The Ultra-Sweet Topping Alabamians Pour Over Breakfast

Many states have signature foods that may seem unusual to outsiders. Utahns are nuts about a simple sauce that's a mixture of ketchup and mayonnaise, while folks in Vermont favor a treat called "sugar on snow" that's made by pouring hot syrup right onto fresh snowfall. When it comes to the breakfast dish biscuits and gravy, people in Alabama revere topping it with chocolate gravy, a unique sauce that is sweet rather than savory.

Biscuits and gravy on its own is quintessentially Southern, potentially originating in the southern Appalachian region, and folks have fierce loyalty to their family recipes. Chocolate gravy's origins have also been traced to the Appalachian and Ozark mountain areas, and it is especially beloved by people in the northern part of Alabama. Alabamians say it's just as real a gravy as any other, with its foundational ingredients being a fat source, flour, and milk. That's where the similarities end, though — chocolate gravy's other components include cocoa powder, vanilla, and a heaping dose of sugar.

The bready component remains the same — buttermilk biscuits, drop biscuits, or any other type one would normally pair with the savory version of the sauce. Southerners also sometimes pour it over other breakfast staples, like waffles, French toast, pancakes, or toast with butter, and some extend its use to drizzling over treats like ice cream and pound cake.

Chocolate gravy is a very regionalized tradition in Alabama, sequestered to the northern part of the state. Elsewhere in that Southern locale, most have never heard of it. For those who do know the sweet combination of salty biscuits with the warm chocolate concoction, it's a cherished treat often connected with fond childhood memories and beloved family members.

The chocolate gravy breakfast recipe is also known by other names, including "chocolate and biscuits" and "soppin' chocolate." It's theorized the dish may have originated as a result of trading that took place between Spanish Louisiana and the Tennessee Valley, which encompasses northern Alabama. This potentially brought traditional Spanish breakfast chocolate to the area, which may have been adapted by the locals into the present chocolate gravy with biscuits. Another theorized origin story is that housewives were simply making use of what they had on hand, like milk from their farms and the advent of shelf-stable Hershey's cocoa powder becoming available in their small local stores.

Other breakfast practices of pairing biscuits with sweet toppings were common in those regions at the time. Additional instances included pouring sorghum syrup or molasses over biscuits, or soaking them in coffee and topping them with sugar.