Add This Ingredient To Your Sausage Gravy For Supercharged Flavor

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Some folks will go to bat for old-school red eye gravy on ham as the definitive Southern comfort food, but, for our money, it's gotta be biscuits and sausage gravy. Executed properly, sausage gravy is the absolute epitome of soul food that warms your belly as well as your heart. You have the salty, meaty bites of cooked sausage balanced by the unctuous creaminess of the white gravy in which it's suspended. A well-made sausage gravy is already perfect, but we're going to suggest one ingredient to send your breakfast skyrocketing to the stratosphere — and it's likely already in your spice cabinet.

Nutmeg might reside in a jar that you associate with baking sweets, but rest assured that it's the secret weapon behind any good béchamel sauce ... and sausage gravy's base is (surprise, surprise!) a béchamel consisting of a roux and milk. Experts opine that nutmeg adds warmth and a delicate nuance of flavor to a white sauce, and sausage gravy is no exception. 

In a Reddit thread discussing whammy ingredients to elevate sausage gravy, nutmeg was highly voted. "When I started learning to really cook I learned that what I had called white gravy was actually called Béchamel sauce and used throughout French and Italian cooking," said one commenter. "When I was in Italy my MIL told me that everyone there puts a dash of nutmeg in their Béchamel sauce over there. So I do that now. It doesn't take much, just two shakes of the spice bottle."

To take your sausage gravy to the next level, all you need to do is shake in some ground nutmeg. The bottled stuff is just fine, but, for a special treat, how about some premium whole nutmeg pods and a petite electric spice grinder that fits in your cabinet? A proper sausage gravy doesn't need a lot to make it sing. Basically, nutmeg works because it cuts through the richness of a white sauce and gives it an extra oomph of complexity, even if you can't pick out its exact flavor. 

Besides knowing the best sausage cooking tips for the meat component of your gravy, adding nutmeg might be among our top tips for crafting a perfect plate of Southern comfort. And why stop at gravy? Sure, cream of mushroom soup elevates mac and cheese, but have you tried shaking in some nutmeg before adding your shredded cheese? Two words: game changer. You can become a flavor ninja by sneaking nutmeg into anything with a cream base, whether it's lasagna, fettuccine alfredo, or veggie gratin. 

Some folks swear by cayenne as the natural accompaniment to the salt and pepper that form the backbone of your condiment's delicious flavor, but we urge you to go in the opposite direction and try nutmeg. You may find that all the distinct components of your gravy (the richness of the sausage, the creaminess of the milk, the salinity of the salt, and the mild heat of the black pepper) are pulled into alignment by this spice, which harmonizes and complements without ever pushing itself to the forefront.