Sausage Gravy
The national diner standard: crumbled pork breakfast sausage folded through a peppered milk gravy, served over biscuits. If a menu says biscuits and gravy, this is the gravy.
The Deep South
The lowland South runs on sausage gravy, red-eye, and tomato gravy. Its farmhouse breakfasts built the canon the rest of the country now eats in diners.
Red-Eye Gravy
A thin, sharp gravy of country-ham drippings and black coffee, named for the circle of red fat that floats on it like an eye. It is sopped, not poured, over ham and biscuits.
Tomato Gravy
A roux-based gravy built on tomatoes, canned or fresh, with bacon fat or drippings. Tangy and brick-red, it is poured over biscuits, rice, or grits across the South.
Ham Gravy
A thickened milk gravy built on baked-ham drippings and pan juices, the gravy of the holiday ham table. Creamier and milder than red-eye gravy, its coffee-sharp cousin.
Chicken Gravy
A pale, rich gravy from roast or fried chicken drippings and stock, flour-thickened. The gravy of Sunday chicken dinners, mashed potatoes, and chicken-fried chicken.
Milk Gravy
The plain form of the Southern white gravy: fat, flour, and milk, whisked smooth and peppered. Every sausage, sawmill, and country gravy starts from this pan.
Buttermilk Biscuit
The Southern buttermilk biscuit: tall, tender, and tangy, built to be split and gravied. The single most important base in this catalog.
Cornbread
A wedge or square of skillet cornbread, split or crumbled as the base. In Louisiana it carries crawfish gravy; in the upland South, cornmeal and tomato gravies.
Sausage Gravy over Biscuits
The signature plate of the gravy world: split buttermilk biscuits under a full ladle of sausage gravy. The dish biscuits and gravy means, everywhere it is served.
Country Ham with Red-Eye Gravy
A thick slice of fried country ham with its red-eye gravy, biscuits on the side for sopping. The upland South's original gravy plate.
Fried Chicken with Cream Gravy
Buttermilk fried chicken served with the cream gravy made from its own drippings. The Sunday-dinner plate of the South.
Smothered Pork Chops
Pork chops browned, then braised in their own onion gravy until tender. The smothered plate: meat and gravy cooked into one thing.