(calm music) - [Babish] All right, so let's start off with a super simple biscuits and gravy and when I say simple, I mean
you can make the whole thing front to back in less than 30 minutes. For the biscuits, we're
making cream biscuits which means combining two
cups of all-purpose flour, one tablespoon baking powder,
half teaspoon baking soda and a half teaspoon kosher salt. Thoroughly tiny whisking
to ensure homogeneity before adding the sole liquid ingredient, one and a half cups of heavy cream then we're gonna give
this mixture a gentle but thorough paddling. We wanna make sure that
everything's evenly combined but we don't wanna overmix which will result in gluten development which will result in tough biscuits. At some point, your rubber
spatula is gonna become useless and you're gonna wanna knead this by hand for about a minute just until you have a smooth ball of dough and no dry patches remain
then no lazing about. This guy's immediately getting rolled out on a generously floured work surface. You can make them on the
thicker or thinner side but generally, we're
shooting for a thickness of about half to a quarter inch. Well, look at that, mine
rolled out into a heart which fun fact is where your
biscuits and gravy ends up. Anyway, we are utilizing
an fluted biscuit cutter to cut ourselves some two and
a half inch fluted biscuits spaciously arranging them on
a parchment lined baking sheet as we go then we're popping these into a preheated 375
degree Fahrenheit oven for 15 to 20 minutes removing
once doubled in height, golden brown and ready to
be brushed down with butter. I'm also gonna sprinkle these
with some flaky finishing salt for a nice added salty
crunch and there you have it, the easiest biscuits in the world and now for the easiest
sausage gravy in the world. We're squeezing about a half a pound of breakfast sausage out of their casings and into a preheated high walled saucepan breaking up as we brown them, utilizing a potato masher if we gotta and once browned and cooked through, it's time to make our gravy. Your breakfast sausage
might have given up some fat but it ain't enough. I'm adding one tablespoon of butter. You might need more or less but you're shooting for
about two tablespoons worth of fat in the pan, the counterpart to the
two tablespoons of flour that we're gonna sprinkle over everything. Mix that around and
cook it over medium heat for about one minute until
it forms a blonde pasty roux that we're gonna use to
thicken one cup of milk. Whisk constantly and add
in little splash at a time waiting until the mixture is
smooth before adding any more. This is going to prevent a lumpy gravy. Once all the milk is added,
we're bringing to a simmer and cooking for two to three minutes over medium low heat until the desired thick gravy
like consistency is achieved. We're seasoning to taste with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. I say to taste because who knows how salty or peppery your breakfast sausage is then we're grabbing our
still toasty warm biscuits, stacking 'em up on a plate and smothering them in our
steaming hot sausage gravy and there you have it, friends, the easiest biscuits
and gravy in the world. So easy that you could
make 'em in half an hour first thing in the morning
before you've had your coffee with a hangover but it
doesn't taste quick. It tastes very, very homemade,
about as good, if not better than anything you could get
at your local greasy spoon. I would induct it into
the clean plate club but I'm trying to save
room for our next batch, the advanced version that starts with making
our own breakfast sausage. I wish that there was a YouTube channel with a guy that makes sausage out of anything and everything. Maybe with a mustache and
a voice like Peter Griffin but sadly, no such YouTube channel exists. Anywho, for our breakfast sausage, we've got three pounds of fatty pork butt which we're gonna trim and
cut into one inch cubes and then to bring some smoky bacon flavor, how about some bacon? I got one pound of the
real thick cut stuff here that I'm likewise going to
slice into one inch pieces then I'm gonna toss everybody together sort of like a pork salad and start spacing everybody out evenly on a parchment lined baking sheet. We don't want them to be touching too much or to be too crowded so why don't we make it two
parchment lined baking sheets which is headed into the
freezer for 15 to 20 minutes or until firm around the edges. This is gonna make the
meat easier to grind as will a fully frozen meat grinder. Keep all your metal parts
stowed in the deep freeze for at least 30 minutes
before commencing to grinding. I'm using a relatively
coarse grinding plate because I want a sausage with
a little bit of texture to it. Once everything is
assembled and functioning according to manufacturer specifications, it's time to grind. You wanna try to be putting a
consistent amount of bacon in with the cubed pork. This will ensure that
it is evenly distributed throughout the sausage. Now, I made this huge recipe because breakfast
sausage freezes very well but for all the seasonings, I'm gonna describe them
to you per pound of pork. So if you just wanna
go to the grocery store and grab a pound of ground pork, you can do that and it'll work just fine. So I got all the ground pork spread out on a rimmed baking sheet
and now per pound of meat, I'm going to add one and a
half teaspoons fresh sage, one teaspoon fresh rosemary,
one teaspoon fresh thyme, one teaspoon light brown sugar, one quarter teaspoon garlic powder, an optional quarter
teaspoon red pepper flake, one eighth of a teaspoon
freshly grated nutmeg, one quarter teaspoon ground
fennel, one teaspoon kosher salt and three quarters of a teaspoon
freshly ground black pepper sprinkled as evenly as
possible over the meats and then using gloved hands,
mixing until homogenous. Now, I am making a huge batch here but raw breakfast sausage
does freeze beautifully thus simplifying future
batches of biscuits and gravy should the mood strike you but before we make any kinda anything, we need to test the sausage to make sure that it's well seasoned. As you can see, I'm
putting way too much care into pressing out a patty for some reason which I'm gonna fry up
with a little bit of butter so I can taste the sausage and make sure that
everything's up to spec. Might as we'll go ahead
and plate it up nice and tuck a napkin in under our chin. This is after all no ordinary sausage and give it a taste just to
make sure the getting's good and if it's not, this is
your chance to add more salt or herbs or whatever the sausage needs and once your sausage needs are met, it's time to make biscuits, the best biscuits ever courtesy
of America's Test Kitchen. In a large bowl, we are
combining 15 ounces of flour, two tablespoons of sugar,
four teaspoons baking powder, half teaspoon baking soda and one and a half teaspoons kosher salt. Give them a tiny whisking
until they are homogenous and then from the freezer,
we are retrieving two sticks or eight ounces of fully frozen butter which we're gonna grate
into the dry ingredients by virtue of the large
holes of a cheese grater. Give that a little toss
preferably with gloves on so you don't melt the butter to make sure that every
piece is coated in flour and that it's evenly
distributed throughout before making a little well and adding one and a quarter
cups of cold buttermilk then using a rubber spatula,
we're mixing everybody together until it just kinda comes together into a shaggy ball of dough which we're gonna turn out
onto a generously floured work surface and begin
the process of lamination. That is stretching and folding all the little pieces of butter creating the desirable flaky
layers in our biscuits. Generously flouring everything, we are gently rolling
this out to a rectangle about 12 by nine inches then using a bench scraper,
we are folding it into thirds like a letter or informational pamphlet then we're re-flouring our work surface rotating the dough 90 degrees
and doing it all over again, a grand total of five times. Not only is this gonna create all those wonderful layers of butter, it's gonna turn our dough
into a soft, pliable, workable pastry dough
which after its final fold, we're gonna pat into a rectangle wrap tightly in plastic wrap and fridge for at least 30
minutes up to overnight. Side note, you can
absolutely make this recipe in a food processor. Just process together all the dry stuff and use the shredding plate to quickly and conveniently
dispense with your butter. From there, it's the exact same procedure and the exact same outcome, the best damn biscuits I've ever had but the next step is crucial if you want them to turn out right. As they say, sharp edges
make for sharp biscuits. After this guy's stint in the fridge, he's being generously floured and rolled out into a rectangle
about 10 by six inches which and this is the important part, we're gonna use our sharpest
blade to make clean cuts first trimming off the edges and then cutting into
six individual biscuits. Any pinching or crappy cutting and your biscuits won't
rise as well or as evenly. So don't pick 'em up
with your grubby fingers. Use a spatula or a bench scraper to make sure that you
don't pinch the edges then these guys are all getting a thorough pre-baked
brushing of melted butter and a sprinkling of finishing salt before placing into a preheated
400 degree Fahrenheit oven for 20 to 25 minutes
until doubled in height, golden brown and triumphant then we're letting these
guys cool off slightly while we make our sausage gravy. Into the same large saucepan goes about a pound of our homemade sausage which we're gonna cook and
mash over medium high heat until it's lightly
browned and cooked through then we're lowering the heat and adding an optional tablespoon
of freshly chopped sage, butter if necessary and the
usual two tablespoons of flour to make our pasty roux then
same procedure as before. Cook it for about a minute before slowly adding one cup of milk. Adding in little splashes
and whisking constantly so as to prevent lumps and then cooking for two to three minutes until the desired consistency is achieved. Season to taste with kosher
salt and freshly ground pepper and I like to add just a
little freshly grated nutmeg. It always plays nice in a white sauce, not to mention with pork and fresh herbs. Once that's all done and
seasoned to your liking, it's time to serve. You can just pour this
straight over your biscuit but I kinda like to break mine in half like a Pillsbury Grand. Pile the sausage gravy
high on the bottom half and top it with the top half almost like a hilarious sandwich that can only be eaten
with a fork and knife and to that end, let's dig in and I know that this is a
very complicated iteration of what is normally a very simple recipe but your effort will pay dividends. It's spicy, it's herby,
it's smoky, it's porky. The biscuit is rich and flaky and come on, clean play club for sure. I'm glad I saved room. (calm music)
LET'S SAUSAGE!!!!
Next week is episode 100 of Basics. I wonder if there will be anything special
Do they not sell breakfast sausage outside of the casings in New York? Taking the sausage out of the casing seems like a tedious step that I would never do because I can reliably get one of these at any grocery store
Cutting drop (cream) biscuits out is entirely unnecessary... In fact you don't really need to roll it out either. Just pull out rough patties from balls or just cut square biscuits
What timing. Was planning on doing these Sunday.
Good tip I got from Kenji Lopez-Alt for testing seasoning of sausage/meatballs: just nuke a marble-size piece in the microwave and taste that.
No offense to babs but he picked the wrong biscuit recipe to showcase. This one is much better:
https://bakerbettie.com/old-fashioned-lard-biscuits/
Taller, flakier, more tender. And no sugar! Also, even though you can replace buttermilk with sour milk, the taste just isn't the same. If at all possible use buttermilk.
The south would like a word.
Amazing Basics Episode!!!
It had the Basics aspect as well as the more advanced aspect for those that have grown into better cooks from following the 98 other Basics Episode!