Turkey Stuffing / Dressing

[ruthcooks]

Thanks, Ling, I was madly searching all over the forum to find that reference to your stuffing, which is the one I'm committed to making this Thanksgiving. I'm not sure about that Mozzarella--I'm not a big fan of that cheese, and can just hear the comments: "How come this is stringy?"

I have collected 35-40 dressing/stuffing recipes and would be happy to pass on any that sound interesting to you, Abra. Here are a few combos omitting the onions, celery and herbs which are pretty universal:

...wild mushrooms, hazelnuts, leeks, egg bread

...wild rice, bacon, mushrooms, bread crumbs

...savory bread pudding with peasant bread, wine, chevre, gruyere and pecans

...pumpkin sage bread pudding with parmesan

...Martha Stewart's fruit and nut with 4 dried fruits, apples, cranberries, 3 nuts and bourbon, no bread or rice, sweet spices (ugh)

...veal, pork, beef, bread crumbs, apple, orange, pineapple, lemon, water chestnuts, preserved ginger, mustard powder, seeds, turmeric, herbs

...Wolfgang Puck's French bread, spinach, mushrooms, oysters, It. sausage, prunes, dried cherries and raisins, cream and herbs

...Kate Heyhoe's French apple stuffing with chicken sausages, leeks, parsnips, dried cranberries, parsely, walnuts, eggs and applesauce

...walnut sized cranberry stuffing balls, pretty standard recipe otherwise, may be frozen and baked

...Hawaiian stuffing with Chinese sausage, carrots, green onions, water chestnuts, ginger, pineapple, macadamia nuts, sherry, cilantro

...Ukranian corn bread stuffing with other ingredients baked like a pudding

There are a couple with chestnuts, but I think chestnuts could be added to about any recipe. More ideas on request.

P.S. I'm with you on the state of the dGullet search engine, Abra. I once searched for a recipe of which I remembered most of the ingredients, the title and the poster. Nothing, nothing, nothing, until I got the magic combination.

[Betts]

This is a customer's favorite and now mine - not grand just simple, rich and very tasty. You need to understand that I am an excellent and discerning cook but nothing beats those seasoned bagged stuffing crumbles.

Stuffing must be cooked in the bird. There is no other way to get that deep down satisfying flavor. Dressings cooked in a pan are just bread pudding!!

MPC Stuffing

2 sticks of butter

2 large onions - chopped

4 celery ribs, diced

1 + cups chicken stock - canned is fine but it should be full salt style

1 package of Pepp Farm or Brownberry Seasoned Stuffing crumbs - not cube style

Gently saute vegs until very soft. Stir in stuffing mix and then moisten with the stock. Most of this will fit in the cavity and any extra goes in a small casserole or the neck cavity.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Stuffing must be cooked in the bird.  There is no other way to get that deep down satisfying flavor.

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Voila! The Stuffing Cage has arrived!

and to go with it? The Turkey Tent!

[lesfen]

This is a customer's favorite and now mine - not grand just simple, rich and very tasty.  You need to understand that I am an excellent and discerning cook but nothing beats those seasoned bagged stuffing crumbles.

Stuffing must be cooked in the bird.  There is no other way to get that deep down satisfying flavor.  Dressings cooked in a pan are just bread pudding!!

MPC Stuffing

2 sticks of butter

2 large onions - chopped

4 celery ribs, diced

1 + cups chicken stock - canned is fine but it should be full salt style

1 package of Pepp Farm or Brownberry Seasoned Stuffing crumbs - not cube style 

Gently saute vegs until very soft.  Stir in stuffing mix and then moisten with the stock.  Most of this will fit in the cavity and any extra goes in a small casserole or the neck cavity.

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Throw some fresh sage, fresh parsley, and a miriad of dried bread cubes (sourdough, wheat, baguettes, store brand white, etc... pretty much whatever I've been saving up in the weeks leading up to Turkey Day) in there and you have my Thanksgiving stuffing. I love all variations of stuffing/dressing, but this recipe just screams Thanksgiving to me.

Oh, and you gotta put it in the bird! Come on! There's nothing better than fighting over the crusty stuffing cap with your siblings!!

[purplewiz]

Oh, and you gotta put it in the bird!  Come on!  There's nothing better than fighting over the crusty stuffing cap with your siblings!!

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We never fought over it....because I always stole it and ate it first :-).

And although this is probably going to get me kicked off this thread, my ultimate turkey stuffing is still...*sigh*...Pepperidge Farm Cubed Herb Stuffing with sauteed onion and celery added. Which must be cooked in the bird.

Marcia.

[amccomb]

I'm not finished reading this thread, but I had to post a link to my favorite recipe, which is meatless and has chestnuts. I loooove it! But I think it might improve with sausage.

It's got wild rice, chestnuts, and fennel bulb.

http://content1.williams-sonoma.com/recipe...579F3048F7374B2

Then I had to post a link to the OTHER favorite, to which I always add wild boar sausage:

It has pears, dried fruit, pecans, and sauternes.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/107294

I had to edit this to add that I bake the wild rice, fennel, and chestnut stuffing in the turkey, and remove it while the turkey is resting and pop it back into the oven to crisp up the top a bit. Mmmm.....

Edited October 30, 2005 by amccomb (log)

[BarbaraY]

Our favored stuffing is a very traditional one. It's made with packaged sourdough cubes, sauteed onion and celery, lots of Italian parsley, sage, garlic, eggs, and broth to moisten but not make soupy. It has to be cooked in the bird, although there is always more than will fit that gets baked with the addition of a little more broth.

No oysters in our stuffing! Aside from the family protests, which would be very loud, I remember the year my mom made oyster stuffing and it was revolting.

My actual favorite at any other time is one made with Italian sausage.

My late friend made stuffing for Cornish Game hens with the addition of water chestnuts, mushrooms, celery, and onions in Mrs. Cubbison's. It was very good.

I saw that stuffing cage in the Chef's catalog. The visual of removing it from the bird was just too much!

Edited October 30, 2005 by BarbaraY (log)

[DTBarton]

I have to beg to differ on the oysters, I love oyster dressing.

I use dried bread cubes (cut from loaves of good white bread with maybe some sourdough mixed in, not all sourdough).

Dice a bunch of pancetta and saute. Add onions, celery, butter and herbs (the usual, thyme, sage, pepper, etc.)

Add the bread cubes and stir. Add enough turkey stock to almost get to desired moistness.

Cut oysters in to smallish pieces. Stir in oyster pieces and add oyster liquor to desired consistency. Taste for salt. Usually the pancetta, stock, and oysters give you enough salt and you don't need to add any extra. Put in greased pyrex and bake.

[DTBarton]

I have to beg to differ on the oysters, I love oyster dressing. 

I use dried bread cubes (cut from loaves of good white bread with maybe some sourdough mixed in, not all sourdough).

Dice a bunch of pancetta and saute.  Add onions, celery, butter and herbs (the usual, thyme, sage, pepper, etc.)

Add the bread cubes and stir.  Add enough turkey stock to almost get to desired moistness. 

Cut oysters in to smallish pieces.  Stir in oyster pieces and add oyster liquor to desired consistency.  Taste for salt.  Usually the pancetta, stock, and oysters give you enough salt and you don't need to add any extra.  Put in greased pyrex and bake.

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I forgot to mention that wild mushrooms (oyster, naturally) are delicious in this dressing, saute them with the onion and celery.

[jackal10]

Brillat Savarin defines the ultimate turkey stuffing:

When the mechanic, when the artist, collects a few friends to enjoy a relief which is the more grateful because it is the rarer; what is one of the dishes always put on the table? a turkey stuffed with Lyons sausage and with chestnuts of Lyons.

In the highest gastronomical circles, in the most select reunions, where politics yield to dissertations on the taste, for what do people wait? What do they wish for? a dinde truffe at the second course. My secret memoirs tell me that its flavor has more than once lighted up most diplomatic faces.

...

A fowl weighing seven pounds, stuffed with truffles, so that it has become a spheroid...". “Monsieur, or Monseigneur, your cook is a man of mind. Such dishes we eat only at your house.”

Rossini (the composer, he of the tournedos) is said to have wept at the loss of a turkey stuffed with truffles...

I note that for economy nowdays truffle oil (which is usually nature equivalent flavour) can be used with a conventional forcemeat. For a treat, serve "demi-deuil" (half mourning) with slices of black truffle and truffle butter slipped under the skin. If you use imported chinese truffles and make the truffle butter with truffle oil the expense need not be outrageous.

Edited October 30, 2005 by jackal10 (log)

[Jason Perlow]

Oh, and you gotta put it in the bird!  Come on!  There's nothing better than fighting over the crusty stuffing cap with your siblings!!

←

We never fought over it....because I always stole it and ate it first :-).

And although this is probably going to get me kicked off this thread, my ultimate turkey stuffing is still...*sigh*...Pepperidge Farm Cubed Herb Stuffing with sauteed onion and celery added. Which must be cooked in the bird.

Marcia.

←

Actually, I'm also of the opinion that a "doctored" Pepperidge Farm is probably one of the best stuffings there is. Its what people really want anyway.

However, this year, in addition to the Pepperidge, I'm going to make THIS:

White Castle Turkey Stuffing

[Ktepi]

For the past few years, our Thanksgiving stuffing has been a doctored Pepperidge Farm with tart apples, shredded rabbit, and lots of sage added; this year I may abandon the rabbit, since I'm aiming to get a heritage turkey and am not sure if I can really afford both (rabbit costs me a lot more here than I'm used to, and Thanksgiving's just the two of us since our families live on opposite coasts). The running joke had been that the stuffing cost more than the turkey.

Bell's seasoning (which is heavy on the bay leaf) and sage sausage were the traditional additions when I was growing up -- that Bell's in the turkey stuffing was the most seasoning I ever tasted as a kid. (My mother is an old school New Englander who never touched her spice cabinet except to sprinkle cinnamon on applesauce, Lawry's on chicken, and Bell's in stuffing.)

Oyster stuffing makers: do you use fresh or canned oysters? I can't get fresh here, but have only had oyster stuffing in Louisiana restaurants, where I'm pretty sure they were using fresh.

[TarteTatin]

Merguez sausage and cornbread.

Simple and outrageous.

[Abra]

Oh, this is getting delicious (except the White Castle stuffing - Jason, please eat my share!)

Ruth, I want ALL of your recipes, cooked and on the plate, right now! But just to spare the typing, I'll try to narrow it down to the most appetizing-sounding and unusual ones. Would you share

...savory bread pudding with peasant bread, wine, chevre, gruyere and pecans

...pumpkin sage bread pudding with parmesan

...walnut sized cranberry stuffing balls, pretty standard recipe otherwise, may be frozen and baked

...Hawaiian stuffing with Chinese sausage, carrots, green onions, water chestnuts, ginger, pineapple, macadamia nuts, sherry, cilantro

And both of the linked recipes amccomb provided sound yummy as well.

Jack, if you'll send the truffles, I promise I'll do homage to Brillat-Savarin!

[Roxie]

This is my first post! Hello to all.

I am planning on adding some hatch green chilis to the sauteed onions and celery this year before adding into cornbread crumbs. To give it a little kick!

p.s. Abra, I really enjoyed your blog, guess it was last year.

[woodburner]

Oyster dressing, my fave. (I've only used fresh but canned should work)

Sausage stuffing and Cornbread stuffing.

Thanksgiving at my house this year

welcome Roxie.

woodburner

[Pumpkin Lover]

However, this year, in addition to the Pepperidge, I'm going to make THIS:

White Castle Turkey Stuffing

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MOST AWESOME THING EVER! If you make this, I will be your best friend 4 life.

[mizducky]

Heels of bread dried and saved ALL YEAR?!?!?!  Jeepers, Ruth, I think you win the prize.

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Heh. My mom, child of the Great Depression that she was, always saved up bread ends for months before every Thanksgiving. I have never been quite so organized (or thrifty), so I buy a couple loaves of sliced bread and dry 'em out in a low oven.

Oh, and you gotta put it in the bird!  Come on!  There's nothing better than fighting over the crusty stuffing cap with your siblings!!

←

Oh, totally agreed. I've seen all the Cassandra warnings about risks of contamination, overly-soggy stuffing, etc., but neither I nor my mom before me ever had any of those problems. We were ultra-scrupulous about cleanliness, plus we only stuffed the bird immediately before slapping the thing in the oven. Also, we'd keep our dressing mix very dry so it could absorb all those lovely turkey juices without totally sogging out.

Oh, and while the stuffing cage is kinda cute, it really wouldn't be my thing. For one thing, I have a peculiar fondness for the method I learned from my mom of sewing up the stuffed turkey with needle and white cotton thread--I like the homeyness of it, plus I have the perhaps-delusional notion that it allows you to fit a little more stuffing in--and I wouldn't be able to do that with that cage's handle sticking out. (And you'd still have to deal with stuffing the neck/breast cavity anyway.) Besides, the problem the cage is supposed to solve--bits of stuffing in hard-to-reach crannies inside the bird--I grew up seeing as a Good Thing--those bits are prizes for the person who pulls the job of gleaning the last of the meat off the turkey carcass (or the gourmandes who decide to have a late-night turkey-carcass fressing session ).

The general recipe I learned from my mom was pretty darned simple: a mix of breads (NO Wonder Bread whatsoever! I prefer a mix of whole-grain wheat and a bit of dark rye or pumpernickel), thoroughly dried out and then broken (NOT cut) into bitesize bits; sausage, removed from casings, crumbled, cooked, and drained; chopped onion and celery, sauted in butter; sliced mushrooms, also sauteed in butter; bunch of poultry seasoning; some more melted butter and an egg or two, depending on volume and destination of stuffing (we'd make tons; the stuffing that actually went into the bird got less butter and egg, the extra that went in a casserole dish would get more butter and egg to make up for the lack of turkey-juices, though it was never quite as yummy as the stuff cooked inside the bird).

My mom just used El Random Whatever-was-on-sale sausage, regular white mushrooms, and that boxed poultry seasoning that shows up in the supermarkets every year at this time. On my own, I've changed those up in all sorts of ways, with various combinations of fresh or dried herbs, different flavors of sausage, different types of mushrooms, etc.

[I_call_the_duck]

One year I made this yummy stuffing with sausage, mushrooms, and homemade cornbread. The next year, my BIL didn't eat meat (diet du jour), so I varied the recipe by omitting the sausage and added about six different types of mushrooms. Portobellos made a decent substitute for the sausage, but me being a die-hard carnivore, I did miss the sausage a little, which added that nice rich fattiness that mushrooms can't do. My mom also makes Chinese sticky rice which makes an AMAZING stuffing. She makes both a carnivore (Chinese sausage) and vegetarian (dried scallops) version.

However, this year, in addition to the Pepperidge, I'm going to make THIS:

White Castle Turkey Stuffing

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I'm so torn between being totally grossed out to being completely fascinated. My late father loved White Castle hamburgers, and I suspect he would have liked this stuffing. I'd love to just mention this recipe to my health-conscious sister just to see her reaction!

Edited so I can clarify my ramblings.

Edited October 31, 2005 by I_call_the_duck (log)

[bushey]

Mmmmm.....pumpkin sage bread pudding w/paremsan sounds heavenly.

Our favorite family stuffing is doctored-up Pepperidge Farm cornbread stuffing mix. I saute the usual savories with whichever mushrooms are on sale that week, plus some chopped carrots. I always add a few eggs to the mixture as well, to keep it moist. Some of it goes into the bird and the rest in a casserole dish, which I baste frequently with the pan drippings from the turkey. This step is *key* in getting the turkey flavor into the stuffing and helping the top get nicely browned and crispy. If I'm feeling really adventurous I'll throw in some crushed pineapple, which adds a little sweetness.

[takomabaker]

This is my favorite turkey and stuffing recipe. I used it every year for about 5 years, we got tired of it and tried others for a couple of Thanksgivings,but now I am back to it again this year.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/2810

[mikeycook]

My mother always used a doctored Bell's stuffing because both my mother and father had memories of terrible homemade stuffings made by their relatives. After trying it a couple of times, I decided that stuffing couldn't be that hard and began trying a number of variations.

I have now settled on an Oyster and Pancetta stuffing that is a modified version of Pellaprat's recipe for Oyster Stuffing in Modern French Culinary Art. I use a couple of fresh sourdough pullman loaves (cubed and dried), fresh oysters, and add about 3/4lb. of pancetta that has been cubed and crisped up. I have used this recipe both inside (roast turkey) and outside (fried turkey) of the bird and it has been very popular.

I am also having a wild turkey this year, so I have been looking for a secondary stuffing that would be appropriate. As my mind wandered to combinations of wild turkey and Wild Turkey, I am looking at a Bourbon-Pecan stuffing recipe from the D'Artagnan cookbook that I will likely modify (still working out how).

For what it's worth, I would still choose Bell's if I needed to go back to a box stuffing (although that will probably never happen).

[ludja]

This is my first post!  Hello to all.

I am planning on adding some hatch green chilis  to the sauteed onions and celery this year before adding into cornbread crumbs.   To give it a little kick!

...

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Great first post, welcome Roxie. I love New Mexico green chile; that sounds like a really good idea.

...

The general recipe I learned from my mom was pretty darned simple: a mix of breads (NO Wonder Bread whatsoever! I prefer a mix of whole-grain wheat and a bit of dark rye or pumpernickel), thoroughly dried out and then broken (NOT cut) into bitesize bits; sausage, removed from casings, crumbled, cooked, and drained; chopped onion and celery, sauted in butter; sliced mushrooms, also sauteed in butter; bunch of poultry seasoning; some more melted butter and an egg or two, depending on volume and destination of stuffing (we'd make tons; the stuffing that actually went into the bird got less butter and egg, the extra that went in a casserole dish would get more butter and egg to make up for the lack of turkey-juices, though it was never quite as yummy as the stuff cooked inside the bird).

My mom just used El Random Whatever-was-on-sale sausage, regular white mushrooms, and that boxed poultry seasoning that shows up in the supermarkets every year at this time. On my own, I've changed those up in all sorts of ways, with various combinations of fresh or dried herbs, different flavors of sausage, different types of mushrooms, etc.

←

This is my mom's basic recipe as well, and I've continued with it so far. We use Pepperidge Farm regular crumb stuffing, Jimmy Dean sausage, lots of sauteed mushrooms... Maybe I'll add green chile to it this year, a la Roxie's suggestion.

I've always been intrigued by oyster stuffings but have not yet tried one... Mikeycooks oyster and pancetta recipe sounds very good...

Edited October 31, 2005 by ludja (log)

[Basilgirl]

I base mine on the recipe from "the red book" - Betty Crocker, circa 1982 or so (?)...simple, basic, buttery and good. Except I up the butter quotient to a full stick or more and use fresh sage instead of dried. Also put in Jimmy Dean's sage sausage. The old Betty Crocker cookbook is my go-to for simple and good recipes - Caesar salad, steak Diane, cookies, pancakes.

[AzianBrewer]

Rice, Chinese sausage (Taiwanese sausage are fine too if you don't mind the sweetness), shitake mushroom, scallion, ginger, light soy and a shot of scotch or shao shing wine (xiao xing).