Real Recipes From Real Home Cooks ®

aunt thelma's red eye gravy

Recipe by
Gina Davis
Cedar Bluff, VA

Original Red Eye Gravy is just country ham drippings and strong black coffee. I have had it many times made by my MomMoo (mom) like this poured hot over grits and fried eggs with a hot buttered biscuit to dip in it! YUMMMMM!!!! When I want the real deal this is how I still make it. But my kids think the bitter has to be calmed down so I go to my 79 year old Aunt Thelma's recipe.

yield 2 - 4
prep time 5 Min
cook time 20 Min
method Stove Top

Ingredients For aunt thelma's red eye gravy

  • country ham slices
  • fatty country ham scraps
  • 1 Tbsp
    butter
  • 2 tsp
    flour
  • 1 c
    strong cold black coffee
  • water for thinning (if needed)

How To Make aunt thelma's red eye gravy

  • 1
    fry your ham slices and remove to plate leaving drippings in the pan
  • 2
    add fatty scraps to pan and cook on medium high heat for 10 to 15 minutes to render fat from scraps. Remove from pan leaving drippings
  • 3
    add 1 tablespoon butter and melt into the "drippings"
  • 4
    stir in 2 teaspoons flour and whisk until brown
  • 5
    add 1 cup strong black coffee and whisk until smooth.
  • 6
    turn heat to simmer and let reduce by at least 1/3. Whisking every so often.
  • 7
    serve hot over grits, mashed potatoes, eggs biscuits any thing that you want to kick the flavor up on :)
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