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Thanksgiving stuffing souffle?


KennethT

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hi everybody - This is my year to do the main portion of Thanksgiving, and I wanted to do something familiar, but updated and a little "lighter"...

I loved the flavor and smell of my grandmother's stuffing recipe - HOWEVER - it always was so heavy and, for lack of a better word, kind of mucky... even though she started with "stale" bread, and browned them in butter, after cooking it was like a solid, singular texture... I found that there are a lot of eggs in the recipe, which probably add to that heavy texture...

I was thinking that I could separate the eggs, decrease some of the yolks, and whip up the whites and fold them into the mixture, and then, upon cooking, it would be lighter - almost like a souffle...

Anyone have any idea why this wouldn't work???

Also, to make things a bit more complicated, I thought this would be the stuffing of the turkey ballottine that I was planning - so it's a whole turkey breast, boned out, with the stuffing souffle inside - then the whole thing would be cooked sous vide to 140/60 to keep the breast meat nice and juicy (don't worry about the timing/food safety - I have all of the FDA pasteurization times)...

Does anyone have an idea if the "souffle" will be any lighter this way than in the past? Do you think it'll expand upon cooking and fill the inside of the ballottine? What if I added some baking powder??

Thanks!

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you could make a savory bread pudding... would be lighter than just bread, and not as fussy as a souffle. Use the same seasonings as your Grandma's stuffing.

If it was me... I wouldn't bother stuffing the turkey.

Karen Dar Woon

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Well, yes, I believe you are slightly insane. Wouldn't something a bit more traditional and far easier be more familiar to your family? How about a big round fresh turkey stuffed with good dry bread, onions and celery sauteed in butter with parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme (like the song says), roasted in the oven or, if you are adventurous, perhaps outdoors in some kind of kettle, basted with buttery juices and turkey fat until the skin is golden mahogany, crispy and glistening and the meat is tender on the bone. It will look pretty as a picture and then you open it up and out falls perfect stuffing, delicate and aromatic, just moist enough from the drippings inside. It's a thanksgiving turkey. It's good!

You could have a savory bread pudding, which sounds very interesting, on the side as well. And you could make a souffle for breakfast, unless, like my family, you prefer leftover pie.

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If you're committed to a souffle-type stuffing, you could check out this recipe, Roast Chicken Volhynian Style, a Polish recipe, with a stuffing of breadcrumbs, eggs, parsley, and chicken liver. The egg whites are whipped before they are incorporated into the stuffing. Don't believe the opening blurb. If I remember correctly, the stuffing is lighter than ordinary scrambled eggs, but heavier than a souffle. Ages since I made this recipe, but I do remember it was very good.

The NY Times archives charges for this article:

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.htm...BF1D3&scp=1&sq=

Otherwise KarenDW has some good suggestions. Lessen the butter and eggs, which may cause some of the heaviness, and cook it outside the bird (in a separate pan, covered with foil & moistened with broth), so it isn't soaked with so much of the juices that it becomes mucky. But stuffing cooked inside the bird has a special taste. Will this satisfy your family?

You could also make sure the bread is really dry to lessen the amt of moisture in the stuffing. Toast day-old (or older) slices or cubes in a low oven until the bread is very dried out and crumbles easily in your hands. Watch that it doesn't burn.

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