What's your stuffing / dressing recipe?
We've always had Pepperidge Farm dressing at Thanksgiving, the herb seasoned variety. In my new effort to leave all processed food behind, I was wondering what Serious Eaters do for stuffing. I've never had sausage stuffing - was thinking of something with sage and onion.
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17 Comments:
When I was a kid, my dad always used to threaten to make oyster dressing. I think he did it to tease us more than anything. In the end, he made sausage dressing and is still one of my favorite foods, with a lot of gravy of course. :>)
tusti at 6:28PM on 11/06/09
I used two large sourdough boules trimmed of crust, cubed, toasted in oven 350 about 10-15 minutes.pound of sausage browned, add onions, celery and approx 1 tsp of sage, with diced apples about 1 cup. Toss together on large bowl, add one and a half containers of chicken stock and bake @350 for 30 min, uncover and move to top rack and brown. Simple and delicious!
Foodie,foodie! at 6:30PM on 11/06/09
I make the same stuffing my grandmother made when I was a kid
Italian sausage 3 lbs, I add sage/poultry seasoning, onions, celery, garlic, I use Wegmans W loaf (2 of them) chicken broth , 2 sticks O butter, salt pepper some grated locatelli, 2 eggs. Perfection in a baking dish the last hour the bird is in.
JerzeeTomato at 6:46PM on 11/06/09
Thank you guys!
@Jerzee - Since I've loved reading you posts here for a couple of years, I may have to make your grandmother's recipe. But what is locatelli? Cheese?
Potboiler at 12:07AM on 11/07/09
@Potboiler--locatelli is cheese...very nice cheese I might add..
Italiancupcake at 3:15AM on 11/07/09
I make a white bread (nonsourdough), cube but don't usually dry it out. I don't include the end crusts but otherwise don't remove the crusts. Bell's seasoning as well as fresh sage (and this will probably be the flavor you're familiar with from the packaged stuff). Usually cook the neck and giblets before making the dressing, and include the neck meat with the broth. Lots of sauted onion and celery (include celery leaves). Sometimes include mushrooms. Sometimes include diced apple (leave skin on) and usually that's Northern Spies. I like a dressing that's fairly moist, and will use chicken broth to add to the turkey broth if I need to. Dot with a little butter. 350 till it's crusty on top.
lemonfair at 4:19AM on 11/07/09
I love my mother's recipe. Being from Texas, we use cornbread, add sauteed onion, celery, garlic (optional), raisins, sausage, sage, thyme, s & p to taste, and add a mix of chicken broth, maybe an egg, and a little melted butter to moisten. Bake & enjoy! My sister makes an incredible one with cornbread, crumbled tamales, creamed corn, and Mexican spices--yummy stuff!
sathome at 7:07AM on 11/07/09
I found a copy of Margaret Rudkin's Pepperidge Farm cookbook. In the book, she talks about how their Sage & Onion stuffing mix was the first commercially available, and how it was derived from her grandmother's recipe. I haven't tried her grandmother's recipe (I do use the bagged), but I did post that recipe here.
LunaPierCook at 9:11AM on 11/07/09
Locatelli is romano cheese. So if you can find some pecorino romano cheese grated. It is salty so add it first a few tablespoons and then do you salt. I really love the stuffing I make a huge amount so we have left overs.
JerzeeTomato at 9:26AM on 11/07/09
This may sound a little vanilla, but my favorite stuffing for turkey is plain bread, toasted and cubed, tossed with milk, salt and Bell's seasoning. No celery, or veggies. Just plain bread.
yayfood at 3:09PM on 11/07/09
I make the same stuffing that my mother always did, but these days I use better bread -- homemade instead of white sandwich bread.
I first started learning this stuffing when I was a little kid, and it was my job to get in there and mix it all up. Over time, I got to add the ingredients and learned how it was supposed to feel before it went into the bird. It's got to be moist, but not gloppy or gummy. The first time I made it on my own, I just winged it, no recipe, and it was fine.
It's basically bread, left to get a little stale/dried overnight -- or just bread that's a few days old. A little milk or water or stock to moisten the bread, then a whole bunch of celery, onions and mushrooms that have been sweated in way more butter than should be legal, until they're well-cooked and limp, but not browned. Poultry seasoning and extra sage, to taste. Salt. Pepper, maybe. Eggs to bind. Some giblets and maybe some stock if it needs it to moisten some more.
I always used to cook the stuffing in the bird, but lately I've opted to cook it separately, so the bird doesn't have to cook as long.
dbcurrie at 5:05PM on 11/07/09
Brown some sage sausage, remove from pan, and leaving drippings in pan. Then sweat your veggies in the sausage drippings. Proceed with whatever from there.
Garvey at 7:15PM on 11/07/09
my mom always makes a bread stuffing but starts with TONS of celery & onion sauteed in butter and sage...then she adds breakfast sausage, sometimes craisins &/or walnuts. it's soooo f'ing delicious...to wake up to smell it cooking in the morning is my favorite part of thankgiving!
heavymetalpizzaparty at 5:32AM on 11/08/09
I grew up having to pick around the oysters in the Thanksgiving stuffing (not a bivalve fan here) so now that I make it, I just leave them out. I bake a big pan of cornbread with all the traditional green herbs already in it like sage and thyme. Then I saute some garlic, shallots, celery, and carrots in butter and add some chopped pecans in to toast in the same pan. I mix an egg with some chicken stock and mix it all together with the cornbread and bake it. Someone else does the bird in my family so I always make "dressing".
Oops, I left out the key ingredient, lots of chopped celery greens. I'm not a fan of the vegetable part of celery but I love the greens!
KTempesta at 9:50AM on 11/08/09
So many wonderful ideas! I may have to make two or three different kinds. Darn. Did I mention, dressing is my favorite thing at Thanksgiving?
Potboiler at 8:28PM on 11/08/09
Maple sausage and apple stuffing.
1 lb maple sausage
6 medium apples (I use a mix of Gala and Fuji), peeled, cored, and diced
1 medium red onion, diced
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
2 cups breadcrumbs
1 tsp poultry seasoning
1 egg
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt
Brown the sausage, remove and let drain on paper towels. Saute the apples, celery and onion in the fat until softened slightly. Remove from heat and stir in the sausage. When thoroughly mixed, stir in the breadcrumbs, seasoning, salt and pepper. (Sometimes the egg is not necessary to bind it together, but sometimes it is. Depends on how fatty your sausage is.)
I'm not a fan of "wet" stuffing, so this usually gets put into a baking dish until it's crispy and browned on the top. Often I'll just put the stuffing, sans turkey, into a pie crust, top it with a handful of parmesan cheese, layer with another pie crust, and cook until the pie is GBD. Soooo good. :)
Lilith at 9:39PM on 11/08/09
We make this sausage pumpkin cornbread stuffing most years! Hope you like it! Happy early Thanksgiving!
Chew on That at 11:02PM on 11/08/09