Franco American Country Style Sausage Gravy is Execrable



B

Blair P . Hough

Guest
I was in the grocery store today checking out beef prices (down $2 already, it would seem), and
something in the gravy aisle caught my eye.

Franco American Sausage Gravy.

Okay.

So, I grabbed a can, thinking hell, I've been cooking all week, maybe today I'll just have SOS in
the time it takes to toast bread.

Big mistake.

This stuff turned out genuinely awful.

I was tasting it while it heated, and it seemed okay. In small nibbles.

But I put a puddle of it over a nice peice of toast, got a big forkful in my mouth, and bleaugh.

Tasted like raw, partly burned rubber that had been soaked in cat-****.

The toast was fine, and again, in tiny bits on the toast the gravy was tolerable, but eat a big glob
of the stuff and it's utterly wretched.

I even made another batch of toast, because the first batch was a bit overdark (though you put gravy
on things to improve such problems). No difference in the result.

That's no way for a gravy to be. This met the in-sink-erator toot-sweet, and I had to eat two chocolate-
covered cherries to get the ecch out of my face.

--Blair "What a way to blow a great week..."
 
"Blair P. Houghton" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

> Franco American Sausage Gravy.
>
> Okay.
>
> So, I grabbed a can, thinking hell, I've been cooking all week, maybe today I'll just have SOS in
> the time it takes to toast bread.
>
> Big mistake.
>
> This stuff turned out genuinely awful.

Did you really expect something other than that?

> Tasted like raw, partly burned rubber that had been soaked in cat-****.

I'm unfamiliar with that taste. I'll take your word for it. <g>

-Mike
 
Blair P. Houghton wrote:
> Franco American Sausage Gravy.
>
> Tasted like raw, partly burned rubber that had been soaked in cat-****.

> --Blair "What a way to blow a great week..."

Blair, I'm a bit concerned you seem to know what partly burned rubber soaked in cat ****
tastes like :)

Seriously, the dry packaged country gravy (I think McCormick makes it) is not at all bad and you
would simply have needed to crumble a little browned sausage into it. OR, for what I call "real"
SOS, Stouffers makes a frozen boil-in-bag (or microwave!) creamed chipped beef which is
excellent on toast.

Jill
 
"Mike Pearce" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:OQ1Hb.11279$JD6.10464@lakeread04...
> "Blair P. Houghton" wrote in message news:[email protected]...
>
> > Franco American Sausage Gravy.
> >
> > Okay.
> >
> > So, I grabbed a can, thinking hell, I've been cooking all week, maybe today I'll just have SOS
> > in the time it takes to toast bread.
> >
> > Big mistake.
> >
> > This stuff turned out genuinely awful.
>
> Did you really expect something other than that?
>
> > Tasted like raw, partly burned rubber that had been soaked in cat-****.
>
> I'm unfamiliar with that taste. I'll take your word for it. <g>
>

Same here; I'll drop my demand for 'truth in packaging' on that one.

Jack Franconia
 
Blair P. Houghton <[email protected]> writes:
>
>Tasted like raw, partly burned rubber that had been soaked in cat-****.

Hmm, and how would you know what cat **** tastes like?? (G)

I tried that canned sausage gravy, and I agree that it was a waste of money. The white sauce was
just that - plain white sauce, unseasoned in any way. The "sausage" was more like TVP (textured
vegetable protein), commonly known as, or mixed with, mystery meat. Again, very little texture or
taste in the sausage.

And come on, now. It wasn't that bad. At best it was a good waste of a nice unseasoned white sauce.
At worst, it was tasteless and textureless. I won't buy it again either.

Connie
*****************************************************
My mind is like a steel...um, whatchamacallit.
 
Hark! I heard Blair P. Houghton <[email protected]> say:

> That's no way for a gravy to be. This met the in-sink-erator toot-sweet, and I had to eat two chocolate-
> covered cherries to get the ecch out of my face.

<snip>

I'm sorry for your experience, but I sure appreciate your reporting it. Just before Christmas I was
eyeballing that stuff as a quick & easy dinner (I love sausage gravy on biscuits). After reading
this post, I think I'll pass...

--
j.j. ~ mom, gamer, novice cook ~ ..fish heads, fish heads, eat them up, yum!
 
On Fri, 26 Dec 2003 21:19:05 GMT, Blair P. Houghton <[email protected]> wrote:

>I even made another batch of toast, because the first batch was a bit overdark (though you put
>gravy on things to improve such problems). No difference in the result.

Just be glad it was only toast that got wasted and not a nice meal.
 
jmcquown <[email protected]> wrote:
>Blair P. Houghton wrote:
>> Franco American Sausage Gravy.
>>
>> Tasted like raw, partly burned rubber that had been soaked in cat-****.
>
>> "What a way to blow a great week..."
>
>Blair, I'm a bit concerned you seem to know what partly burned rubber soaked in cat ****
>tastes like :)

I know what partly burned rubber tastes like (having been a child once myself, y'know), have been
around enough cat-**** to infer from the pervasively reeking carpet what the actual article would
taste like if used as a marinade, and I cook, so I know how things go together.

But no, I've never tasted them as such; just as before today I had never tasted this gravy.

So really, I couldn't tell you from the brand name "partly burned rubber soaked in cat ****" would
actually taste like, because clearly, "Contry Style Sausage Gravy" does not taste at all like it
should, either.

>Seriously, the dry packaged country gravy (I think McCormick makes it) is not at all bad and you
>would simply have needed to crumble a little browned sausage into it. OR, for what I call "real"
>SOS, Stouffers makes a frozen boil-in-bag (or microwave!) creamed chipped beef which is excellent
>on toast.

I have good sausage in the freezer, and flour, and butter, and milk and could have made real redeye
gravy in less time than it took to scrape the taste of this fetid dreck off my tastebuds.

--Blair "I need to stop buying medical experiments repackaged by MBA
students who got straight C's."
 
ConnieG999 <[email protected]> wrote:
>Blair P. Houghton <[email protected]> writes:
>>Tasted like raw, partly burned rubber that had been soaked in cat-****.
>
>Hmm, and how would you know what cat **** tastes like?? (G)
>
>I tried that canned sausage gravy, and I agree that it was a waste of money. The white sauce was
>just that - plain white sauce, unseasoned in any way. The "sausage" was more like TVP (textured
>vegetable protein), commonly known as, or mixed with, mystery meat. Again, very little texture or
>taste in the sausage.
>
>And come on, now. It wasn't that bad. At best it was a good waste of a nice unseasoned white sauce.
>At worst, it was tasteless and textureless. I won't buy it again either.

This wasn't even close to unseasoned. The salt level was a little high, but for sausage gravy that's
one of the attractions, as it's meant to make biscuits perk up. The black-pepper content, however,
was off the chart, and I suspect had a lot to do with the unwanted chemical reactions taking place.

--Blair "Need to come up with a cute cocktail and name it The
Cat ****..."
 
"Blair P. Houghton" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> ConnieG999 <[email protected]> wrote:
> >Blair P. Houghton <[email protected]> writes:
> >>Tasted like raw, partly burned rubber that had been soaked in cat-****.
> >
> >Hmm, and how would you know what cat **** tastes like?? (G)
> >
> >I tried that canned sausage gravy, and I agree that it was a waste of
money.
> >The white sauce was just that - plain white sauce, unseasoned in any way. The "sausage" was more
> >like TVP (textured vegetable protein), commonly
known
> >as, or mixed with, mystery meat. Again, very little texture or taste in
the
> >sausage.
> >
> >And come on, now. It wasn't that bad. At best it was a good waste of a
nice
> >unseasoned white sauce. At worst, it was tasteless and textureless. I won't buy it again either.
>
> This wasn't even close to unseasoned. The salt level was a little high, but for sausage gravy
> that's one of the attractions, as it's meant to make biscuits perk up. The black-pepper content,
> however, was off the chart, and I suspect had a lot to do with the unwanted chemical reactions
> taking place.
>
> --Blair "Need to come up with a cute cocktail and name it The Cat ****..."

Blair, I think that can had a typo. It's 'contra style gravy'.

Jack Agin
 
|>Tasted like raw, partly burned rubber that had been soaked
>in cat-****.

I'm not going to ask for your frame of reference on this, but I'll take your word on what that
tastes like.
 
What does Franco American make that isn't pure ****?

Paul

"Blair P. Houghton" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> I was in the grocery store today checking out beef prices (down $2 already, it would seem), and
> something in the gravy aisle caught my eye.
>
> Franco American Sausage Gravy.
>
> Okay.
>
> So, I grabbed a can, thinking hell, I've been cooking all week, maybe today I'll just have SOS in
> the time it takes to toast bread.
>
> Big mistake.
>
> This stuff turned out genuinely awful.
>
> I was tasting it while it heated, and it seemed okay. In small nibbles.
>
> But I put a puddle of it over a nice peice of toast, got a big forkful in my mouth, and bleaugh.
>
> Tasted like raw, partly burned rubber that had been soaked in cat-****.
>
> The toast was fine, and again, in tiny bits on the toast the gravy was tolerable, but eat a big
> glob of the stuff and it's utterly wretched.
>
> I even made another batch of toast, because the first batch was a bit overdark (though you put
> gravy on things to improve such problems). No difference in the result.
>
> That's no way for a gravy to be. This met the in-sink-erator toot-sweet, and I had to eat two chocolate-
> covered cherries to get the ecch out of my face.
>
> --Blair "What a way to blow a great week..."
 
>Seriously, the dry packaged country gravy (I think McCormick makes it) is not at all bad and you
>would simply have needed to crumble a little browned sausage into it.

My favorite of the powdered country gravies is the Pioneer brand, and it makes a good base from
which to start a country gravy, as far as adding sausage pieces and sausage drippings etc. It also
has to have a healthy dose of black pepper in it.

Michael O'Connor - Modern Renaissance Man

"The likelihood of one individual being correct increases in a direct proportion to the intensity
with which others try to prove him wrong" James Mason from the movie "Heaven Can Wait".
 
Mpoconnor7 wrote:
>> Seriously, the dry packaged country gravy (I think McCormick makes it) is not at all bad and you
>> would simply have needed to crumble a little browned sausage into it.
>
> My favorite of the powdered country gravies is the Pioneer brand, and it makes a good base from
> which to start a country gravy, as far as adding sausage pieces and sausage drippings etc. It also
> has to have a healthy dose of black pepper in it.
>
> Michael O'Connor - Modern Renaissance Man

Ah, now that you mention it, it is Pioneer brand I'm thinking of.

Jill
 
ConnieG999 <[email protected]> wrote:
> Blair P. Houghton <[email protected]> writes:
>
>>I have good sausage in the freezer, and flour, and butter, and milk and could have made real
>>redeye gravy in less time than it took to scrape the taste of this fetid dreck off my tastebuds.
>
>Sawmill gravy, yes.

D'oh!

--Blair "More beer for me."
 
nice to know..I bought a can 3-4 months ago but have been afraid to try it..sausage gravy is so
simple to make but avoiding the greasy mess *I* make when I make it seemed like a good reason to try
this..guess not huh?!
--

Laura

"Blair P. Houghton" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> I was in the grocery store today checking out beef prices (down $2 already, it would seem), and
> something in the gravy aisle caught my eye.
>
> Franco American Sausage Gravy.
>
> Okay.
>
> So, I grabbed a can, thinking hell, I've been cooking all week, maybe today I'll just have SOS in
> the time it takes to toast bread.
>
> Big mistake.
>
> This stuff turned out genuinely awful.
>
> I was tasting it while it heated, and it seemed okay. In small nibbles.
>
> But I put a puddle of it over a nice peice of toast, got a big forkful in my mouth, and bleaugh.
>
> Tasted like raw, partly burned rubber that had been soaked in cat-****.
>
> The toast was fine, and again, in tiny bits on the toast the gravy was tolerable, but eat a big
> glob of the stuff and it's utterly wretched.
>
> I even made another batch of toast, because the first batch was a bit overdark (though you put
> gravy on things to improve such problems). No difference in the result.
>
> That's no way for a gravy to be. This met the in-sink-erator toot-sweet, and I had to eat two chocolate-
> covered cherries to get the ecch out of my face.
>
> --Blair "What a way to blow a great week..."
 
Laura <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>nice to know..I bought a can 3-4 months ago but have been afraid to try it..sausage gravy is so
>simple to make but avoiding the greasy mess *I* make when I make it seemed like a good reason to
>try this..guess not huh?!

You might wait for a snack-option moment to open it up and give it a try. There's always the chance
I got the can the plumber dropped his cigar into. But have a backup snack handy.

--Blair "And a tongue brush."
 
Blair P. Houghton <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> I was in the grocery store today checking out beef prices (down $2 already, it would seem), and
> something in the gravy aisle caught my eye.
>
> Tasted like raw, partly burned rubber that had been soaked in cat-****.
>
> > That's no way for a gravy to be. This met the in-sink-erator
> toot-sweet, and I had to eat two chocolate-covered cherries to get the ecch out of my face.
>
> --Blair "What a way to blow a great week..."

<unlurk>

Ok, So I know to avoid it, but it really is simple to make you own.

Start with about a pound of you favorite brand of breakfast sausage. Brown it, but don't over cook,
and DO NOT DRAIN ! In a shakeable container, add two semi-heaping teaspoons of flour, and fill with
6 to 8 oz of milk. Shake. Pour flour and milk mix in the sausage pan and stir to incorporate. Allow
to come to a slow boil, and check for consistency. Add more flour an milk to get the consistency you
want. If it is very thick, add only milk for example. Otherwise, a second batch of flour and milk
should give you enough gravy for the sausage. Season with black pepper and (maybe) salt.

If you are using a very lean sausage, you may want to use some bacon drippings to brown the sausage.

REMEMBER : do NOT drain the fat at any point. Also note : the flour / milk ratio above is for a very
thick gravy. This depends a bit on how much grease the sausage gives you.

Serve over your favorite biscuts or toast. Start your diet the next day.<g>

Dean G.
 
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