sausage gravy and biscuits

ingredients:

• a 16 oz breakfast sausage roll (Jimmy Dean, Bob Evans, Tennessee Pride, Purnell, etc)
• whole milk
• Pillsbury ready-to-bake biscuits
• flour

recipe:

1. pre-heat the oven (see back of biscuits for the temperature)
   • if you want to bake these in the air fryer instead — use cooking spray on the air fryer basket, and place the biscuits in the basket
2. cook sausage over medium heat until it's just-before-done
   • do not remove the cooking grease
3. turn heat down
   • add ¼ cup flour
   • stir while scraping the bottom
4. slowly add more flour, to total around ½ cup, plus or minus some, while stirring and scraping
   • Keep adding flour until no "glistening" fat is left. Some indications that you might have added too much — flour stays stuck to the bottom of the pan, or there is flour that's adhered to the sausage pieces but that still stays fairly white.
   • total amount depends on fattiness of the particular brand of meat
   • It's not surprising if the total amount goes above 1 cup — some sausage brands can be MUCH fattier than others. However, note that flour does make the sausage flavor less intense; my individual preference is to err on the side of slightly too little flour, to ensure stronger flavor.
5. cook the flour for several minutes until the white specks turn brown, stirring frequently
   • (I'm never sure how long this step should take. Sometimes I just do it for a fixed 10 minutes.)
6. put the biscuits in the oven
   • if you're baking in the air fryer instead: [1] [2]
     • air fry at 330° F for 5 minutes
     • flip over, and cook for another 2 minutes or until they're golden brown
7. pour a lot of milk in, perhaps 4 cups, until the sausage floats sufficiently
   • add salt and pepper
   • turn heat up to medium and heat until boiling
8. decrease temp and simmer until it's thick enough, something like 15 minutes
   • add more milk if it's thickening too quickly; if you added ≥1 cup flour, then you'll need even more milk
9. the gravy will thicken as it cools (it's roux-like)