There is maybe no more stressful notion for a home chef than inviting a house full of judgmental and hungry people for a huge meal.

There is a lot that can go wrong. You can forget the giblet gravy, the turkey might be dry or the cranberry sauce might not congeal.

There is a lot at stake here. You mess this one up and it will be a long time before you are asked to play host to a family holiday meal of any consequence.

What makes this meal so important and so worth the effort is that it is one of the few meals in the year when the whole family gathers around your dining table. In the rest of the world, the fourth Thursday in November may be like any other day, but in America it is a time for giving thanks with friends and family.

I have spent a large chunk of my career thinking about Th

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