Red-Eye Gravy

Red-eye gravy — the pan sauce made by deglazing a skillet of fried country ham with black coffee — is the Southern breakfast sauce that sounds wrong and tastes unmistakably right. The country ham slice is pan-fried in a hot skillet until the edges curl and the rendered fat creates a fond. The ham is removed and strong black coffee is poured into the hot skillet, deglazing the fond. The coffee and the ham drippings combine into a thin, dark, intensely flavoured sauce that is poured over the ham and the grits beneath. The name comes from the "eye" — the pool of fat that floats in the centre of the coffee-deglazed liquid, said to resemble an eye. Andrew Jackson is apocryphally credited with naming it; the technique is older than any president.

A thin, dark brown sauce — half pan drippings, half black coffee — with a small pool of rendered ham fat floating on the surface. The flavour is intense: salt from the ham, bitterness from the coffee, richness from the pork fat, and a roasted depth from the deglazed fond. The sauce should be thin as broth and deeply savoury — it is a seasoning liquid, not a thick gravy despite the name.

Over grits. With country ham on the plate. With biscuits for sopping. At breakfast, with strong coffee to drink alongside the coffee in the gravy. The flavour loop: coffee in the cup, coffee in the gravy, ham on the biscuit, grits absorbing everything.