Sausage Vs Red Eye Gravy: What's The Difference?

Gravy is a seriously underrated food. It's unlikely to be the focus of any dish — until, of course, you notice its absence on mashed potatoes or a particularly dry piece of meatloaf. Originally invented to prevent food waste and add bulk and flavor to meals, gravy is usually made from simple ingredients like milk or broth, flour, and pan drippings left over from cooking meat. Called "fond," these pan drippings not only infuse gravy with color and nutrients, but also give it that savory flavor every gravy connoisseur loves.

Though there are literally dozens of different kinds of gravy — and hundreds of different ways to make it — a handful of classic recipes have stood the test of time, moistening meat and giving our grits something to grip onto for centuries. Two of the most famous of these classic recipes are sausage and red eye gravy. Though both are classically Southern, they hail from different regions and are traditionally used in very different ways. 

In fact, the only thing these two dishes may have in common is that they're both types of gravy. Sausage gravy, as the name suggests, is typically made from sausage drippings and contains rendered sausage, while red eye gravy is made using rendered fat from pan-seared ham. Red eye gravy is also thinner, more like a sauce, while sausage gravy is known for its thick texture. One of them also uses coffee as a flavoring agent, while the other is hearty and heavy enough to send you to dreamland right after dinner.

In the United States, we generally associate classic buttermilk biscuits and sausage cream gravy with rich, comforting Southern cuisine, but it's actually a cultural staple throughout most of Appalachia, including more northerly areas like Western Pennsylvania and parts of Ohio. That's because biscuits and gravy were very commonly fed to Appalachian lumberjacks and coal miners who labored in the heart of this ancient mountain range. Though the original recipe for this "sawmill" gravy often only used sausage drippings, modern sausage gravy usually includes plenty of the meat itself.

As mentioned, the main flavoring component in sausage gravy is the fat left over from browning pork sausage. Simmered together with flour and milk to provide its signature smooth, velvety texture, this gravy develops a deep, warm flavor from the sausage and the seasonings inside it, such as black pepper and fennel. Once it's nice and thick, crumbled and rendered sausage is typically added back into the gravy for texture and additional flavor.

Appalachians and Southerners alike will tell you it's appropriate to enjoy sausage gravy any time of day, but it's most often served for breakfast over tall, fluffy, flaky biscuits. Some people also enjoy it over waffles as a variation of traditional chicken and waffles. It's usually accompanied by other classic American breakfast foods like shredded or cubed breakfast potatoes and eggs, especially sunny-side up, as the golden yolk adds a luscious texture and flavor to the gravy. A breakfast like this will certainly provide plenty of energy for the day ahead.

As it turns out, there are a handful of places red eye gravy may get its name, the most logical of which is that it's made with coffee, which keeps people awake and may be responsible for giving them red, sleepless eyes. It's also called "red ham" gravy, likely referencing the color of the country ham steaks used to make it, which often feature an eye-shaped bone in the center.

Though the origins of red eye gravy aren't as well-documented as those of sausage gravy, it's fairly easy to infer that it, too, was an invention born of necessity. Made with nothing more than country ham drippings and black coffee, this simplistic gravy epitomizes making the best of what you have on hand. These ingredients may not sound like they'd create a tasty, nuanced topper for everything from fried ham to cornbread and potatoes, but they do.

Coffee's bitter earthiness is the perfect foil to salty cured ham. Together, they cancel out each other's less palatable flavors, enhancing the things we really want to taste, such as rich meatiness underscored by an almost sweet, malty flavor enhanced within the coffee. All of this flavor comes from the simple process of dumping a cooled cup of black coffee into ham drippings and simmering them for about 10 minutes. Though this gravy can easily become a salt bomb as it reduces, it's fairly easy to rescue an overly salted gravy by making a double batch. You'll then have more deliciousness to look forward to later.