SOUTHERN BISCUITS AND SMOKY VENISON SAUSAGE GRAVY

Photo by Larry White

I don't think it matters where you're from, biscuits and gravy is one of those comfort dishes that brings back memories of cool winter mornings relaxing at the house. Growing up in the foothills of the southeast, I pretty much had biscuits every week, but serving them with gravy was usually a special occasion. So when there was gravy on the table, it made breakfast a special time.

Here is a pretty simple recipe with homemade venison breakfast sausage gravy and biscuits that you can have on the table in about an hour. You can always take a shortcut and use pre-made biscuit dough and cut the time in half. You'll notice that this isn't a traditional breakfast sausage as I added smoky bacon to the grind which makes for an extra special gravy.

And to my wild game purist out there, the bacon isn't added to mask the taste of the venison, its to add a great tasting smoke flavor without using the awful "liquid smoke".

INGREDIENTS

For the Biscuits

• 3 cups - self rising flour ( I like White Lily)

• 2 tablespoons - sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon - salt

• 6 tablespoons - lard or shortening

• 1 cup - heavy cream

• 1 1/2 cups - buttermilk

For the Sausage Gravy

• 8 oz - ground venison

• 4 ounces - ground pork

• 6 slices - smoky fatty bacon

• 1/2 of a sweet onion (chopped)

• 1/2 teaspoon - dried sage

• 1/2 teaspoon - dried thyme

• 1/4 teaspoon - red pepper flakes

• 1 teaspoon - kosher salt

• 1 teaspoon - brown sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon - black pepper

• 1/4 teaspoon - nutmeg

• 1/2 cup - all purpose flour

• 4.5 cups - whole milk

• salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

For the Biscuits

1. Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees F. Sift the flour and combine with the sugar and salt. Cut lard into the flour until it resembles the shape/size of peas. Stir in the cream and the buttermilk until just combined.

2. Roll the dough out onto a floured surface to a thickness of 1 inch. Using a 2 inch biscuit cutter (or drinking glass if you don't have cutter) cut the biscuits out and arrange them on a baking pan, ensuring that they are touching one each other.

3. Bake for 20 minutes. Brush with butter as soon as they are cooked.

For the Venison Sausage Gravy

1. Place all of the ingredients into a food processor (except the flour, milk, salt and pepper). If you don't have a food processor, grind the bacon with the venison and use a stand mixer to mix the sausage.

2. Process the mixture until smooth.

3. In pot over medium-high heat, brown the sausage. Drain the sausage reserving 2 tablespoons of the fat. Add the sausage and 2 tablespoons of fat back into the pot along with the flour. Cook over medium low heat while constantly stirring for 1 minute. Slowly whisk in the milk and return to a simmer. Cook until it has thickened to your liking and season to taste with salt and pepper. If you like a more pungent gravy, try adding in more of the dried herbs, hot sauce or even a splash of Worcestershire sauce.

4. Pour over the biscuits and don't forget a couple of runny eggs!