Sausage Gravy & Crackers
The cheapest, most savory snack around — it may not look like much, but it's guaranteed popular.
Here's the honest truth: this is poor-kid food, and it's better than half the appetizers you'll pay twelve dollars for. A pound of breakfast sausage, a little flour, some milk, and an absurd amount of black pepper. You spoon it over a plate of saltines and watch a room go quiet.
The whole thing costs a few dollars and feeds a crowd. We've brought it to potlucks where it sat next to a charcuterie board nobody touched, and the gravy got scraped clean.
The one rule
Don't drain the fat. That rendered sausage fat is where the flour goes to make the roux, and it's where the flavor lives. If your sausage was lean, add a pat of butter. Then pepper it harder than feels reasonable — this is a peppery gravy, not a polite one.
Make it once exactly like the card below, then make it yours. Some people swear by a pinch of sage or a hit of hot sauce. They're not wrong.
| 1 lb bulk breakfast sausage | brown & crumble | stir in · 2 min | whisk in · simmer 5–8 min | season hard | spoon over |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1/4 cup all-purpose flour | |||||
| 2 1/2 cups whole milk | |||||
| Lots of black pepper | |||||
| Salt to taste | |||||
| Saltine crackers, to serve |
Lean sausage? Add a pat of butter before the flour — the roux needs the fat.
Download card (free)Brown and crumble the sausage in a skillet — keep all the fat.
Sprinkle the flour over, stir, and cook 1–2 minutes until it smells nutty.
Pour in the milk slowly, whisking, and simmer until it coats a spoon (5–8 min).
Pepper hard, salt to taste, and spoon over a plate of saltines.
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