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Love & Best Dishes: Southern Tomato Gravy Recipe | Old Fashioned Southern Recipe Ideas
Jul 8, 2026
Southern Tomato Gravy Recipe | Old Fashioned Southern Recipe Ideas - Paula and her friend share how to make tomato gravy from scratch with their delicious Grainger County tomatoes!
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0:01
- I'm doing that recipe that I promised y'all with Austin.
0:07
Wait, Dalton.
0:08
Austin Dalton.
0:10
That is so hard for me to say, Austin.
0:13
(both laughing)
0:15
I feel like I'm rhyming.
0:17
But, so anyway, he's from Tennessee,
0:19
and he loves his hometown
0:25
and everything they have to offer folks.
0:28
And he brought two cases of the most beautiful tomatoes
0:33
from his town.
0:34
- Yes, ma'am.
0:35
- And so he's gonna make tomato gravy,
0:39
and I have a lot of requests for tomato gravy,
0:42
believe it or not.
0:44
- Really? - Uh-huh,
0:45
and I've made it before.
0:46
And Austin and I got to talking, and he said,
0:52
"You know, I don't really kinda, like, measure stuff out."
0:56
I said, "Well, you're my kind of cook,"
0:59
because I have not written a recipe
1:02
that I don't change it when I start cooking.
1:04
You know? - Right, right.
1:05
- And that's what a recipe is for.
1:07
It's a starting point for you,
1:09
and then you make it your own.
1:11
You add to it, you take out what you don't like,
1:14
and then it's all yours.
1:16
- Exactly, and my wife, she likes to say, you know,
1:18
"Did you set a timer?
1:19
Like, "Nope, I'll know when it's done
1:20
when I know it's done." (Paula laughs)
1:21
That's just me. - That's right.
1:24
All right, I've got your eye on.
1:26
- Yes, so what we're going to do here, we'll start
1:29
with adding our bacon grease here.
1:31
- Yes. - saved for me from earlier.
1:33
- Yes, we just cooked some bacon
1:36
because we've got something else in mind
1:40
with some of those tomatoes, don't we Austin?
1:42
- We do. We have plenty of surprises.
1:45
- Is if that's not enough, I'll get my bacon can out.
1:50
- Got a bacon can? - My bacon grease can.
1:51
- Bacon grease can. - Yeah.
1:54
- I'm excited.
1:54
Well, you know, this grease comes
1:56
from what we're gonna use in another recipe, too-
1:59
- Yes. - for bacon.
2:02
- Yes, I like it that you're getting it all.
2:05
- Oh, this is what adds to flavor to it right here.
2:07
- Yes.
2:11
Yes, yes.
2:12
- And so typically, like, this is, you know,
2:13
a meal that we kinda grew up with,
2:15
and it's just a nice flavor of the South.
2:20
Let's see here.
2:21
- All right, now you said to add a little oil?
2:25
- Yeah, let's dab a little bit.
2:26
- How about a little butter instead of oil?
2:28
- Yes, we need butter.
2:30
- Okay, let's do that. - Let's do butter.
2:31
(Paula laughs)
2:33
- [Paula] How much you think?
2:35
- I think right there is good.
2:36
Let's just use that right there,
2:37
get that going and warmed up.
2:39
- Okay. - And so
2:41
we typically start this
2:41
like a traditional homemade gravy here,
2:43
little oil, little butter,
2:45
and then we'll add a little flour here
2:47
until we make a nice roux.
2:49
- Yeah, all right, now let's see.
2:53
You don't want that to burn.
2:55
I had turned it up.
2:56
- Actually, do you wanna put the flour for me
2:58
while I keep that stirring?
3:00
- Here you do what you wanna do.
3:02
- Perfect, thank you. - I'll hold this for you.
3:04
How about that?
3:05
- And I don't really measure this out-
3:07
- That's right. - here, so
3:09
I just kinda add that to that.
3:12
- Depending on how stick you want it.
3:13
- And I like thick gravy.
3:14
I don't know about you, so...
3:16
- I like medium.
3:17
- Let's stop with that right here.
3:19
- Okay.
3:21
- And then we're just gonna get this browned up
3:22
really nice into a nice-
3:23
- Yes.
3:24
- a nice brown roux, and while I'm stirring this, Paula,
3:27
if you wouldn't care to unwrap those tomatoes over here.
3:29
Yesterday, we came over- - Okay.
3:30
- and we diced up roughly about four big tomatoes,
3:33
and we salted them to help pull that water-
3:35
- Pull that water out. - Out and get it juicy-
3:36
- That's right. - and good.
3:43
Good? - Dale, taste.
3:45
(Austin laughing) (spoon rasping)
3:50
- Hmm. - Mm.
3:52
- Yeah. - Mm.
3:55
- All right, if it's too high...
3:58
- Let's turn it down just a bit.
4:00
- Now is that the color you wanted?
4:01
- This is what we're looking for right here is
4:03
just this kind of a darker brown color right here.
4:06
- Okay. - Now from here
4:07
what we're gonna do is go ahead
4:08
and add those three tablespoons of the tomato paste.
4:10
- Okay. - And while I continue
4:12
to stir with that here, you got...
4:14
- So three tablespoons? - Three tablespoons.
4:16
- Just without measuring. - Just eyeballing it there.
4:19
- One, two,
4:23
three. - Perfect, okay.
4:25
- Does that look like enough? - And we just kinda,
4:26
that looks good to me.
4:28
We're gonna kinda get this mixed up a little bit,
4:30
and then as we, you'll see the consistency kinda
4:33
turns it another color here, and it looks already so good.
4:37
And then after this kinda gets simmered down or simmered in,
4:40
we'll go ahead and add all of our tomatoes to it.
4:43
- Okay, well I'm gonna go ahead and add a little salt-
4:45
- Sure. - and pepper
4:47
because I tasted the tomatoes,
4:52
and they're not too salty.
4:54
So we're throwing in the tomatoes?
4:56
- Throw 'em in.
4:57
(tomatoes sizzling)
4:58
Uh-huh. - Uh-huh.
5:01
(bowl clanging)
5:05
- Now, again, if you don't like chunkier tomatoes,
5:08
you can dice 'em down. - I do like,
5:10
I like the chunky. - I like the chunky.
5:11
- And if you cook 'em long enough,
5:15
you know, they'll break down and get soft
5:19
'cause to me those need to cook like it was...
5:25
And seems like I add milk to mine. Do you?
5:28
- I do, I do.
5:29
We'll get to that in just a second.
5:31
- Oh, okay.
5:33
And do you use regular milk, or heavy cream,
5:35
or half and half?
5:36
- I like buttermilk.
5:38
- Oh, I got buttermilk.
5:40
- Well, I think we're ready for some if you wanna go ahead-
5:42
- Wow. - and add it in, too,
5:43
and let this thing thicken up.
5:44
- Now, I have never put buttermilk in my tomato gravy.
5:47
- Well, me and Theresa were talking about it,
5:49
and she said she had got some, and I think, "You know what?
5:51
It couldn't hurt."
5:52
- Oh, I keep buttermilk in my refrigerator.
5:55
- Well, this is a little thick, so we need to-
5:57
- It sure is - unthicken it.
5:59
As much as I like it thick,
6:00
it looks a little- - Or unthicken it.
6:01
- Unthicken it a little bit. (Paula laughs)
6:04
- Yeah.
6:07
So, you know, a recipe like this,
6:09
it's so hard to get down
6:13
to exact measurements.
6:15
- True. - You know, you just,
6:17
all right, now that buttermilk looks really good and thick,
6:20
but-
6:22
- We can always top- - we'll get you
6:23
some regular milk and put in.
6:24
- Sure, let's do that.
6:26
And you can always use water, too.
6:27
I know some recipes call for water,
6:29
but I felt like a little labor in there.
6:34
(door clattering)
6:38
- Jack forgot to take this gallon of milk home with him.
6:44
Excuse me.
6:45
All right, so that'll cook down.
6:48
- [Austin] Mm-hmm.
6:50
- That'll cook down. Now that's about the thickness that-
6:53
- That you're looking for there.
6:54
- Uh-huh, but you say you like it real thick.
6:58
- I like mine- - And so does Michael.
7:00
Michael likes-
7:01
- Just like my fried green tomatoes.
7:02
I like a thick green tomato, a thicker slice, but...
7:08
- That looks really good.
7:12
- I hope it is.
7:13
- It looks really good.
7:15
Now are we gonna put the lid on it
7:18
and let it cook for a while?
7:20
- I think that would be a great idea.
7:22
- I think so. - 'Cause then we've got
7:23
biscuits over there a-making that we're gonna serve this-
7:25
- Yes, yes, yes. - on top of,
7:26
and I know it's gonna be delicious.
7:28
All right, so if you got that turned down a little bit,
7:29
you gotta dip this. - Okay, you wanna stick
7:30
your finger in it and see if the temperature,
7:32
I mean, the seasoning is right for ya?
7:37
(dishes clanking)
7:38
- That's perfect. - All right,
7:40
so I turned it up a little bit, Austin,
7:43
and so we'll watch it.
7:48
I've got it on medium low.
7:50
- Okay, perfect.
7:52
Yeah, we'll let that cook down, and then when we come back,
7:54
we'll finish it up and put it on top of some biscuits.
7:57
- Okay, that sounds wonderful.
8:01
- All right, so I think what we're gonna do
8:02
to finish this up, Paula, 'cause it looks really good-
8:04
- It does.
8:05
- is we're gonna add a little bit
8:07
of this little roosted chicken base to it,
8:09
and I think it'll just top it right off.
8:11
- Oh, gosh, I'm about out, aren't I?
8:14
- It looks good. I mean, it's just good stuff, man.
8:15
- Yeah, and you have to be careful
8:17
'cause that does add salt to whatever you're fixing.
8:21
So you don't want to-
8:23
- Remember if you add more of that salt to it,
8:25
we've already salted the tomatoes.
8:26
We added a little bit more to it in the initial-
8:28
- Yeah. - cooking this down.
8:30
(grinder whirring)
8:33
- I love cracked pepper.
8:35
- Oh, yeah. - I'm not crazy about,
8:37
you know, the ground pepper,
8:40
but I love biting into a little piece of that.
8:44
So who is ready?
8:48
- Me, I'm ready.
8:51
And so we're gonna serve this over one
8:52
of Paula's nice hot biscuits here.
8:54
- Yes. - And it's gonna
8:55
just be delicious. - Getting them hot.
8:58
- All right.
9:01
- This is good.
9:02
- Mm.
9:05
- And this is so funny coming from a man
9:07
that doesn't like red tomato.
9:11
- Red tomatoes, I know it, but this right here...
9:14
- Okay. - Oh, my gosh.
9:17
Honey. - Bon appétit.
9:19
- Bon appétit. - Tennessee style.
9:26
- [Austin] Mm-hmm.
9:27
- Theresa, I've been worried about ya.
9:29
- [Theresa] Well, I got cold, to be honest.
9:31
(person laughs)
9:32
- Well, get you a sweater from the closet.
9:35
You ready for a biscuit?
9:37
- [Austin] Mm.
9:38
(Theresa speaking indistinctly)
9:39
- Okay.
9:40
- Thank you. - You're welcome.
9:42
Everything's ready.
9:43
- Those are absolutely delicious.
9:45
- They are. - Absolutely delicious.
9:46
- Wonderful tomatoes.
9:48
- But as Paula said, too, they'd be great
9:49
over some grits, too, and I can add some, you know,
9:52
good with your, obviously, biscuits,
9:54
and I like tenderloin for breakfast.
9:57
Do you like tenderloin, you know, in breakfast?
9:59
- Yeah, I can eat some tenderloin for breakfast,
10:02
pork or beef. - Mm-hmm.
10:03
- My mother used to make
10:05
what she called a Swiss steak, Austin, and you prepare it
10:10
just like you're doing country fried steak,
10:13
but she put tomatoes in it
10:16
and gave it an Italian flavor.
10:20
- Mm, that sounds good.
10:21
- And that recipe is in one of my books.
10:26
This would make a great start, for...
10:34
- Absolutely delicious.
10:35
- the Swiss steak.
10:36
Just all you'd have to do is flour it,
10:38
salt and pepper it, fry, and then put it in that,
10:42
and let it simmer.
10:44
So, Austin, I do hope you'll come back.
10:46
I've enjoyed every minute with ya.
10:49
- Oh, I've had a great time,
10:50
and thank you for having us out here,
10:51
and I'll be glad to come back.
10:52
- Thank you. - Anytime you'll have us.
10:56
- So between the two of us, we're sending y'all lots
10:59
and lots of love and best dishes. (laughs)
11:02
Yum.
11:06
Hey, y'all, it's Paula Deen.
11:08
Now, if you enjoyed this video, be sure to like it
11:12
and click the subscribe button as well as the notification
11:15
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11:19
Love and Best Dishes Y'all.
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