How to Make a Good Lump Free Gravy

This family favorite Appalachian recipe has been passed down through many generations of my family and is a highly requested dinner. The best gravy is lump free and cooked from scratch. Blow breakfast restaurants out of the water with the ultimate recipe for lump free gravy:

1. Cook sausage, bacon, or chicken before making the gravy. Bacon gravy is not as good as sausage or chicken gravy. Chicken gravy is the best and most flavorful addition to any fried chicken dish and sausage gravy comes in second.

2. After removing the meat from the pan, leave the grease and small pieces of meat in the skillet. Drain enough of the liquid where only about a tablespoon of grease remains. It doesn't have to be measured out, just eyeball it. That's how the old-fashioned cooks do it.

3. Sprinkle a heaping tablespoon of flour into the pan. It should soak up all the grease and form a paste. Take care not to pour too much flour in. A tablespoon in this recipe is actually a large spoon used to eat with, not a measuring spoon. A heaping tablespoon is where the spoon is dipped deep into the flour and piled on as much as possible. The flour should sit like a pyramid on top of the spoon.

4. Pour a half glass (regular drinking glass) of milk in the pan. The liquid should be very runny. If there are any flour lumps, there shouldn't be, but if there are, press them out with the spoon until there are none.

5. Turn the heat to low.

6. Stir slowly about 3 minutes until liquid thickens. If gravy doesn't thicken within 3 minutes, turn the heat up a little at a time. Do not turn the heat up past medium. The gravy should never boil.

7. Take a small piece of meat (one sausage patty, one slice of bacon, or a quarter of a chicken breast) and cut in smaller pieces.

8. Mix small meat pieces into gravy.

9. Stir until desired consistency is reached. Add salt and pepper to taste.

10. Gravy will thicken as it cools.

11. Serves 2-4 people.

This from scratch recipe always gets praise and there are never any leftovers. To make a larger batch, leave two teaspoons of grease in the pan, add two tablespoons of flour, and add an entire glass of milk.