SC - Chocolate Gravy -- An Arkansas Thing (Repost)

[Phil & Susan Troy]

References: <3.0.1.16.19980907093718.45ff0ad8 at pop.mindspring.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

David C. Walker wrote:
> 
> Hello good gentile.....
> 
>         I am seeking a mundane recipe for chocolate gravy.
>         And while I at it...is this a southern thing or what?
> 
> Thanks,
> Dafydd the Bald
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chocolate Gravy -- An Arkansas Thing

Serves 2

Combine in a heavy saucepan 2 Tbs cocoa (Hershey's is the preferred brand),
about 2 Tbs sugar, more or less, depending on how sweet you like it, and 1 Tbs
flour. Mix thoroughly.

Into that mixture, add about 1 cup of milk, a little at a time, mixing until
smooth. If it ends up being too thick, you can add more milk later to thin it.

Place the pan over medium heat and bring to a simmer, stirring frequently,
till thickened. Check for desired thickness and sweetness, and adjust if necessary.

Remove from the heat, and stir in 1 tsp of vanilla extract.

Pour over buttered biscuits, and serve with cold milk. Makes about one cup,
which is two servings or so.

This is the recipe as given to me by the lady whose grandma used to make the
stuff. I made it for her when she came for a visit, and she said it was
almost, but not quite, right. She said it was supposed to be almost black, yet
made with milk. She also said it should be made with fresh raw milk. I wonder
if she was referring to raw milk that had been skimmed of cream, which might
have made the final product darker. When I make this for myself, I use the
usual pasteurized/homogenized milk, but add a bit of butter to make the flour
into a blonde roux, which makes the product a bit richer and smoother. My
Arkansas Test Subject approved, in any case.

In searching for this recipe, I actually wrote to the Hershey's cocoa people,
thinking perhaps the recipe had originally come off the back of the cocoa
canister in the 1930's or something, and they took a couple of weeks to
respond via e-mail. I get the impression they said something like, "The man
wants a recipe for chocolate gravy, so, boys in the back room, why not give
him one?" Which they did, but it was full of nonessentials like corn syrup
(shudder) and was basically a milkless hot fudge sauce. I believe I dumped the
recipe, it was so clearly not the real stuff.

Hope this helps!

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================