It took me several tries to get gravy figured out. I had some attempts where I'd put too much or too little flour or milk and it would end up like sausage soup or sausage glop. Once I didn't cook the flour long enough and it tasted really strange and floury. I've walked away at the wrong time and overcooked, even burnt the flour. I've put so much salt that it was barely edible. And I've burnt the whole mess. So, actually I think "several attempts" may be an understatement. Lots and lots of attempts would be more accurate.
So, here are the tricks that I've found through my many attempts.
1 - sausage - I like Bob Evans best, but will also use Tennessee Pride or Jimmy Dean if it's on sale. I don't care for Kroger brand (and most Kroger brand stuff I do like). Basically, you want a sausage that you like the flavor of and that cooks well, rendering a decent amount of grease without overdoing it. Brown the sausage until it is cooked through. Some people crumble their sausage. I use the back of a sturdy spatula to smoosh it onto the pan as I cook it, which makes the sausage really tiny.
2 - flour - sprinkle flour over the cooked sausage. Now, here's where I don't have an amount. I don't even have a guess at an amount. Start by lightly sprinkling flour over the sausage. Stir it up. If there's still "free" grease - the sausage or pan is still shiny with it - then add more flour. Cook the flour and sausage for a minute or so until it starts to brown lightly. This is part of the cast iron magic - the browned sausage and flour bits get stuck to the bottom and will later unglue themselves and make the gravy happen.
3 - milk - again, no measurement, but it depends on how much flour you added. As a general rule, I start by adding milk until it's just up to the underside of the sausage. The little sausage tops are still sticking up out of the milk. Start stirring, being sure to scrape the bottom of the pan well. This is where I also think that cast iron comes in handy. You don't have to be worried about scratching your pan or a special coating that is on it. Nothing worse than bits of teflon in your gravy!!! One rule with milk is that you can always add more to thin it out, but it's a lot harder to thicken it up if you add too much milk. Bring the gravy to a boil and boil for one minute. Remove from heat. If your amounts were right then you're good to go. If it's too thick then add some more milk, stir and reheat. If it's too thin then try cooking it longer...or call it sausage soup instead of gravy and pretend you made a new recipe.
4 - salt and pepper - sometimes I add this at the same time as the flour. Other times I add it at the end. You would think that the sausage would add plenty of flavor, but the flour and milk sort of wipe that out and more salt is needed.
That's how I make sausage gravy. As for the biscuits, I either use canned refrigerator biscuits, bisquick or I make these:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/JPs-Big-Daddy-/Detail.aspx
Only one tiny alteration - I don't do circle biscuits. I make one large rectangle out of the dough, then cut it into squares. One roll out, no leftover dough, tastes the same.
99% of the time at our house sausage gravy and biscuits is accompanied by scrambled eggs. One night I made this meal without the eggs - I think we were out - and the kids, Garret especially, were very upset. My kids usually put their eggs on top of their gravy, which is over a crumbled biscuit. Sometimes they make a little sandwich with it all. And we always bring the butter, jelly and honey to the table to enjoy on the extra biscuits. Without fail, when I make this meal the kids pour on the compliments!
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