat the dough out and fold it in half four times in a row, turning it each time. Every fold doubles the layers of butter along which the biscuit will later split. Finally pat it out to 3 cm thick.
Ingredients: 400 g plain flour · 4 tsp baking powder · ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda · 1 tbsp sugar · 1 tsp salt · 140 g butter · 300 ml buttermilk · 15 g butter for brushing
Four folds — this is where the layers come from.Cut straight down and pack them tight
Cut without twisting the cutter and set the biscuits on the tray so they touch each other. Touching sides support one another as they rise and push the dough upward instead of outward.
Ingredients: 400 g plain flour · 4 tsp baking powder · ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda · 1 tbsp sugar · 1 tsp salt · 140 g butter · 300 ml buttermilk · 15 g butter for brushing
Packed tight, sides touching — that is what sends them up.Bake 15 minutes at 220°C
Brush the tops with the melted butter and bake for 13–15 minutes, until well risen and golden. In the high heat the water in the butter flakes flashes to steam before the dough sets and pushes the layers apart — the same mechanism as in a scone.
Ingredients: 400 g plain flour · 4 tsp baking powder · ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda · 1 tbsp sugar · 1 tsp salt · 140 g butter · 300 ml buttermilk · 15 g butter for brushing
Fry the meat to crisp crumbs
Heat a skillet and fry the mince with the sage and chilli for 8–10 minutes, breaking it up with a spatula. Wait until the crumbs are browned, not merely no longer pink — without that browning the gravy is bland and looks pale.
Ingredients: 400 g minced pork · 1 tsp sage · ½ tsp chilli flakes · 20 g butter · 45 g plain flour · 700 ml milk · 2 tsp black pepper · ½ tsp salt
Add the butter, stir in the flour and cook two minutes
Add the butter to the meat and, once it melts, tip the flour straight into the meat and fat and cook for 2 minutes, stirring. This is a roux built in the skillet with the meat — the flour has to lose its raw taste before the milk goes in. The butter tops up the fat, since ordinary minced pork is usually leaner than American breakfast sausage.
Ingredients: 400 g minced pork · 1 tsp sage · ½ tsp chilli flakes · 20 g butter · 45 g plain flour · 700 ml milk · 2 tsp black pepper · ½ tsp salt
Add milk slowly and pepper heavily
Add the milk a little at a time, whisking hard, until the gravy thickens. Season with salt and a great deal of coarse black pepper — two teaspoons is not a misprint, pepper is the lead seasoning in this dish. Serve over split biscuits.
Ingredients: 400 g minced pork · 1 tsp sage · ½ tsp chilli flakes · 20 g butter · 45 g plain flour · 700 ml milk · 2 tsp black pepper · ½ tsp salt
The gravy thickening around the meat — do not spare the pepper.
Before you start
The gravy thickens as it cools
Take it off the heat when it seems a shade too thin — two minutes later it is perfect, five minutes later too thick. Loosen it with milk, not water.
Without buttermilk
Stir a tablespoon of lemon juice into 300 ml of milk and leave it 10 minutes. The acid is needed not for flavour but to give the soda something to react with.
Seasoning the meat
American breakfast sausage is minced pork with sage, black pepper and a pinch of sugar. If you have a well-seasoned raw sausage, squeeze the meat out of its casing and skip the extra spices.
