Monday, August 21, 2017

MARTHY TIDWELL: SAWMILL GRAVY


My friend Chronica Domus has posed a question about Sawmill Gravy, mentioned in the FEEDING THE HANDS post the other day.    "'Wonderful, just wonderful, and now you've made me yearn to sit at one of those groaning tables full of great food and great people, listening in on the chatting. But, a question for you first. What in heavens is "sawmill gravy"? Do please relieve this Brit's mind as it hasn't a clue, thank you."

I have referred the answering to my dear friend Marthy Tidwell, whose knowledge of Southern Kitchen lore is boundless.




Image result for brown gravy in black skillet


My friend Rachel asked me to give you a little run-down on Sawmill Gravy, and I’ll just say right off that I’ve found that it seems to be whatever the local folks say it is, in whatever town, area, settlin’, hoot or holler you live in.   It’s not quite a written-down receipt---not anywhere, I don’t think, because it’s not something you PLAN on, most times, because it’s not any cook’s best dish.    It’s a kinda in-a-hurry thing, you know, like stirrin’ up a cuppa-cuppa cobbler out of the last peaches in the freezer when you find out your husband’s asked two lodge buddies home for supper after the Stated Meetin’.  

Folks vary, too, on what’s in it.   Some swear by crumbled-up sausage, all stirred and fried up before the flour goes in to brown, because their own Grandmas did it that way.   What they may misremember is that the amount a sausage that would feed TWO in patties will stir around in the pan to season and satisfy a whole big skillet of gravy, when it’s all browned up and thickened.   And those Mamas with seven children to feed before the bus arrives at dark-thirty can stir and fry and whip that right up while those two dozen biscuits brown up and come out of the oven, and still have time to find two books, lunch money and a shoe in the meantime. 




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Of course, SAWMILL in the name gives it a rough touch, to begin with, because those loggers and sawyers had about one of the hardest, dirtiest jobs in the whole universe, and those big tough-hided men needed a lot of nourishin’---the cooks in those camps had to sling some hash, so to say, startin' WAY before daylight.   I’ve heard some say that some of those cooks made the gravy with cornmeal, but I’ve not ever tasted any of that.  It was supposed to make a crumbly gravy, even without any sausage, and got a lot of complaints that the mingy owners musta made the cooks use sawdust to stretch the gravy along for so many hungry men.   I’ve never seen anybody make it like that, but I guess such things happen.


Now, in MY family, we just call the one with sausage SAUSAGE GRAVY, and my Mama’s version of SAWMILL Gravy was just plain old gravy, the kind that’s just a good brown roo of lard and flour, with plain water and salt and pepper, and maybe the last cup in the coffee-pot before secont-boilin' to knock up the flavor a little.    That one is just a thick, rich quick stir-up maybe for a Winter breakfast, or to stretch the supper for extra.   It’s kind of a name that you give to the gravy you make when it’s never seen a smitch of meat, as versus the grease that you fried pork chops or chicken in.   You can make the same thing with a little broth from boilin' up squirrels or rabbit, saved in the freezer for emergencies, but those are all always called by their own names---Squirrel Gravy or Rabbit Gravy.    


Image result for biscuits and gravy

So Sawmill gravy, to us, is a Po’ Folks gravy, made to satisfy a meat-cravin’ when there ain’t none, sometimes made almost thick enough to cut with a fork, furtherin’ the pretense, you see.  Over grits or rice or several biscuits, it’s made many a good hearty breakfast for hard-workin’ folks going out to a long day in the field or mill, or repeated in a good hot supper with maybe just a tad of good jelly you put up last Summer---well, a full stomach can sleep WAY better’n a growlin’ one, no matter the plain fare. 

 And biscuits and gravy---those common old staples of lard and flour cooked two entirely different ways,  but fillin' bellies and keeping backbone from belt buckle for generations---those have a place in history, just like flags and rights and battles and time. 

I hope I’ve explained this little bit of Southern’ cookin’ for you---maybe some of Rachel’s friends can chime in and give you their version of what Sawmill Gravy is. 

Very sincerely yours,

Marthy Tidwell




Image result for brown gravy on biscuits

6 comments:

  1. Aha, now all is clear thanks to Marthy Tidwell and Racheld! What a wonderful description of a food that I've yet to encounter.

    Language is a funny thing because if you mention biscuits and gravy to people back in England, you'd get a few curious stares. Gravy, as we know it, is a meat-based, thin sauce poured over meat, and biscuits are just what Americans call "cookies". Now, imagine that combination. Nope, its never going to happen. But, Sawmill Gravy and biscuits sound much more doable.

    Thank you once again kind ladies for clearing the fog.

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  2. I do love me some good ole sawmill gravy poured over a biscuit split half-in-two. Fact of matter, I had some just the other morning, got it off a buffet at a big fancy hotel. Can you beat that?

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  3. out here in west texas, we call it Cream Gravy. Sausage Gravy if it's added.
    It was my husband's favorite breakfast..and I like it morning noon and night.
    When he was o his last few days, that's all he wanted to eat...each day, I would make his Sausage Gravy and biscuits..ea day, he ate less and less...
    after he passed, one morning, I made cream gravy and biscuits and when I found I had no more of his sausage, I just fell to my knees. It is so hard..but, we are doing ok...

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  4. I never heard of sawmill gravy, but in our holler (LOL) the gravy looks just like the top picture...my Ma-Maw made it every day for breakfast, and we had it with her amazing homemade biscuits of course. She made it with sausage....or bacon....or even BOLOGNA if that's what she had on hand. It ALL tasted delicious to me. It truly is "stick to your ribs" stuff. And yes, I could eat it breakfast, lunch, dinner.......but in "our holler" we had breakfast, dinner and SUPPER. Dinner was our noon meal, we "didn't do lunch"!!!---ha ha hahaha LOL Mercy the picture looks good and making gravy was not one of the skills I inherited...but there ARE SOME very good envelope mixes you can buy to make with water or milk (two cups I believe), and I always double it and use two packets---and it tastes just almost as good as the gravy of my childhood!

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  5. I finally set my mind to it and taught myself to make homemade biscuits two years ago, after maybe two tries I had it down and it wasn't nearly as complicated as I'd made it out in my mind to be, LOL I used a Southern Living recipe and it works great. My Ma-Maw never even measured......she just threw the flour and lard and everything together and turned out the most perfect biscuits every single time. She'd been making biscuits since the 1930s----so she had it down pat. ha ha LOL

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  6. I love sausage gravy on my biscuits, but fried chicken gets sawmill made with all the good stuff left in the pan!

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