Email to Cat      

Red-Eye Gravy

Source of Recipe

"The Southerner's Cookbook: Recipes, Wisdom, and Stories"


Recipe Introduction

"While gravy spiked with coffee may well be a potent wake-up for the bleary-eyed at breakfast, this preparation most likely gets its name from the oily red-tinged 'eye' that forms in the center of the pan as the coffee is stirred into the grease to make the gravy. That, or Andrew Jackson, who, in a dubious but delightful story related in John Egerton's classic 'Southern Food,' may once have told a hungover cook to prepare him a plate of ham and gravy 'as red as your eyes.'"

List of Ingredients

â—¦ 1 tablespoon bacon grease or unsalted butter
â—¦ 4 cooked thick-cut country ham slices
â—¦ 1 ½ cups strong brewed coffee
â—¦ 1 ½ teaspoons dark brown sugar or molasses
â—¦ Salt and freshly ground black pepper


Recipe

Melt the bacon grease in a large cast iron skillet over medium heat. Fry the ham slices for 3 to 4 minutes per slice depending on their thickness. Remove the ham slices from the pan and wrap them in foil to keep warm.

Reserve 1 tablespoon of the rendered fat in the skillet; discard the rest. Add the coffee and brown sugar, stirring to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Cook until reduced by half (about 1 minute). The gravy will be thin like jus.

Season with salt (remembering that the ham is salty) and pepper. Serve with ham slices and warm biscuits.

Serves 4
(½ cup per serving)