Thanksgiving is all about tradition, but it's also nice to change things up. Since the stakes are too high to chance an untried recipe, however, my friends and I have taken to a pre-Thanksgiving tradition: hosting a small dinner party to vet new entries to the menu before they have a chance to end in tears. I headed to our test kitchen last week, camera in-hand, to pick the best recipe for this month's article, and this bacon shallot herb gravy was the undisputed star of the evening. I think gravy is an unsung hero on the Thanksgiving table. Certainly most people have a favored recipe, (I have very fond memories of my aunt always making ours with the turkey drippings in the roasting pan, itself), but it's a humble condiment. I'm not sure anyone would cite it as their favorite thing on the table. I aim to change that with this recipe, a simple but stunning offering adapted from Justin Chapple that should please even the most discriminating gourmand. Conversely, if you're the type of person to always prepare gravy from a can, jar, or (God bless you) packet, you need to knock that off immediately and try this recipe, instead.
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| All aboard the gravy train |
