Turkey Stuffing / Dressing

[Ling]

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).

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You forgot the "lap yook", shredded dried oysters, dried tiny shrimp, cilantro...

This is one of my favourite stuffings too! My mom makes a big pan of it every Thanksgiving/Christmas and we have it alongside the sourdough/sausage/artichoke stuffing.

[Abra]

I'm having two Thanksgivings this year, and for one of them my Thai neighbors, who have never had American Thanksgiving, are going to be guests. I'm thinking of making Ken Hom's "Chinese American" stuffing recipe that I've been saving - are there other things I should add to this list? Are there proportions for the lap yook, and would they belong in here?

3 cups sweet rice (also known as glutinous)

1 cup dried black mushrooms

1 1/2 pound ground pork

3 tablespoons soy sauce, divided

4 tablespoons rice wine or dry sherry, divided

2 teaspoons Asian sesame oil

salt

freshly ground pepper

2 tablespoons peanut oil

1/2 cup finely chopped green onions

2 tablespoons finely chopped ginger root

chopped turkey giblets, heart and gizzard

only

1 pound Chinese pork sausage, chopped

1/2 pound fresh or canned water chestnuts, peeled, and

coarsely chopped

3 cup chicken broth

[Brad Ballinger]

I grew up on something I haven't seen anywhere outside my family. It is supposedly a Slovenian recipe. I don't have the particulars, but it involved a lot of fresh bread cubes (crusts removed), 9 eggs (more or less depending on the size of the turkey), onions, parsley, salt, pepper, and a bit of chicken broth.

Everything gets mixed together then stuffed into the cavity. When the turkey is done cooking, the stuffing comes out in something that resembles a loaf. You then slice it and serve it.

I made this for a bunch of us who were stranded at Miami University (Ohio) far away from our homes one Thanksgiving. No one could believe the "sliced stuffing" concept, but it won rave reviews.

[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).

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You forgot the "lap yook", shredded dried oysters, dried tiny shrimp, cilantro...

This is one of my favourite stuffings too! My mom makes a big pan of it every Thanksgiving/Christmas and we have it alongside the sourdough/sausage/artichoke stuffing.

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Shredded Dried Oyster??? That is pretty interesting. We can definitely forget about the bird...

[I_call_the_duck]

Shredded Dried Oyster???  That is pretty interesting.  We can definitely forget about the bird...

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The bird takes second billing with this one. The oysters add a little smoky taste.

[Claudia Greco]

Like you, Abra, I've been looking for the perfect stuffing/dressing for forever.  I had a long way to come, baby, since here's what I grew up with:

Wonderbread (or the like) heels dried and saved all year and torn into pieces.  Some raw chopped onion, salt and pepper and enough dried sage to make it practically green.  Now pour in boiling water and WHIP WITH A FORK UNTIL IT BECOMES A  SOUPY MUSH.  That's it.  Yuk.  You HAD to stuff this mess for it to have any flavor at all, but we always called it dressing.

I made a perfect dressing once, of sourdough bread and sausage, plenty of onion and butter, some celery and parsley and chicken broth.  But I've never been able to duplicate it.  I've made pecan stuffing balls, lemon and ham stuffing balls, mashed potato filling, Italian rice dressing and cornbread dressing.  Funny thing about the cornbread:  I love it when it's all prepared and could eat it by the pint, but once it's been cooked in a casserole I don't like it much at all.

Truth is, I like scalloped oysters better than dressing.  Saltine crumbs soaked in butter, layered with oysters and their liquid, warm half and half poured over until the crackers are all soaked except for a layer on top which will get crunchy when it's baked at a fairly high temperature.  Because my son-in-law is allergic to oysters, I have developed a version using all kinds of mushrooms (especially oyster mushrooms).

Have to go now.  Will post some ideas I haven't tried later.

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[Claudia Greco]

Like you, Abra, I've been looking for the perfect stuffing/dressing for forever.  I had a long way to come, baby, since here's what I grew up with:

Wonderbread (or the like) heels dried and saved all year and torn into pieces.  Some raw chopped onion, salt and pepper and enough dried sage to make it practically green.  Now pour in boiling water and WHIP WITH A FORK UNTIL IT BECOMES A  SOUPY MUSH.  That's it.  Yuk.  You HAD to stuff this mess for it to have any flavor at all, but we always called it dressing.

Well, my favorite is a macadamia stuffing - Branola (whole wheat) bread, onions, salt, pepper and various other spices. This year, I'm adding diced Granny Smith apples to it to balance out the turkey brine. My mom, who has been Queen of Turkey for 52 years, recently developed Parkinson's and cannot handle Big Beasts anymore. Since my sister-in-law's turkeys suck so bad the cat won't even touch it, my husband demanded that one of my family females make it. So I'm going a lot funkier than my sister-in-law can manage, but not as funky as my family is capable of. No honey/chile/pecan glazed turkey or chipotle-dusted cornbread stuffing, which would be my vote.

PS: My sister does a wicked cornbread oyster stuffing.

Edited November 2, 2005 by Claudia Greco (log)

[Abra]

Hmmm, I still can't decide. Ruth, your pumpkim parmesan bread pudding is really calling to me.....

[fifi]

I'll play. I have, in recent years, had to try to recreate my mother's cornbread dressing. The kids are operating under the delusion that there is "one recipe." Well, that didn't happen. She changed it every year. Anyway, here it is.

Corn Bread Dressing

This is the traditional corn bread dressing that my mother made every Thanksgiving. She never measured anything for this dish so I had to wing it. I took my best shot and measured things as I put it together. My sister and nephew pronounced it genuine so it must be close as they are extremely picky people.

2 recipes “Real Corn Bread” (Don’t cheat on the corn bread. It must be this recipe.)

2 cans cheap (like a store brand) biscuits, baked pretty brown but not burned

3 cups chopped onion

3 cups diced celery

2 Tbs oil, not olive oil

1 cup chopped green onion

1 cup chopped parsley

6 boiled eggs, diced

1 ½ tsp poultry seasoning, or more to taste

1 Tbs black pepper

6 – 8 cups chicken stock

salt to taste

Hand crumble corn bread and biscuits into a large bowl, big enough to hold all of the ingredients with plenty of stirring room.

Lightly sauté onions and celery until slightly wilted. Add to the bread. Add the green onion and parsley. Cross cut the egg in an egg slicer or dice and add. Add the poultry seasoning and pepper.

Mix thoroughly with your hands. (Hands work better than a spoon to get it well mixed without mushing it up.) Continue mixing while adding chicken stock. What you want to end up with is the bread mixture well saturated but no excess stock pooling in the bottom of the bowl. Taste for salt and adjust if necessary.

Spray pans with Pam. Put the mixture in the pans and level out but don’t pack down. Shallower pans give you more crust. Deeper pans give you more soft stuff. You pick..

Bake at 350 F until lightly browned and the center springs back when poked. How long you bake it depends on your pans so you just have to watch and poke.

Variations (Mother was always tampering with the recipe. To say that this is THE recipe is a lie, actually.)

Add cooked crumbled sausage. Oysters are another possibility. (yuk for me)

Add cooked crumbled andouille sausage or slices of smoked andouille, a cup of diced bell pepper with the onion and celery. Substitute Cajun seasoning and some cayenne for the poultry seasoning.

Add cooked crumbled Italian sausage, a cup of diced bell pepper with the onion and celery. Substitute oregano, thyme and basil for the poultry seasoning. Leave the eggs out of this one.

Add cooked shrimp, a cup of diced bell pepper with the onion and celery. Substitute Cajun seasoning and some cayenne for the poultry seasoning. Make some good strong shrimp broth with the shrimp shells (and heads if you have them) and substitute for some of the chicken stock..

You get the idea… Chorizo, poblano, chile powder, Mexican oregano? Someone (maybe Mother) once thought about mixed sauted mushrooms. (I don’t know about that!) Mother once used all fresh herbs of the poultry seasoning persuasion that she grew. It was fabulous. (She grew herbs many years before it was cool.)

Note: This recipe can be halved but it is a lot of trouble to make too little and it freezes well. The quantities given in the recipe are not critical. If you want more onion, celery or parsley (or whatever), go for it.

[Ling]

Shredded Dried Oyster???  That is pretty interesting.  We can definitely forget about the bird...

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The bird takes second billing with this one. The oysters add a little smoky taste.

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'Shredded' was a bad way to describe it, sorry--I was thinking "chopped". (Dried oyster = 'ho see' in Cantonese). I also like some dried scallop in my Chinese sticky rice stuffing...

[Ling]

I'm having two Thanksgivings this year, and for one of them my Thai neighbors, who have never had American Thanksgiving, are going to be guests.  I'm thinking of making Ken Hom's  "Chinese American" stuffing recipe that I've been saving - are there other things I should add to this list?  Are there proportions for the lap yook, and would they belong in here?

3 cups sweet rice (also known as glutinous)

1 cup dried black mushrooms

1 1/2 pound ground pork

3 tablespoons soy sauce, divided

4 tablespoons rice wine or dry sherry, divided

2 teaspoons Asian sesame oil

salt

freshly ground pepper

2 tablespoons peanut oil

1/2 cup finely chopped green onions

2 tablespoons finely chopped ginger root

chopped turkey giblets, heart and gizzard

only

1 pound Chinese pork sausage, chopped

1/2 pound fresh or canned water chestnuts, peeled, and

coarsely chopped

3 cup chicken broth

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Like I posted above, I would add chopped parsley to finish, along with "lap yook"--this is kind of like a Chinese bacon? And the dried tiny shrimp called "ha my" (actually the second word is pronounced kind of like like the word "eye" with a "m" in front of it...so "ha meye"?)

(The dried oyster and dried scallop is optional, of course...but I like my sticky rice packed with add-ins. )

[liamsaunt]

My family always wants the same things at Thanksgiving, no substitutions, so the stuffing is bread cubes, tossed with a mix celery, sage, thyme, and onion sauteed in lots of butter, seasoned with salt and pepper, and then moistened with a bit of stock. There is always lots of stuffing, so some goes in the bird and some in a seperate casserole dish.

Some years I make a second stuffing for variety, but most people won't try it on principle. No changes on Thanksgiving, don't you know. One year I made a cornbread-sausage-cranberry-pecan stuffing that my Dad really liked. I think if I made an oyster stuffing I would have a full-out mutiny on my hands.

[origamicrane]

here's mine pretty traditional but a goodie.

stuffing:

500g sausage meat

5 slices of fresh brown breadcrumbs

100g butter mixed with 1/2 cup of coursely chopped herbs (a mix of parsley, sage, thyme, rosemary, tarragon)

1 large diced onion

1 chopped leek sauteed in butter

half a bulb of chopped garlic

1t salt

1t pepper.

[ruthcooks]

I'm posting this recipe for Abra here instead of in RecipeGullet because I have never made it. Perhaps if she tries it, she'll post the recipe in RG with her notes.

Pumpkin Sage Bread Pudding

1 1lb. French baguette, cut into 1/2 to 3/4-inch dice

4 T. unsalted butter

1 large onion, diced, up to 2 cups

1 cup diced celery

1 T. minced garlic

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (4 ounces)

1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin

4 eggs plus 3 yolks

3 cups milk, plus more if needed

1 1/2 t. salt

1 T. freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup chopped fresh sage leaves.

Place bread cubes in large bowl.

Saite onion, celery and garlic in butter over low heat until translucent.

Add onion mixture to cubes, along with cheese.

In another, medium sized bowl, whisk the pumpkin, eggs and yolks, 3 cups milk, salt, pepper and sage. Pour over bread mixture and toss to combine.

Let mixture sit for up to 45 minutes to allow bread to soak up liquid.

Add more milk if mixture seems dry.

Pour into buttered or sprayed 9 x 13 inch pan and cover with sprayed foil.

Bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours at 375 degrees or until pudding is set but still moist.

Ruth's Notes:

What are you going to do with that leftover 1/2 C. of pumpkin? I'd probably just toss in the entire can. I'd also use 5 or 6 whole eggs instead of messing with yolks. I might remove the foil toward the end and brown the top with a little more butter and cheese.

The pudding would definitely stay more moist in a hot water bath, and I'd probably do this since dry bread puddings are the pits.

Could this be made the day before? You'd probably have to add another cup of milk just before baking. For sure, you could cube bread, saute veggies and combine liquids the day before, then combine all with sage on the day of serving.

Edited November 11, 2005 by ruthcooks (log)

[Eden]

I hadn't realized just how long we've been using chestnut stuffing for turkey. I just found the following quote from a book written in 1614 about the foods of Italy:

"peeled chestnuts are used with prunes, raisins and breadcrumbs in a stuffing for roast chicken, goose or turkey."

I may have to try this one.

[RosalindD]

Does anyone have a good recipe for dried fruit turkey stuffing? Would appreciate it. Oh, and I too love using the Pepperidge Farm bread stuffing and just doctoring it up a bit. I am not sure if it's because it's what I grew up with and so I have an emotional tie to it. LOL Isn't Thanksgiving without it in my home.

[wyf4lyf]

Great topic! Here is my recipe, which I have "perfected" (ha!) over the past 20 years. I based it on a recipe in the Silver Palate cookbook, adding a couple of things... I have to say that no other stuffing ever tastes better to me or my family than this! I must admit that some years I've "cheated" and bought good bakery white and wheat breads instead of making them homemade. (A bread machine is really great for making the white and wheat breads ahead of time!) I do believe using all 3 types of bread makes this extra special.

Favorite Stuffing

12T sweet butter (1-1/2 sticks)

2-1/2C finely chopped onions

6 stalks celery, coarsely chopped

3 tart apples, chunked (don’t peel)

1 lb. bulk sausage (with sage)

3C coarsely crumbled cornbread

3C coarsely crumbled wheat bread, homemade if possible

3C coarsely crumbled white bread, homemade if possibe

4-8 cloves garlic, minced (to taste...this really makes a difference; adds fabulous flavor!!)

1-1/2C coarsely chopped pecans (I sometimes leave these out for my son who prefers no nuts)

2 handfuls of dried cherries (you can use raisins or dried cranberries instead)

2t thyme

1t sage

salt & pepper to taste

1/2C Italian parsley, chopped

Melt 6T butter in skillet. Add onions & clelery and cook partially covered until onion is tender. Transfer to huge bowl. Melt remaining butter in same skillet. Add apples and cook over high heat until colored lightly, but not mushy. Put in same bowl. Brown sausage in same skillet; drain; add to bowl. Add remaining ingreds, mixing lightly with hands or wooden spoons. Cool completely before stuffing into bird.

For extra casserole (and there will be one!)

Place stuffing in dish and cover with lid or foil. Place in larger pan. Fill larger pan with hot water 1/2 way up the sides. Bake at 325 30-40 min. Can baste with turkey juices if it needs moisture.

Or... just put in a baking dish, and bake until hot. Top will be crusty, which is how we like it!!

[Joanne]

Try boiling a couple of peeled, cubed sweet potatoes and adding them, along with a bit of the cooking liquid, to whatever stuffing you are making...adds a nice, sweet touch, without being overpowering. Fresh sage and parsley are a must!

[annecros]

I also favor the leftover cornbread/biscuit recipe. I just baggie the leftover cornbread and homemade biscuts for a couple of months and shove them in the freezer. Sometimes I have to cook a supplementary batch of cornbread and/or biscuits the day before in order to have enough to fulfill my families ability to eat mounds of stuffing.

In the turkey, absolutely! I find it flavors the meat, and helps keep the turkey moist. Also, I make my own turkey broth a day ahead with turkey wings, salt, onion, celery, carrot, fresh parsley, sage and rosemary to moisten the stuffing rather than chicken broth. I debone the turkey I used to make the broth, and include the meat in the dressing when I moisten it. Additional sauteed onion and celery, and dried poultry seasoning. Whatever doesn't fit in the turkey gets the rest of the turkey broth and meat and goes in a pan to finish while the turkey is resting.

The gravy is the thing! My mom made the most fantastic giblet gravy, with chopped boiled egg and lots of onion, thickened with flour. My giblet gravy always hits using Mom's techniques. Really simple, great old comfort food!

Edited November 14, 2005 by annecros (log)

[emilyr]

My family has always had a rivalry between the giblet stuffing and oyster stuffing factions, and my mom and I bore the brunt of it, making two huge pans full. No one could decide which would go into the turkey, so neither one would. We've been frying our turkeys for the last 7 years or so with a spicy cajun or southwestern injection. I decided I wanted something with a little more kick to match the flavor of the turkey. I ended up making a cornbread stuffing with pork chorizo, green chilis, red peppers, and sundried tomatoes. I moisten it with a broth infused with cilantro and lime. You don't need to use a lot of extra spice if you use good chorizo.

This year, because of time constraints, we're buying a smoked trukey. What kind of dressing goes best with the smokey flavor? Also, since we may not have gravy, will regular stuffing have enough flavor?

[Jesse A]

Anyone have a great wild mushroom dressing/stuffing recipe? I have access to pretty much any fall mushroom here in the Bay Area.

[ludja]

Anyone have a great wild mushroom dressing/stuffing recipe?  I have access to pretty much any fall mushroom here in the Bay Area.

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Hi Jesse A!

I haven't tried this but Paula Wolfert just mentioned a very delicious recipe in her "Spotlight Conversation" that is going this week. Look here.

The stuffing includes: wild mushrooms (preferably Cepes/Porcini), butter, proscuitto, walnuts, shallots, garlic, onions, white-meat sausage (i.e. veal or pork/veal), parsley, thyme, Cognac, white bread, milk and eggs. It is a French recipe from Auvergne.

The recipe is in "Paula Wolfert's World of Food" which is unfortunately out of print but it should be availabe at some libraries. It is an involved recipe but does sound like one worthy of porcini! The recipe also includes a simpler, complementary stuffing to cook with roasted onions to be served alongside.

I use regualr button or cremini mushrooms in my 'standard' sausage-mushroom stuffing described by me and othes above. I think the specialness of porcini would be lost in this context. (I really want to try the recipe above sometime though!)

[LarsTheo]

I make stuffing with grits instead of cornbread because it is easier and tastes about the same to me. It's based on my mother's and her mother's recipes, but takes much less time. I'll be making it again this year, but I don't wait for holidays to make it. You can add sausage to it, which I sometimes do if I want it as a whole meal instead of a side dish.

[Jujubee]

My mom also makes Chinese sticky rice which makes an AMAZING stuffing.  She makes both a carnivore (Chinese sausage) and vegetarian (dried scallops) version. 

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This is what my parents do and I love it. Unfortunately, for the past 7 years I've spent Thanksgiving at my in-laws so I haven't had the cooked-in-the-turkey version for a while. (My parents will make some outside of the bird when I'm home for Christmas. Still great, but not the same.) My in-laws do a bread-based stuffing, which can be very good, but my MIL always skimps on the butter. For example, one year she tried a recipe that called for 2 sticks of butter, but she cut it down to 2 tablespoons for a huge pot. It was still tastier than her mashed potatoes though, because not only did she cut the butter down to 2 tablespoons for a 5 lb bag of potatoes, she didn't use any milk, cream, or even broth to loosen it up a bit, and she didn't use SALT. But I suppose that's for another thread.

[mikeycook]

I was watching Iron Chef America the other night and in Battle Turkey, Bobby Flay did several different stuffings to represent different areas of the country. The one that interested me was the northeast version, which contained lobster, fresh corn, and corn bread, among other ingredients. Does anyone know if this is an actual Flay recipe that is printed somewhere? Does anyone have a lobster stuffing recipe? My family is originally from Maine and I am thinking about serving something like it as a second stuffing (the main one will be oysters w/pancetta). Even my lobster bible (Lobster at Home by Jasper White) doesn't have a lobster stuffing recipe (just one recipe for a cabbage stuffing). If all else fails, I might just find a good basic cornbread stuffing and embellish.