Go ahead and get your jokes out of the way. I don't travel anymore and sometimes I just feel like having truckstop gravy like on chicken-fried steak. I'm sure they buy a mix. It seems like the pepper is unique or soemthing. Can't put my finger on it.

When I was a kid my dad knew this old guy who was supposed to be some sort of gravy wizard. I scoffed -- until Dad brought home a gallon container of the stuff. One taste and I was hooked. It was so good I'd eat it straight up like soup.

When we finished the gallon (in almost no time at all), I jonesed for the stuff like a junkie looking for his next fix. But it was not to be: sadly, the gravy wizard died shortly after giving my dad that batch.

I've yet to meet the match of that gravy.

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It is what it is.

When I work at our plant on the other side of the state, there is a truck stop I always hit for a late breakfast to get the chicken-fried steak. I can completely understand.

All i can conjecture is animal fat. Lots of animal fat. And salt.


























Aw crap....I need a road trip......

Quote
Racer X
When I work at our plant on the other side of the state, there is a truck stop I always hit for a late breakfast to get the chicken-fried steak. I can completely understand.

All i can conjecture is animal fat. Lots of animal fat. And salt

And pepper.

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It is what it is.

yeah, pepper. And that last 2 hours, I can chug half a gallon of water, and my tongue still won't wash clean.....but it is worth it.

Having grown up in the south, and enjoyed this wonderous stuff--in spite of its reputation as greasy and unhealthy--it really is rich fat and generous seasoning, primarily salt and pepper.

Maybe it's similar to Krispey Kreme's early success. An authentic American deep fried donut needs shocking amounts of fats and sugars to make the magic happen on the tongue.

With chicken-fried-steak gravy, I think it might be sausage fat (like Jimmy Dean sausage) or bacon fat as the base (and really, not that much of it) and/or real meat drippings, seasoned flour, and whole milk. Originally a sinewy cut of meat that's been chopped and beaten to make it chewable, increasingly, these days, even in Truck Stops and Diners, it's a better grade of cube or sirloin steak, chopped, and the price is higher, since it's now a classic Blue Plate Special-type historic item. The salt/pepper flavor is slightly more than you'd think would be necessary, but for some reason it needs to be that way to taste right.

I don't think it's a great secret, by the way. You can duplicate this in your own kitchen more easily than you'd think. An old Joy of Cooking (from the mid-20th Century) probably where I got it. Or from watching elder family members do it. Besides black pepper, there might be a pinch of cayenne. Not enough to be hot, just enough to "wake up" the other ingredients. And oh lord, the salt, the grease, it's all so unfashionable, and it tastes so good.

It's not as greasy as you'd think. It's the combo of fat, milk, and flour that makes it a rich bomb.

(same thing with real southern fried chicken, by the way. Buttermilk, lots of salt and pepper, some cayenne to sharpen the flavor, but definitely, a lot of salt)

After a dish like this, you'll likely want to hit the couch and not get up for a while. It tastes really good while you're eating it, but unless you're used to it, if you overdo it, you may not feel so good afterwards. Don't make any plans for the rest of the day!

I'm convinced that most of them use Heinz.

I do actually agree with guitarist. my mom was a farm girl from Nebraska, and my dad was a farm boy from Illinois and Idaho.

It is simple, yet complex. Some of the simplest things are the hardest to do well. I will have to dig up the family heirloom "Joy of Cooking" and the old "Betty Crocker" cook books. The Betty Crocker one is the mid 50s red checkered one, and the joy of cooking may be even earlier. I have a mid 70s betty crocker, but it is subtly different.

And they make jokes about ME being a Texan! chicken fried steak and white gravy.....? a real red neck feast! I make great white gravy but unlike the truck stop I make mine after frying the chicken or steak from the grease and cracklins in the frying pan. You just put in a Tablespoon or so of flour over the heated oil...stir to a creamy roux slowly add milk and stir till thick. Add pepper, salt to taste. Very simple.

Pioneer makes a dry packaged gravy. Just try the various ones till you find the crap you like. Full of preservatives and stuff to make you keep eating. Fat city ......

Yeah, there is no real trick to making a good gravy (the trick is making great gravy).

Fry up a batch of good pork sausage (or Jimmy Dean), keeping all the drippings. Make a light roux and then whisk in whole milk (add some heavy cream if you want. Add back in the meat, fresh course ground pepper, salt and a pinch of cayanne. Get it thick and pour it over split southern biscuits.

Two over easy eggs (cooked in butter) and some home fries on another plate.

A meal to guaranteed to please (and make your Cardiologist's next house payment)

---

“No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.” -- François de La Rochefoucauld

"Those who cannot accept the past are condemned to revise it." -- Geo. Mathias

The German word for contraceptive is “Schwangerschaftsverhütungsmittel”. By the time you finished saying that, it’s too late

The secret to really good Southern Fried Chicken is to BRINE the chicken overnight before cooking. Use a cast-iron pan and LARD to cook it.

After removing the cooked meat, using the pan residues is key. The secret is to scrape the bottom of the pan to incorporate the stuck on parts. The carmelized part has lots of flavor. I agree with the tip to use a cast iron pan.

There should be a Warning Label on this string ! ! ! ! ! proceed at your own risk.

We always called this "Dried Beef Gravy" as we added bits of dried beef into the mix and served it up on ripped up pieces of toasted white bread.

Of course I skipped breakfast and now I'm thinking about this meal which I have had once in the past 10 years.

3P

I haven't read the above posts. So, here is the best way.

I can tell you how, but you CAN'T make it like my Mom.

Fry the food (chicken).

Leave drippings in pan.

Sprinkle about 1/4 cup of flour in to absorb the grease.

Let stand about 20 seconds, then stir with a spatula.

add a few cups of milk to cover the mixture.

If you WANT it to be more peppery, add that now. BUT, the flavorings SHOULD have come from the food/coating you fried.

Let stand, simmer/bubble for a couple of minutes. Stirring a little bit.

After about two minutes, if it is not thick enough/ too runny, then sprinkle some more flour and stir a little. Most of it will thicken up from the cooking, not the flour.

That's it.

I can even video this process for you, and you will still come away with a crappy product. It takes MY MOM to make it perfect!

When you add the flour to make the roux, watch the timing before adding the milk. Too little time and the flour taste will still come through. To much time or heat and the roux will darken and burn.

The flavor is developed in the roux (Cajons know about this...). Having good fat and bits in the pan to work with is very important. (Owens sausage, BTW, not Jimmy Dean.) Think of the roux as the gravy concentrate. The milk, salt and pepper just stretch it to the right consistancy and get the final seasonings right.

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Don't ask who the bell's for, dude. It's you.

The pan drippings need to come from some fried truckers to get the authentic taste!

Quote
threeprong
We always called this "Dried Beef Gravy" as we added bits of dried beef into the mix and served it up on ripped up pieces of toasted white bread.
3P

That is "Chipped Beef on Toast" 3P, anyone who was in the Army started to hate this stuff after while.
[en.wikipedia.org]

BGnR

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BigGuynRusty
<blockquote class="bbcode">Quote:<div><strong>threeprong</strong><br /> We always called this "Dried Beef Gravy" as we added bits of dried beef into the mix and served it up on ripped up pieces of toasted white bread.
<br />
3P</div></blockquote>
<br />
That is "Chipped Beef on Toast" 3P, anyone who was in the Army started to hate this stuff after while.
<br />
[<a target=_blank href="[en.wikipedia.org];]
<br />
<br />
BGnR

My husband didn't call it that. He called it @#$%& on a shingle.

OK... you guys are really causing me trouble.

I had to go out to the freezer, get my packages of Owens sausage and cook them up. Saving the fat for gravy later, I used what was left in the pan to scramble some eggs into, and crumbled a patty in as well. This went with good buttered toast and coffee. (see the coffee thread...)

Awesome breakfast, which I'm happy aboout. But more trouble than I was planning to deal with this morning, which I blame you guys for.

Most of the time y'all just cost me money on new computer gear. Now you've got me cooking, too.

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Don't ask who the bell's for, dude. It's you.

Mu arteries are clogging just reading this!
mercy!

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And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Western Massachusetts

Ask the former Govenor of NJ. . .he just wrote a book and mentioned some things that he did @ truckstops. . .

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_____________________________________

I reject your reality and substitute my own!

Quote
NewtonMP2100
Ask the former Govenor of NJ. . .he just wrote a book and mentioned some things that he did @ truckstops. . .

=:-o I don't think that is the kind of meat and gravy most people are thinking about.

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In tha 360. MRF User Map

Breakfast at Old Country Buffet on the weekends! They have Chicken Fried Steak and biscuits and gravy and a bunch of other artery clogging goodness.

Mmmm Mmmmm.

There was a restaraunt (chain, I think) in Ft. Worth, TX called Po' Folks that also had good Chicken Fried Stake. So did a chain in Illinois called Grandy's.

Man, I'm hungry!

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[www.zeemaps.com]

I don't really like the "truckstop" gravy you guys have been talking about, but the last post about the Old Country Buffet reminded me of Cracker Barrel. Thinking about those grits and eggs and fried okra and fried apples started getting to me. I just checked, and the closest ones are Billings, MT or Boise, ID - roughly 400 miles to either. I guess I won't be going there for breakfast any time soon.

Cracker Barrel is the BEST all around (good ol') food. Best tasting food around.

Louie the dog and I might have to take a road trip. I'm now starting to obsess about Cracker Barrel.

I typed Billings for some reason, but I was thinking Missoula. That would be a nice drive. Hmmmm.

You people need to eat some green vegetables and go for a long bike ride!

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3GHz - The clock is STILL ticking Steve.

Killjoy.

Quote
MacMagus
I'm convinced that most of them use Heinz.

Most Heinz products are garbage, full of chemicals. Goes for their potato products (Ore Ida) too.

This thread could cost you a lot of money. Don't you know that Lipitor goes for $4 or so a tablet??

Didn't reply to this thread this morning... it was making me hungry...
AND I'm TRYING to cut down on the fat in my diet!

Good sourdough english muffins, toasted...
Top with chopped hard boiled eggs and a slab of sausage..
Top with good white gravy with plenty of pepper.

I'm trying NOT to have that sort of stuff any more! But it SURE sounds good for an occasional sunday breakfast!

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Paul F.
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A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca c. 5 BC - 65 AD
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Good is the enemy of Excellent. Talent is not necessary for Excellence.
Persistence is necessary for Excellence. And Persistence is a Decision.
--

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Eureka, CA

heat the milk before adding to the drippings and the flour. it makes a huge difference.

Quote
Jp!
Cracker Barrel is the BEST all around (good ol') food. Best tasting food around.

That's exactly what my 11-year-old nephew said last week when I was visiting family in Atlanta. We didn't go, but now I'm wondering about what I missed.

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It is what it is.

Quote
BigGuynRusty

Quote
threeprong
We always called this "Dried Beef Gravy" as we added bits of dried beef into the mix and served it up on ripped up pieces of toasted white bread.
3P

That is "Chipped Beef on Toast" 3P, anyone who was in the Army started to hate this stuff after while.
[en.wikipedia.org]

BGnR

That was very kind of you to use the PC phrase for that particular meal

I have eaten it at Keyport, and their cooks are some of the best in the navy (or were) and they have the awards to prove it. Anyway, when done well SOS is actually tasty.

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N-OS X-tasy!

Quote
Jp!
Cracker Barrel is the BEST all around (good ol') food. Best tasting food around.

That's exactly what my 11-year-old nephew said last week when I was visiting family in Atlanta. We didn't go, but now I'm wondering about what I missed.

Cracker Barrel is just Applebees for plain folk. It's all marketing. The food is not that special. Better coffee, waffles, eggs and hash browns at any Waffle House. There is not a chain restaurant out there that can make really good comfort food.

If your nephew is in Atlanta and thinks Cracker Barrel is good - then he needs real southern cooking. Get him to the Silver Skillet, 200 14th Street, N.W., not as good as it used to be but better than most.

---

“No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.” -- François de La Rochefoucauld

"Those who cannot accept the past are condemned to revise it." -- Geo. Mathias

The German word for contraceptive is “Schwangerschaftsverhütungsmittel”. By the time you finished saying that, it’s too late

Quote
The UnDoug
There was a restaraunt (chain, I think) in Ft. Worth, TX called Po' Folks that also had good Chicken Fried Stake. So did a chain in Illinois called Grandy's.

Man, I'm hungry!

Whoa! Grandy's! There's one in Gainesville, FL where I went to college. It is sooo good. I gained many a pound there and now you have me craving their gravy and chicken. I think I'm going to make my friend take a road trip up there next time I'm in Florida...

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trisho.
----------------
Official Card-Carrying Mother Earthin' Sl*t.

Cracker Barrel IS good recipes, and food. Their sourdough bread is very good on their sandwiches, for instance.

I'm puzzled about this comment:

"I'm convinced that most of them use Heinz."

"Heinz" what? Ketchup?

Makes no sense. There's no tomato-related product of any kind in chicken-friend-steak gravy.

What people do to it once it's on the table is a different matter.

right hand side, pull down menu. Take a look at the products that are part of their family. Gravy is a huge part of their product mix. My mother-in-law always has several jars of their turkey gravy on hand in case of a one in a million screw-up at thanksgiving.

This is not a slam, so please don't take it as one, but "Do you lead a sheltered life?" Your comment about ketchup is like saying "Phillip Morris is just a tobacco company"

Keys to good milk gravy are:

hot milk (not scalded) in a separate pan

iron skillet (or at least a copper bottomed pan)

more fat than sane people use (drippin's - whatever)

make sure the fat is very hot

add black pepper (freshly ground) to the fat, again more than sane people use.

add flour, lower the heat, keep stirring until the flour is light tan in color. allow to cool a bit or you will get burned.


add the roux and the milk together, stir until thickened, add salt, cook until no floury taste is left. If you made your roux correctly there should be little floury flavor at all.

addjust seasonings and serve.

NOTE:
If cooked sausage and/or cooked onion is added it is now called "Sawmill Gravy"

The best mix that I've found for simulation of the flavor found above is:

[www.gravystore.com]

[www.americanspice.com]