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

[jenne at fiedlerfamily.net]

> >That's pretty much how I felt when I tasted the sausage gravy made with
> >plain sausage, using the sausage-fat roux/milk method-- all I could taste
> >was fat. I guess it's all in what you are used to.
>
> True. But... traditions in the land of a dish's origin are a pretty
> telling point. As a random example, it's just plain dumb to criticize
> a perfect margarita napolitano made by that 1000-year-old bakery in
> Naples for not being Pizzeria Uno deep-dish pizza. While I'm not as
> offended by Italian sausage gravy as some (even though it's not my
> preference), a little respect for the Ur-version is definitely in
> order. You sort of have to assume that there's some advantage to
> doing it that way, and that if it's not good, it's probably more a
> matter of execution than concept.

I dunno. To paraphrase a certain fearless Duck, if you make a recipe
according to the directions and you don't like it, maybe you just don't
like it. :)

On the other hand, I don't know what southern-style sausage tastes like.
(The entire concept of southern sausage, without the edumakatin' effects
of German and Slavic immigrant populations, comes second in my mind to
turkey sausage... [Turkey sausage? You make sausage out of the bits that
are too small or too wierd to eat normally... I don't _want_ to know what
parts of the turkey those are...])

> We would complain about breakfast at an event like the standard
> Southern Region War Camp? To you??? Especially when breakfast is a
> fund-raiser not really included in the event fee? How insane do you
> think we are??? ;-)

You'd be surprised.... :)

> I've heard people commenting on the Italian sausage aspect (I have
> been one of them), but it doesn't stop me eating the stuff. To me,
> it's just kind of like seeing a brown block of something in a food
> setting, expecting the flavor of chocolate and getting beef instead.
> It's not that it's not good. Just... not what you expected.

Sure.

> >I guess we're just crass, down here in the hinterlands. :)
>
> This is actually quite a funny line, on several levels. Too crass for
> proper sausage gravy in the hinterlands, huh?

Yup, that's us.

> But Eisental has something of a rep for being set in its ways, I gather.

Yeah, there's a whole young-adult novel in there... They've gotten a lot
more flexible, but you still gotta work your b*** off to get respected.
Good old Slavic/PA Dutch/Welsh miner stock-- if you ain't got calluses,
you better go back to the city. :)

-- 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