Chocolate Gravy

Me, Linda and Mother - August, 1960

The St. Francis County Fair was held here in Forrest City a few weeks ago.  A big part of the fair each year is the Kountry Kitchen.  The Kountry Kitchen is open all during fair week, and is famous for its old-fashioned, southern-style, home-cooked meals... especially the lunches.  Lunches at the Kountry Kitchen during the fair include old favorites like Chicken and Dressing, Meatloaf, Chicken and Dumplings, Fried Chicken, Fried Pork Chops, Fried Okra, Squash Casserole, Sweet Potato Casserole, Purple Hull Peas, Fried Corn, Mashed Potatoes, Apple Cobbler and Peach Cobbler.

A few years ago, a change in my job allowed me the opportunity to help with meals at the Kountry Kitchen.  After having eaten lunches in the Kountry Kitchen for so many years, I felt like it was a great opportunity for me to do my part.  Though my new work schedule didn't allow a lot of time to volunteer to help with lunch, it provided plenty of time to help with breakfast.  One of my first real assignments was making gravy.

Most of the morning fare at the Kountry Kitchen consists of the "Big Breakfast Plate"; two eggs, sausage or bacon, two biscuits and milk gravy.  As I fried sausage and bacon, and prepared enormous skillets of milk gravy, it brought back memories of my childhood breakfasts.  Milk gravy, or sausage gravy as we sometimes called it, was sometimes served as part of our family breakfast.  Hot, homemade buttermilk biscuits were split apart, and the sausage-laden, ivory-colored, creamy goodness was ladled over the top.  Who needed extras like eggs when there were biscuits and gravy?

Most of the rest of the world, at least the Southern world, thinks of milk gravy, or sausage gravy, when a "breakfast" gravy is mentioned.  That wasn't the case in my family.  Oh, sure, we occasionally had that "white" gravy with our biscuits at breakfast.  But, when the Paynes talked about biscuits and gravy, it usually meant only one thing... Chocolate Gravy... better known to those in my parents household as "Chocolate and Biscuits."





Me. Linda and Mother - at "Grandmother and PaPaw Moore's" house, Mothers Day, 1960


I was around twelve or thirteen years old before I realized that the entire world didn't dine on "Chocolate and Biscuits" for breakfast, at least on occasion.  I assumed that even if they didn't eat Chocolate Gravy, they were surely familiar with it.  Up to that point, most of the friends who would spend the night with either Linda or me must have lived nearby in our own little "Chocolate Gravy zone."  To be honest, we didn't have a lot of spend-the-night-visitors.  We'd play until it was time for our friends to go home, and everyone stayed at their own homes.  When I graduated from elementary school to Jr. High, my circle of friends widened.  Many of them lived in other towns.  Often, following a basketball game or some other night-time school event, they would spend the night at my house... where they would be introduced to "Chocolate and Biscuits."




Me holding Linda - January, 1960


In retrospect, I now realize that even in the late sixties and early seventies, many mothers did not make homemade biscuits for breakfast... especially not every morning.  But my mother did.  The only thing that Daddy wanted for breakfast, every morning, was Chocolate and Biscuits.  Maybe there would be a few pieces of bacon or sausage on the side, but there was always a pan full of golden brown, piping hot, homemade buttermilk biscuits and a skillet of silky smooth chocolate gravy.

It became a source of entertainment for Linda and me as we would observe our latest rookie overnighter join us at the kitchen table and watch in wide-eyed amazement as Daddy put together his breakfast plate.  I would secretly hope that they had neither been introduced to Chocolate Gravy, nor heard the stories that had begun to circulate through our ever-growing group of friends.  There was something almost thrilling about watching a friend look on as Daddy would start to work. Taking a couple of biscuits, he would crumble and scatter them across the entire surface of his plate.  When the biscuit pieces were in place, he would pour a generous serving of chocolate gravy over the top, then toss the gravy-covered pieces of home-baked deliciousness with his fork until each bite-sized bit was completely covered in the dessert-like goodness.  It was as if they were in some sort of trance as they saw the entire process unfold.  Captivated by the appearance and the fragrance of something they had never experienced at breakfast, they were usually unable to speak until Daddy was on this third or fourth bite.  By then they could compose themselves enough to turn their attention back to one of us.

Without fail, the first words they were able to speak would be "What is that?"  "Chocolate Gravy," Linda and I would respond with a smile, knowing that the incredulousness of it all was just on the verge of going a step further.  As if the sight they had just beheld weren't enough, somehow the combination of the two words "chocolate" and "gravy" would almost always bring a shudder, a look of disgust, an expression of disbelief.



Daddy holding me (5 weeks old) - September, 1958

I've come to understand that those who have lived only in a "savory gravy" world cannot grasp the concept of a gravy that doesn't contain meat, or at least the fat rendered from some sort of meat.  As they absorb the words "Chocolate Gravy", they immediately think of chocolate added to some form of meat fat or juice.  I must admit, the sound of that is appalling.  But that isn't what Chocolate Gravy is all about.  No meat.  No fat rendered from meat.  Think more along the lines of dessert... like Chocolate Pudding, or the creamy filling of a Chocolate Meringue Pie.  Now you're beginning to grasp the concept of Chocolate Gravy.

It's an odd thing, Chocolate Gravy.  It's not widely-known.  It's not a "Southern thing," because many of the Southerners I know have still never heard of it.  I can't even say that it's regional.  I've found that there are tiny "Chocolate Gravy zones" dotted across portions of Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, and perhaps parts of southern Missouri.  Outside of those areas, I have no real knowledge.  I do know that when MaMaw, my paternal grandmother, and her new husband, Grandpa Marvin Payne, moved to the Delta part of Arkansas from Greenbrier in central Arkansas, she brought with her the recipe for Chocolate Gravy.



At 7 Months Old, I'm held by cousin Barbara Faulk of the Faulk family who brought us Chocolate Gravy

 
My children didn't have the pleasure of dining on Chocolate and Biscuits for breakfast every morning.  I can assure you, when I did make it, my biscuits were not homemade like Mother's always were.  As our lives became more fast-paced, and the time allotted for breakfast preparation and consumption dwindled to twenty minutes or less, Chocolate and Biscuits were replaced by Cocoa Crispies.  Sometimes on weekends I might find the time to at least treat the kids to Cinnamon Toast.  But they knew that anytime they spent the night with MeMe and PaPaw (as they called Mother and Daddy) it was a different story.  The pace was slower and more relaxed.  The pleasant conversation would mingle in the kitchen air with the fragrance of cocoa, melting butter, and biscuits in the oven.  And chocolate was an acceptable main course.

A Post Script / Side Note

I took my family's Chocolate Gravy Recipe with me to the Kountry Kitchen about three years ago as I was cooking breakfast, and decided to add it to the menu.  I can't say that it has spread like wildfire... or even caught on very much yet.  But I can say that it has evoked some responses that have been very rewarding. 

A lady saw someone walk to their table carrying a plate of Chocolate Gravy and Biscuits and literally gasped as she stopped the customer and asked them, "Is that Chocolate Gravy?  I haven't had that in years!"  There are a few men my age or older who visit the Kountry Kitchen for breakfast each year now and ask for Chocolate Gravy because they remember it from their childhood.  My dear friend, Sandy, comes for a plate of it every morning (although I do believe she has her mother's recipe for it, and could make it for herself!)

And often there will be the occasional fair worker travelling through who will be delighted to find Chocolate Gravy on the menu.  This year a younger lady came to the Order Window and wanted to know if it were really true that we were actually serving Chocolate Gravy.  She got an order to go, and later returned to the back door of the kitchen to ask if she could hug the person who had cooked it.  For those of us who grew up eating it for breakfast, Chocolate Gravy is something just short of spiritual.

The recipe for Chocolate Gravy is listed below.  You can see that recipe, and many more of my family's heirloom recipes, when you follow the link below to visit another of my blogs, entitled "Healthful Mouthful".

http://healthfulmouthful.blogspot.com/

LIFE IS GOOD WHEN YOU GET TO LICK THE SPOON! Me at 14 months of age.

Chocolate Gravy Recipe

(feeds about 4 people)

4 heaping tablespoons granulated sugar

2 rounded tablespoons cocoa powder

2 heaping tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 to 1 1/2 cups milk (depending on how thick or thin you like it)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 stick butter or margarine

Mix sugar, cocoa, flour and milk in a heavy saucepan or skillet and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly.  Cook mixture until it reaches the consistency of pudding, then remove from heat and add vanilla and butter.  Serve over hot biscuits.

When serving a crowd, increase amounts as follows:

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

5 cups milk

1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon vanilla

2 sticks butter

Use a very large skillet or heavy saucepan and cook as directed above.