Gravy

If Louisiana cooking is all about sauces, Carolina cooking has been all about the gravies, from the refined shrimp and oyster gravies of the Lowcountry to the pigfoot gravy of the midlands, to the red eye gravy of the backcountry. What exactly is a gravy? It is the most treacherous dish in the whole art of cookery, showing immediately the mastery or incompetence of the maker. A perfect roast can be spoiled by a lumpy spoonful of fat and flour. And what of the watery gruel spooned over a pristine mound of mashed potatoes? Gravy when perfect is poetry, recognized as good by everyone from the mindless feeder to the epicure.