The gravy boat that keeps the gravy hot.

This is the practical answer. The body is double-wall stainless steel, which keeps heat in and leaves the outside cool enough to hold, and a hinged lid flips open with a thumb for pouring. It holds 14 ounces, a little under two cups.

It goes in the dishwasher, it will not break, and it keeps gravy hot through a long meal in a way a ceramic boat cannot. For a big family dinner where the gravy travels up and down a long table, that counts for a great deal.

Skip it if the table is set with good china. It looks like a coffee jug from a hotel breakfast. Use it in the kitchen as a warm reserve and refill a prettier boat from it.

Not a gravy boat, but the tool that decides what goes into one. Pour the roasting pan juices through the built-in strainer, let the fat rise, then squeeze the handle: the juices drain from the bottom through a silicone valve and the fat stays in the jug.

Because the juices leave from the bottom, there is no need to tilt and watch the fat line as with a spout-type separator. This one holds four cups and is marked in cups, ounces and milliliters.

Skip it if you make gravy from a jar or a packet. For anyone who makes it from the pan, it is the cheapest improvement available.

Italian Countryside is Mikasa's white pattern with scrolls and fluting at the rim, and this is its gravy boat and saucer. The saucer is the point: it catches the drip from the spout so the tablecloth does not, and it gives a place to rest a ladle.

It is dishwasher and microwave safe, so leftover gravy can be reheated in it the next day. It pairs with the Italian Countryside oval platter in our platter guide, if you want the holiday pieces to match.

Skip it if you want heat retention above all. It is a regular stoneware boat without a lid, so warm it before filling.

Heritage is Le Creuset's classic stoneware serving line, and the gravy boat is a solid, generous piece. The stoneware is safe from the freezer to the oven and broiler, so it can warm in a low oven alongside the plates, and it holds heat well once it is warm.

The glaze is nonporous and resists stains, scratches, chips and crazing, which matters for a vessel that holds hot fat. It is dishwasher safe and safe with metal utensils. Oyster is a soft gray that sits with most tableware; Le Creuset makes it in its other enamel colors as well.

Skip it if you want a saucer. It is sold on its own, so plan on a small plate underneath for drips.

Le Creuset's pumpkin shape, in white stoneware, as a 14 ounce gravy boat with a lid. The lid is the practical part: it keeps the gravy warm between passes, which an open boat cannot do.

It has the same stoneware as the Heritage boat, safe from freezer to broiler and dishwasher safe, so it can be warmed in the oven first. In white it reads as autumnal rather than as a novelty, and it stays on the table from October through Thanksgiving.

Skip it if you want a single boat for the whole year. A pumpkin at Easter looks like somebody forgot to put it away.

Anmut is Villeroy & Boch's bone porcelain collection, thin and white, and the Platinum No.1 version adds a band of platinum. The sauce boat is the formal piece in this guide: made for a dinner service where everything on the table matches.

Bone porcelain is lighter and brighter than stoneware and pours well, but it gives up heat quickly. Warm it with hot water first and pass it promptly. Sold by Villeroy & Boch's own US store on Amazon, so it is the genuine article.

Skip it if the gravy boat needs to go in the microwave the next day. Metal trim cannot, and hand washing is the safe course for the platinum band.