In Mama T’s Gravy Is a Food Group, Southern gravy steps out of the shadows and takes its rightful place as both a culinary staple and cultural cornerstone. With the voice of a seasoned grandmother and the wit of someone who’s cooked through war, drought, and powdered milk, Mama T explores how flour and fat became the language of survival across generations.

Each chapter dives deep into a specific kind of Southern gravy—from milk and sausage gravy to red-eye, tomato, chitlin', and sawmill styles—revealing the history, struggle, and soul behind each ladleful. But this isn’t just a cookbook. It’s a storybook of sauce. From the logging camps of Appalachia to Black church basements, gravy becomes the thread that ties together poverty cooking, family rituals, racial identity, and class survival.

Whether she’s unpacking the politics of canned gravy, rescuing vegetarian gravy from bland exile, or calling out the cornstarch shortcuts that rob sauces of their character, Mama T never loses sight of what gravy really is: care made visible. This book honors the kitchens where gravy was born—not written down, but handed down, stirred patiently with wooden spoons and the weight of memory.

Perfect for fans of Southern foodways, heirloom cooking, and no-nonsense storytelling, this book will make you laugh, cry, and reconsider what’s hiding in your grease jar. It’s a love letter to the sauces that made something out of nothing—and the people who did the same.