Sausage gravy- was Re: [Sca-cooks] gravy

[jenne at fiedlerfamily.net]

> I had heard a rumor one year that sweet Italian sausage was the only
> kind they could find in bulk on the day, and that it became sort of
> an Eisental tradition. I admit it's not my favorite way to do it, but
> I suspect that if one has the mentality to come up with sausage gravy
> in the first place ;-), Italian fennel sausage is a relatively small
> obstacle.

Not exactly. The Eisental tradition is sweet Italian sausage-- all the old
school cooks make sausage gravy that way, from Landsknecht I onward.  One
cook, under the influence of someone else's opinions, was hunting for
cheap plain sausage, and didn't find it. The other cooks went out and
bought the Italian for her. She was grumpy, understandably. We were happy,
though. (My first experiences with Sausage Gravy were with _hot_ Italian
sausage, so the idea that only breakfast/plain sausage would do was
WIERD. And, as I said, when we tried it with plain sausage last year, it
just tasted bleah until we seasoned it up.)

Now, I suspect that the reason sweet italian sausage is the Eisental
standard (from that first event onward) is because it can be obtained
cheaply, 99 cents a pound-- though of course you have to squeeze it out of
the casing... but it may be what happens when Eastern Europeans make a
Southern dish, too. :)

I'm always puzzled by the fact that you can get sausage in casings much
cheaper than bulk sausage...


-- Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists certainly as love and
generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to
your life its highest beauty and joy." -- Francis P. Church