Southern Biscuits and Gravy Recipe

About This Recipe

Biscuits and gravy is the heartland of Southern American breakfast food, with roots that trace back to Appalachian farm kitchens, where cheap, filling ingredients — flour, lard, sausage drippings, milk — stretched to feed a household of field workers before a long day's labour. The biscuits must be tall and layered — achieved by cold butter and a folding technique that creates thin sheets of fat within the dough, which steam and separate in the oven's heat to give the biscuit its distinctive flaky lift. Handling the dough as little as possible is the whole game here: overworking it melts the butter into the flour and warms the gluten, producing a dense, tough biscuit instead of a tall, airy one. The gravy is a simple white country gravy (béchamel-style) enriched with crumbled pork sausage and lots of black pepper, built directly in the same pan the sausage was browned in so none of that rendered fat and fond goes to waste. The combination is greater than the sum of its parts: a split, still-warm biscuit ladled with hot gravy softens just enough at the edges while staying structured enough underneath to hold its shape on the fork — timing the gravy to finish exactly when the biscuits come out of the oven is what separates the best versions from the merely good.

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 280 gplain flour(for biscuits)
• 1 tbspbaking powder
• 0.5 tspbicarbonate of soda
• 1 tspsalt
• 115 gcold unsalted butter(cubed)
• 240 mlcold buttermilk
• 350 gpork sausage meat(for gravy)
• 3 tbspplain flour(for gravy)
• 600 mlwhole milk(for gravy)
• 1 tspblack pepper(for gravy, use generously)
• 0.5 tspsalt(for gravy)

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the biscuit dough

   Whisk flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt. Cut in cold butter until the mixture looks like rough crumbs with some pea-sized pieces. Pour in buttermilk and stir just until a shaggy dough forms.

   Cold butter is non-negotiable — it steams in the oven, creating layers.

2. 2

   Fold and cut biscuits

   Turn dough onto a floured surface. Fold it over itself 5–6 times (like folding a letter) — this creates flaky layers. Pat to 2.5cm / 1 inch thick. Cut with a 6cm round cutter, pressing straight down (no twisting). Place on a baking tray.

3. 3

   Bake biscuits

   Bake at 230°C / 450°F for 12–14 minutes until tall and golden. Meanwhile, make the gravy.

4. 4

   Cook the sausage gravy

   Brown sausage meat in a skillet, breaking it up. Don't drain the fat — it flavours the gravy. Sprinkle flour over the meat and stir 1 minute. Gradually pour in milk, stirring constantly. Simmer until thick, about 5–7 minutes. Season generously with black pepper and salt.

5. 5

   Serve

   Split warm biscuits and ladle gravy generously over the top.

Watch: Southern Biscuits and Gravy Recipe

Variations

• •

  Vegetarian gravy: skip the sausage, brown mushrooms and use vegetable stock instead of milk for a lighter version.

• •

  Cheddar biscuits: add 80g grated sharp cheddar and a pinch of garlic powder to the biscuit dough.

Storage

Biscuits are best fresh but keep for 2 days. The gravy refrigerates for 3 days — reheat with a splash of milk, stirring, to restore consistency.

Frequently Asked Questions