Southern English

[Bird]

Just the word "sausage" covers a lot territory.:laughing: But in this thread discussing biscuits and gravy, I think it only means what I'd call "breakfast sausage". I've tried some others, such as turkey, but to me it means "pork" which is the only one I'd buy. Every grocery store in this part of the country has several good brands. My personal preference is Pernell's Old Folks sausage. They have one labelled "medium" which is my preference although I'd consider it to be "mild". The one labelled "hot" is what I'd consider to be medium. I like their ready made patties to fry for breakfast, and their one pound "bulk" for mixing with ground beef for spaghetti, burgers, and stuffed peppers. Incidentally, their Smokehouse Sausage Patties are what you get if you order sausage patties at The Cracker Barrel.

 

[stingray1]

:laughing:

I've visited the south and they speak something other than English

Glad you just "visited":laughing:

 

[PMA]

:laughing: Glad you just "visited":laughing:

The difference between a yankee and **** Yankee, a **** Yankee stays.

Sent from my iPhone using TractorByNet

 

[Daver1963]

If you're buying name branded sausage:
Bob Evans, Jimmy Dean, Williams - all extra sage.
Cook it in a seasoned cast iron skillet. Preferably one your Mema used and you've maybe cleaned up a little. Low-medium heat.
Looks sorta like this:

 

[jinman]

Bird gave some great links to Purnell's sausage patties. Lately, the precut patties have become very popular, probably because the same product is sold to restaurants who like it for convenience. I buy those regularly, but also we buy Owens (Bob Evans owned), Jimmy Dean, and JC Potter which is local to our area. It's produced in Durant, Ok, and I'm surprised Bird didn't mention it. It is a very popular brand in N. Texas and Oklahoma. When I was growing up, we bought pork breakfast sausage from a local butcher in Argyle, Tx named Ray Parker. He would grind/regrind your sausage any way you liked it. If you wanted more sage, Ray would make it to your specs. My uncle would not eat any other sausage. It wasn't packaged in a plastic sleeve like store-bought sausage, but rather formed into a long roll and wrapped in butcher paper. You just took it home and sliced your patties yourself. It was the freshest and best tasting sausage I ever put in my mouth.

Frankly, I wish the references to Yankees would stop. If there is one thing that is certain, this country is a melting pot of north, south, east, and west. The richness of our foods is largely due to our huge immigrant populations. Brow-beating someone by referring to them as a Yankee makes no sense to me. I don't like to be stereotyped as a southern redneck with an IQ inversely proportional to the level of my ego either. Save the drama for the reality shows on the Discovery Channel. When someone cares about our local foods and wants to give them a try, why would I put them down? Gosh! Just think of all the tasty delights you can find up north: clam chowder, hoagies, scrapple, bagels, and those delicious hot pretzels with a big ol' dollup of mustard on them.:licking: Southern cooking is delicious, but so are local specialties from all over the USA . . . and outside the USA too.

 

[jinman]

Looks sorta like this:
View attachment 349455

DaveR, that sausage has plenty of drippings to make great gravy. However, cleaning a cast iron skillet after making gravy is not my favorite chore. The gravy seems to take some of the seasoning out of the pan and requires a treatment of about 1/2 teaspoonful of oil to keep the pan from rust spotting.

 

[jerrybob]

DaveR, that sausage has plenty of drippings to make great gravy. However, cleaning a cast iron skillet after making gravy is not my favorite chore. The gravy seems to take some of the seasoning out of the pan and requires a treatment of about 1/2 teaspoonful of oil to keep the pan from rust spotting.

Dave's picture reminded me of this....

FIVE FAT SAUSAGES - with Lyrics - YouTube

 

[crash325]

Sausage Gravy is Easy
1# of sausage (not low fat) Bulk not patties.
Brown sausage -Break it up as it browns, add a little oil if it is to dry.
toss in a generous amount of flower. (2 heaping table spoons - give or take a little.
Pour in some milk & stir - if too thick add a little more - if too thin cook a little more.
Slightly thin is best as it will thicken on its own.
I don't really measure anything - sort of go by what looks right. If you have browned your flour & sausage correctly, you will not get lumps.

 

[IslandTractor]

Bird gave some great links to Purnell's sausage patties. Lately, the precut patties have become very popular, probably because the same product is sold to restaurants who like it for convenience. I buy those regularly, but also we buy Owens (Bob Evans owned), Jimmy Dean, and JC Potter which is local to our area. It's produced in Durant, Ok, and I'm surprised Bird didn't mention it. It is a very popular brand in N. Texas and Oklahoma. When I was growing up, we bought pork breakfast sausage from a local butcher in Argyle, Tx named Ray Parker. He would grind/regrind your sausage any way you liked it. If you wanted more sage, Ray would make it to your specs. My uncle would not eat any other sausage. It wasn't packaged in a plastic sleeve like store-bought sausage, but rather formed into a long roll and wrapped in butcher paper. You just took it home and sliced your patties yourself. It was the freshest and best tasting sausage I ever put in my mouth.

Frankly, I wish the references to Yankees would stop. If there is one thing that is certain, this country is a melting pot of north, south, east, and west. The richness of our foods is largely due to our huge immigrant populations. Brow-beating someone by referring to them as a Yankee makes no sense to me. I don't like to be stereotyped as a southern redneck with an IQ inversely proportional to the level of my ego either. Save the drama for the reality shows on the Discovery Channel. When someone cares about our local foods and wants to give them a try, why would I put them down? Gosh! Just think of all the tasty delights you can find up north: clam chowder, hoagies, scrapple, bagels, and those delicious hot pretzels with a big ol' dollup of mustard on them.:licking: Southern cooking is delicious, but so are local specialties from all over the USA . . . and outside the USA too.

Appreciate the tip. I just found a local source of sausage seasoning with salt, red pepper, sage, sugar and black pepper that sounds pretty much like what I've read about as southern style seasoning. I'll give it a try. I haven't found anything but the national branded sausage and I always find that type of product to be dumbed down for mass consumption so I think I'll try to make my own with ground pork.

I appreciate your point about Yankees and Rednecks but those terms are not always used in a mean spirited way. I'm sure folks in the south call themselves Rednecks just as we use the term Yankee (though I must say it is really galling for a devoted Red Sox fan to call himself a Yankee). And, just as not all Southerners really fit the Redneck mold, you can be sure that only a small minority of those who live in the Northeast have any real link to the original Yankee population as known a couple hundred years ago. Most folks up here would identify more as Irish American or Italian American etc and we are truly a mixed group. We are a melting pot nation and that is a very good thing but we don't want to become a homogenized nation. Regional differences are to be celebrated and cherished and the generally good natured sibling rivalry that goes with that can be part of the fun. Yes, there is mean spirited use of those terms and stereotypes but I wouldn't want to throw the proverbial baby out with the bath water. Let's just agree to use generic terms like jerk or SOB when we are truly expressing displeasure and keep the old regional stereotypes out of fights. After all, how am I ever going to learn about sausage if there are no good Rednecks around to teach me.

 

[IslandTractor]

If you're buying name branded sausage:
Bob Evans, Jimmy Dean, Williams - all extra sage.
Cook it in a seasoned cast iron skillet. Preferably one your Mema used and you've maybe cleaned up a little. Low-medium heat.
Looks sorta like this:
View attachment 349455

Now is that sausage for eating directly or for making gravy? I thought sausage in gravy was all broken up into tiny bits like ground beef rather than in patties.

 

[jinman]

I appreciate your point about Yankees and Rednecks but those terms are not always used in a mean spirited way. I'm sure folks in the south call themselves Rednecks just as we use the term Yankee (though I must say it is really galling for a devoted Red Sox fan to call himself a Yankee).

Absolutely true! We all love good-natured joking, but we all have to be careful that our joking doesn't turn to taunting. I've been called a Yank by Brits and Aussies; loved the term and consider it a compliment.

 

[IslandTractor]

Absolutely true! We all love good-natured joking, but we all have to be careful that our joking doesn't turn to taunting. I've been called a Yank by Brits and Aussies; loved the term and consider it a compliment.

And, I suppose it is even more galling for a proud Redneck to be called a Yank than it is for a Red Sox fan!!!

 

[/pine]

just an opinion based on observation...no personal animosity...

Not trying to throw gas on a fire but...I think it's going to be quite a while before all the deep seated hatred (rightly deserved or not) that is rooted in the demeaning use of the word (Yankee) becomes diluted enough to be accepted as being "good" in nature...JMO

 

[bcp]

To foreigners, a Yankee is an American.
To Americans, a Yankee is a Northerner.
To Northerners, a Yankee is an Easterner.
To Easterners, a Yankee is a New Englander.
To New Englanders, a Yankee is a Vermonter.
And in Vermont, a Yankee is somebody who eats pie for breakfast.

E. B. White

 

[IslandTractor]

just an opinion based on observation...no personal animosity...

Not trying to throw gas on a fire but...I think it's going to be quite a while before all the deep seated hatred (rightly deserved or not) that is rooted in the demeaning use of the word (Yankee) becomes diluted enough to be accepted as being "good" in nature...JMO

Yes, there is that perspective. But I don't think it was too long ago that Japs and Krauts were reviled and those feelings subsided within a generation. I appreciate that southerners hang on to some civil war related feelings but the inverse really is not the case. We might cheer for the blue rather than grey in an annual football game but any memories of Andersonville or Bulls Run etc etc have long since passed into history and no longer have any significant emotional component up here.

 

[k0ua]

DaveR, that sausage has plenty of drippings to make great gravy. However, cleaning a cast iron skillet after making gravy is not my favorite chore. The gravy seems to take some of the seasoning out of the pan and requires a treatment of about 1/2 teaspoonful of oil to keep the pan from rust spotting.

Yep, best to season them again with a quarter sized spot of olive oil. At least that is what I do... And while I consider my self a southerner, I have brains enough to know that every area of the USA has some great eats. While I don't care a lot for Boston politics, I also know they make some very tempting dishes up there.

 

[k0ua]

To foreigners, a Yankee is an American.
To Americans, a Yankee is a Northerner.
To Northerners, a Yankee is an Easterner.
To Easterners, a Yankee is a New Englander.
To New Englanders, a Yankee is a Vermonter.
And in Vermont, a Yankee is somebody who eats pie for breakfast.

E. B. White

Hm.... I have been know to do just that...

 

[/pine]

Yes, there is that perspective. But I don't think it was too long ago that Japs and Krauts were reviled and those feelings subsided within a generation. I appreciate that southerners hang on to some civil war related feelings but the inverse really is not the case. We might cheer for the blue rather than grey in an annual football game but any memories of Andersonville or Bulls Run etc etc have long since passed into history and no longer have any significant emotional component up here.

Again just an observation...
...From what I have read it is/was not so much the atrocities of war(s) but those that come in the aftermath that are the most resented at least when it comes to 'The War Between the States'...

 

[/pine]

...a Yankee is somebody who eats pie for breakfast

I was born and raised in the South but I find nothing wrong with pie for breakfast..especially 'ShooFly Pie'...

 

[jerrybob]

To foreigners, a Yankee is an American.
To Americans, a Yankee is a Northerner.
To Northerners, a Yankee is an Easterner.
To Easterners, a Yankee is a New Englander.
To New Englanders, a Yankee is a Vermonter.
And in Vermont, a Yankee is somebody who eats pie for breakfast.

E. B. White

To many of us.....a Yankee is just a spoiled baseball player!:laughing: