FRANCES W. SMITH was born, raised, and lived all her life in Mount Juliet, Tennessee. Granddaughter BETHANY SMITH TATE (Hendersonville, Tennessee) shares that her family is all about tradition—in fact, they are still honoring one Christmas tradition that has been in her dad’s family since the early 1900s. “On Christmas morning it was tradition for my father to go to his grandmother’s home like it was tradition for his mother to go to her grandmother’s house for a legendary breakfast of tomato gravy and biscuits, sausage, eggs, blackberry and strawberry jams, and her famous Tennessee tea cakes.”
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
6 sausage patties
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ cup tomato juice
½ cup water
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 Grease a large cast-iron skillet with the oil and preheat on medium.
2 Place the sausage patties in the skillet. Cover and cook 5 to 7 minutes. Turn the patties over and continue cooking another 5 to 7 minutes or until the juices run clear. Remove the patties from the skillet, blot on paper towels, and set aside to serve with breakfast.
3 Add the flour to the sausage drippings in the pan and continue stirring until it browns lightly. Add the tomato juice and water a little bit at a time to the hot brown flour. Stirring constantly, cook until it becomes as thick as you desire, approximately 5 minutes. (Do not overcook.) Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve over sausage and hot biscuits for breakfast.
MAKES 4 TO 6 SERVINGS.