Bluehen's Sawmill Gravy

Sawmill gravy is basically a milk gravy or cream sauce or béchamel sauce, call it what you will, with browned sausage in it. The ingredients are:

One tbsp. cooking oil (to get the sausage started browning)

One pound of breakfast sausage

One quarter cup of flour

Two cups of milk/cream/half and half/whatever.

Warm the cooking oil in a large skillet, break up the sausage into it and cook sausage thoroughly. Remove sausage with slotted spoon and drain. Measure one quarter cup of sausage drippings and reserve remainder for frying eggs. (Yes, really). Return the 1/4 cup drippings to skillet and add the flour. Whisk until the flour stops foaming and/or the bubbles are noticeably smaller. You have just made a blonde roux. Stir in the dairy component of your choice, being careful to scrape up the brown bits stuck to the bottom of the skillet. There is a lot of flavor in those bits. When the gravy has thickened, add the sausage back and stir until all is up to temp, just a minute or two. Taste and adjust seasonings. Yields about 2 1/2 cups. Traditionally served over biscuits.