What could be better in the morning than hot biscuits, just out of the oven, with lots of good butter? There are a lot of variations to this Southern classic and one of my favorites is biscuits, fried spicy sausage patty and fig preserves. It’s one of my all time favorites.
The fig preserves can be hard to find, so if you do find some buy several. There is a lady who sells canned jellies and jams at the Biloxi farmers market, she doesn’t often have fig preserves, so stock up if you get lucky.
When I was a kid, living in Houston, MS (my mom’s hometown), my grandfather stopped by early every morning on his way to work at the dairy he managed, and dropped off freshly made biscuits my grandmother was famous for making from scratch. It was a great way to start the day.
Home made biscuits are not that hard to make and can be done start to scratch in about thirty minutes. The basics are 2 cups AP flour, 1 ts baking powder, 1 ts sugar, 1 ts salt, 6 tb cold butter, ¾ cup of milk (or butter milk). Combine everything but the butter, then cut it in and combine. Kneed the mixture with you well flowered hands until smooth, roll out, cut into rounds then bake at 425 f or about 12 minutes. Pretty simple, right?
Hot biscuits just out of the oven are pretty good, with a good size lump of best quality butter (quality really does matter) and even better if you are lucky enough to have scored some of the Greenhouse’s home made strawberry jam. But the afore mentioned sausage, especially if you can find one that is hot and spicy, is a breakfast dream come true. They are equally delicious when topped with a sunny side up egg, or lightly scrambled eggs (more pudding like than scrambled), some crispy fried bacon (especially if you just happen to have some Benton’s Bacon tucked away).
Another biscuit favorite is the famous army mess hall classic of biscuits and sausage gravy (SoS). As always, the quality of ingredients will make a big difference. Use heavy cream, not milk, and the best spicy sausage (I like Jimmy Dean hot sausage).
Start by sautéing the sausage until well browned, then remove, but leave the drippings. Add diced onion, bell pepper and jalapenos and cook until tender, then add cream and cook until it thickens (a little flour might help) and add the sausage. Top the buttered biscuits with the sauce and enjoy!