sausage gravy
Peppery white gravy cooked with breakfast sausage, meant for biscuits.
Also called sawmill gravy, country gravy.
Updated September 24, 2026
sausage gravy pronunciation
/SAW-sij GRAY-vee/
Meaning
Sausage gravy is the Southern breakfast staple: crumbled pork sausage browned in the skillet, flour stirred into the drippings, then milk cooked till thick and freckled with black pepper. You ladle it over split biscuits till the plate looks like hard work paid off. Closely kin to sawmill gravy and country gravy; the sausage bits are what earn this name.
How folks use it
- “She made a big skillet of sausage gravy for Sunday biscuits.”
- “That diner's sausage gravy is thick enough to stand a spoon in.”
Origin and etymology
Food writers often place biscuits and gravy in southern Appalachia in the late 1800s, where cheap pork, flour, and milk fed loggers and sawmill crews. The related name sawmill gravy points to that working breakfast. Earlier lean kitchens made white gravy from drippings even without sausage. Either way, it is make-do cooking that stuck as comfort food.
Frequently asked questions
Is sausage gravy the same as sawmill gravy?
Close cousins. Sawmill gravy is the older white gravy from drippings; sausage gravy keeps the crumbled sausage in it.