The Boozy Secret To Alton Brown's Gravy

Everyone loves a good gravy, but some can be very picky about what that gravy includes. While some like to add bouillon paste to the mix to amp things up, others take more boozy measures to get the job done. Celebrity chef Alton Brown, for example, likes to add some cognac to his brown gravy, especially when Thanksgiving time comes around. He discussed this method briefly in a 2024 interview with Eating Well ahead of Thanksgiving, interesting many lovers of both cognac and gravy in the process.

In the interview, Brown admitted that, while he typically doesn't like reinventing the wheel with classic recipes, gravy is one of his exceptions. "I'm a traditionalist so I try to just scratch those itches," Brown explained, "though I am very picky about my gravy, which contains cognac and is always kept in a thermos ... the gravy, not the cognac." While Brown isn't the only person who enjoys adding cognac to savory dishes and toppings – Ina Garten has an iconic pot roast that also uses cognac, for example — his use of the alcohol in brown gravy could easily be called unorthodox by other cooking purists. However, you shouldn't knock it until you try it; alcohols like cognac can enhance a gravy's flavor while also providing its own distinct – yet not overwhelming — taste to the sauce.

Unfortunately, Alton Brown has never released a step-by-step recipe for his cognac-induced turkey gravy. However, the beloved chef is no stranger to using the brandy variation and several other kinds of alcohol in the kitchen. For starters, Brown has a recipe that utilizes cognac in a sauce yet again, though this time, it is used to dress steak au poivre, a French pepper steak that utilizes tenderloins. The recipe first appeared on a Season 9 episode of "Good Eats" on the Food Network and remains popular online to this day. Furthermore, while "Good Eats" would later end and be revived as "Good Eats: The Return" in 2019, the penultimate season of the show's first run featured two episodes — titled "Fermentation Nation" and "The Proof is in the Pudding," respectively — that saw Brown cooking with different alcohols. These two episodes gave viewers even more boozy recipes to try out. From zabaglione — a dessert that features amber Marsala — to a delicious lamb shoulder chop that utilizes red wine as a marinade and as a key component of its sauce, alcohol is used in some of the best recipes of Alton Brown's vast repertoire.