Today, I discovered a southern staple I'd never heard of before

[Shreddy Mercury]

I know I know, I'm just as baffled as you. How could a man that's 44 and lived in TN about 41 of those years not heard of this?!?

I was watching a video on Youtube of a fat cajun dude in overalls making roux on his Blackstone and I was inspired, so I Googled "what can I make with roux, ground beef, and tomatoes", and lo and behold, hamburger steaks with tomato gravy came up. I've watched countless hours of Iron Chef Japan, Good Eats, and other cooking shows when I was in my 20s. I've cooked a ton of food, eaten a bunch of good food with southern families, and I've run 2 foodie crews and eaten some very tasty stuff, but I had never heard of tomato gravy.

I went with a different recipe for the gravy than the initial recipe I found, but those simple ingredients had no business being that good together. Basically, you partially cook the seasoned patties and use the drippings to make your roux. You slowly incorporate in broth/stock/water to keep it smooth, to get a consistency you like. Then you add a can of tomatoes, season with salt and pepper, and I threw in some thyme as well. Then you put the patties back in and cook until they finish getting to temp, then you hit it with a little cream, remove from heat, and serve.

I wasn't even hungry, I was mostly just making it because I was bored, but it was so good that I ended up eating the whole 1lb of beef and all the ingredients in the sauce. Well, not all the sauce, it made a ton of gravy. Anywho, apparently people have been putting this stuff on biscuits, grits, eggs, meatloaf, hamburger steaks, fried chicken, chicken fried steak, pork chops, etc. It was savory and flavorful with the tomatoes not coming across too strongly, even though it's a main ingredient. It was very well balanced and I literally couldn't believe the flavor. I am EXTREMELY hard on myself and anything I do, to the point of crushing my own self confidence, but this was one of the best tasting things I've eaten in a long time, and I've eaten some very good food lately. I was very proud of myself and am definitely going to put this in my rotation.

 

[IndyWS6]

Where you been, Bro? ??

 

[Shreddy Mercury]

Where you been, Bro? ??

Oh hush, it's not like you've been eating it your whole life ?

I made it again tonight since I'm at home with the folks for tomorrow. It came out thinner this time like I wanted it and just as good.

 

[84superchamp]

With the proliferation of ground beef (we always have a supply in the freezer) I should give this a try.
We lived in Floyd County Ky until I was 9 yo and never heard mention of this. And mom, always on the search for a cheap tasty meal, never made it. The south's well-kept secret?

 

[IndyWS6]

Ground beef - beef in general - is stoopid expensive right now. $5.99/lb for 75/25? Fuck that. During COVID supplies were short but the prices were never this bad. I like beef. It’s frequently what’s for dinner. Someone needs to fix that shit

 

[Robostyle]

Looks delicious, i wonder if it's kinda like sloppy joes but with burger patties instead?

 

[84superchamp]

Ground beef - beef in general - is stoopid expensive right now. $5.99/lb for 75/25? Fuck that. During COVID supplies were short but the prices were never this bad. I like beef. It’s frequently what’s for dinner. Someone needs to fix that shit

Yeah, I've done a lot of shopping around for GB, from different grocers to "custom" butcher shops and it's sky-high everywhere.
Find it a bit cheaper somewhere and it shows in the taste, better to do without than pay for an assault on your taste buds...yuck!

 

[Shreddy Mercury]

Looks delicious, i wonder if it's kinda like sloppy joes but with burger patties instead?

Nothing like sloppy joes. It's still a gravy, like you'd make for biscuits, it just had tomato juice as the liquid that causes it to thicken, and chunks of tomato. Instead of just being milk gravy on biscuits, it gets sweetness and acidity from the tomatoes, and savory from the seasonings on the beef patties. It's an interesting flavor profile I'd never really had before.

 

[Shreddy Mercury]

Yeah, I've done a lot of shopping around for GB, from different grocers to "custom" butcher shops and it's sky-high everywhere.
Find it a bit cheaper somewhere and it shows in the taste, better to do without than pay for an assault on your taste buds...yuck!

GB is ridiculous. A few months ago, I had to take a job at a local grocery store just to have some sort of income while I was waiting on something else, and was helping in the meat dept and sushi dept. The cheapest we ever had 80/20 chuck was $2.99/lb on a ridiculous deal to bring people in, but there was obviously a limit. It was normally $5.99/lb I think and would go on sale fairly regularly at $4.99/lb. The only real affordable stuff daily was when we ground some for Pick 5 (a deal that you pick 5 items out of a ton of options, some fresh cut, some prepackaged type stuff for $20) and it was almost always steak trimmings. Big plastic trays of fat trimmings, meat that was cut off and not used in a steaks, the very ends of ground beef tubes we cut off, etc, and that was ground up for turning into patties. And if we ran out of that, it was 75/25 ground beef.

The same grocery store chain (though a local one here) has the 3 lb tubes of 80/20 on sale right now, but I told my dad that was more of a private label packaging than what we would grind up to put into trays, and was probably less quality than the stuff ground in the store, and not really a deal at the price.

 

[84superchamp]

GB is ridiculous. A few months ago, I had to take a job at a local grocery store just to have some sort of income while I was waiting on something else, and was helping in the meat dept and sushi dept. The cheapest we ever had 80/20 chuck was $2.99/lb on a ridiculous deal to bring people in, but there was obviously a limit. It was normally $5.99/lb I think and would go on sale fairly regularly at $4.99/lb. The only real affordable stuff daily was when we ground some for Pick 5 (a deal that you pick 5 items out of a ton of options, some fresh cut, some prepackaged type stuff for $20) and it was almost always steak trimmings. Big plastic trays of fat trimmings, meat that was cut off and not used in a steaks, the very ends of ground beef tubes we cut off, etc, and that was ground up for turning into patties. And if we ran out of that, it was 75/25 ground beef.

The same grocery store chain (though a local one here) has the 3 lb tubes of 80/20 on sale right now, but I told my dad that was more of a private label packaging than what we would grind up to put into trays, and was probably less quality than the stuff ground in the store, and not really a deal at the price.

Those ratios you mention explains why a 2 lb patty fries down to 1 lb, a good portion of the beef you pay for is grease in the pan.

 

[Shreddy Mercury]

Those ratios you mention explains why a 2 lb patty fries down to 1 lb, a good portion of the beef you pay for is grease in the pan.

That is true. I prefer 80/20 for whatever I cook. There is some loss, but the flavor is better. I've cooked with leaner before and I don't care for it. Usually the stuff that's a good deal is the 75/25 in my experience, hence them shrinking more.

 

[Robostyle]

Nothing like sloppy joes. It's still a gravy, like you'd make for biscuits, it just had tomato juice as the liquid that causes it to thicken, and chunks of tomato. Instead of just being milk gravy on biscuits, it gets sweetness and acidity from the tomatoes, and savory from the seasonings on the beef patties. It's an interesting flavor profile I'd never really had before.

Well it sounds great, and i have some tomato juice hanging around in the freezer

 

[Shreddy Mercury]

Well it sounds great, and i have some tomato juice hanging around in the freezer

I'd advise just using the regular size can of petite diced tomatoes. Just straight tomato juice may not give the same flavor profile. Plus, you wouldn't have the nice pieces of tomato here and there.

 

[Robostyle]

I'd advise just using the regular size can of petite diced tomatoes. Just straight tomato juice may not give the same flavor profile. Plus, you wouldn't have the nice pieces of tomato here and there.

Why not both?

 

[Shreddy Mercury]

For basically a pound or a little more of beef, made into however big you want your patties to be, 1 of the 15oz cans of diced tomatoes is plenty of liquid/tomatoes from that for the flavor. To be honest, I never wrote the recipe down lol so now I can't find how much cream was needed and all that, so you're on your own. I wished I had written it down, it's been so long since I've made it that I forgot the amounts now.

Obviously equal parts fat/starch, or guesstimate it since it's whatever comes off the burgers. I probably did just enough broth to get it a little on the thin side, then when hitting it with cream at the end, that gave me the final consistency and lightened the color just a little.

 

[Robostyle]

For basically a pound or a little more of beef, made into however big you want your patties to be, 1 of the 15oz cans of diced tomatoes is plenty of liquid/tomatoes from that for the flavor. To be honest, I never wrote the recipe down lol so now I can't find how much cream was needed and all that, so you're on your own. I wished I had written it down, it's been so long since I've made it that I forgot the amounts now.

Obviously equal parts fat/starch, or guesstimate it since it's whatever comes off the burgers. I probably did just enough broth to get it a little on the thin side, then when hitting it with cream at the end, that gave me the final consistency and lightened the color just a little.

The way you just described it, was pretty much how i was gonna do it. Haha great minds think alike
Seems like a salisbury steak with a pan sauce at the end. That is some classic stuff.

 

[Shreddy Mercury]

The way you just described it, was pretty much how i was gonna do it. Haha great minds think alike
Seems like a salisbury steak with a pan sauce at the end. That is some classic stuff.

I'm going to try and make it again next week for the folks, so 3 of us will be eating. I'll try and get measurements on the amount of broth and cream I use, but I couldn't imagine it'd be much more than like half a cup of the broth along with the tomatoes, then maybe like an 1/8th cup, if even that for the cream. Obviously, the seasoning you want to use on the patties (I basically used salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, maybe a pinch of chili powder, pepper flakes, or cayenne for a bit of spice) is up to you, but just taste it. You want it a weeeeeeeee bit on the salty side but not bad, because the cream will help thin out the perceived saltiness.

 

[Robostyle]

I think i can eyeball the amounts, the 15oz can tomatoes is the key, thanks for that.
I usually make meatloaf and then have a separate gravy.
This way will save on pots and pans, and taste better too.