Stuffing recipe i need help?!
Answers: my mother-in-law is coming for thanksgiving dinner again this year and every year she complains about my stuffing everything else she loves but not my stuffing can you please help with a homemade stuffing that will knock her on her behind please help thank you
Sage and Onion Dressing
To stuff a 15 to 19 pound bird
Two or three loaves of plain white bread (shortcut ingredient: two bags of plain white bread cubes, unseasoned or preseasoned with sage
)
2 large white onions (white onions is important for the strength of the flavour, if you only have yellow, use more onion), one finely minced, one coarsely chopped
4 large stalks celery (these can be either thinly sliced or finely minced, depending on how your family feels about biting into celery bits, but don't leave it out completely, it is part of what completes the flavour, I tend to mince mine because my husband doesn't like celery, my mother liked having the celery bits recognizable)
A handful of celery leaves finely minced
1 pound butter (doesn't matter if it is salted or unsalted, though if you use unsalted you'll want to add a little more salt as you mix)
1 cup turkey broth (I use redibase turkey base for this, it's fantastic. Though, if you're going to be baking this inside the bird, just leave out this ingredient, you'll just increase the amount of milk you use to make up the moisture)
12 eggs, well beaten (you can reduce the fat in this recipe significantly by using egg substitute. It really doesn't hurt the end product)
Roughly half a gallon of milk (depends on the dryness of the bread) I use skim because that's what I have around the house. Again, this reduces the fat content without harming the recipe. If the only fat in this dish is from the butter, then it's actually not that bad, overall. :)
Herbs for seasoning poultry (usually): Sage, Thyme, Parsley (these can be fresh, but I prefer dried because I'm better able to predict the outcome of the stuffing based on the smell of the herbs when I'm mixing it)
Pepper
Salt
At least two days before:
Lay out the bread in single layers on racks or cookie sheets and allow to dry out completely. Be sure to turn the slices over regularly to ensure they are totally dried out, if you're not using racks. This is a lot of bread to have laying around, though. This is where the pre-made cubes come in. No bread laying around, no prep done days in advance, no chance the cat's going to wander across exposed slices of bread. :) If you use the pre-made cubes, just skip this step. I've never noticed a significant change in the flavour and they are much easier to work with. :)
The day before, or the morning of the feast:
Take off any rings or bracelets or watches that you're wearing and wash your hands thoroughly (make sure your nails are clean too) and roll up your sleeves (if you have 'em).
Tear up/crush the bread slices into roughly 1/2 inch bits (or dump the bread cubes) into a huge bowl with plenty of room for getting your hands in there and mixing up the stuffing. Getting crumbs in the bowl are a part of this process, so don't worry about any tiny bits you may end up with.
Add the herbs, salt, and pepper to the bread and toss to coat the bread with the herbs fairly evenly. Use more sage than you do thyme or parsley. You should be able to smell the sage, but not the thyme or parsley, and it shouldn't be overwhelming. You should be able to smell the sage when you lean over so that your nose is about three inches from the bread and sniff. I usually add enough pepper so I can just barely smell it, too (being sure to turn away when I sneeze :). The taste of the herbs intensifies when you bake the stuffing, so you don't want to overdo them. The good thing about this method of seasoning is that if you use your nose as the measure, then the end product will taste right to you, because it was your nose that determined the right amount in the first place. :) But it's also where you can get in a little trouble. If you have a cold, or your sense of smell isn't as keen as the other people you're feeding, you can put too much sage in the stuffing, and it will overwhelm all the other flavours. If you're feeding several people, you can also have them sniff at the bowl and sorta reach a middle ground on the seasoning, so that it's not overwhelming anyone (if it really matters, that is).
Set the bowl aside for now.
In a frying/sauteeing pan, melt the butter. Add the coarsely chopped onion to the butter and saute briefly to start softening. Add the celery, finely minced onion, and minced celery tops. Saute until all vegetables are soft, and well mixed.
Pour the vegetables and butter over the bread, then mix well, distributing the veggies throughout the stuffing and evenly coating the bread with the butter. Pour the eggs over the bread and mix well, again, evenly coating the bread as much as possible. It's important that you do these two steps fairly quickly once you've poured in the ingredients so you don't get "eggy" patches or "buttery" ones. Even distribution is important because the bread is going to soak up these liquids quickly. If you are using
turkey broth, then this is the point you'd add it, again, mixing quickly to evenly distribute. Just a note here, when you add these ingredients, you're going to be getting strong wafts of smells from the stuffing, that's why you seasoned it before this step, so you could gauge the amounts more accurately without warm moisture changing the smell. :)
Now you're ready to start adding milk. Add three cups of milk and use your hands to incorporate it into the bread. This step is where you will run into the difference between using sliced bread and pre-made bread cubes. The sliced bread absorbs the milk more readily, usually takes a little less milk, and mixes up faster. Though the bread cubes are a little more work on this step, they're still faster to work with overall. Work the milk into the bread with your hands and be sure to mix up the bits that tend to drop to the bottom. You can use a spoon for this, but the texture of the stuffing is important, and you can't feel it through the spoon.
Keep mixing in milk, about one cup or a bit less at a time, until the stuffing is sticking together and all the bread has been softened by the liquids. If you're using pre-made cubes, be sure that you don't have any largish "hard" bits of bread. It should all be very soft, moist (almost wet but not quite, there should not be any puddles of milk and it should not drip if you pick some up in your hand and hold it over the bowl with your
fingers spread), and sorta sticky. It should hold together and sound moist when you pull your hand through it (feeling for lumps of unmoistened bread).
At this point you can either stuff your bird with the dressing and pop it in the oven, put the stuffing in a baking dish (well, it's enough to fill several baking dishes) sprayed with non-stick spray and bake it, or store it, covered, in the fridge for use later. Do not let it sit out on the counter for very long.
I usually put some in a 13X9 baking dish, and some in a 2 quart casserole and bake them at 350 degrees. The 13x9 dishes tend to bake faster because they're shallower, and the stuffing dries out a little more (not in a bad way, but you have to watch it because it can turn into a rock if you let it overcook). The stuffing in the casserole takes longer to bake because it's deeper, but the stuffing is a little more moist in the middle, again, not in a bad way. :)
The stuffing from the 13X9 dish tends to be better for use in left over dishes like "Sludge" (torn up chunks of leftover turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, and torn up stuffing all heated up together into a stew-like mass). The stuffing from the casserole is better with the main feast. In any case, bake the stuffing until it's got a nice golden crust on top
(roughly an hour but start checking at 45 mins, assuming these are the only things in the oven, if there's more in the oven baking, it could take longer). That's usually plenty long enough for the center to be cooked through. It will be very solid and not at all crumbly. You can always check it by spooning out a little from the center to see if it's solid and cooked through. You could also probably use a probe thermometer, I think
the right temp is between 170 and 180, but I've never done that, so that might be a little high. That's how high the center of the stuffing needs to be if you're cooking it in the bird, IIRC.
Grandma's Cornbread Dressing and Giblet Gravy
This old-fashioned cornbread dressing is flavorful, tender and moist. Not fancy, its ingredients are simple. Grandma didn't hold with the notion that the more stuff you put in cornbread dressing, the better it is. The heart of the dressing is the cornbread, and the following recipe produces a coarse-crumbed, flavorful base for the dressing.
The Cornbread:
3 tablespoons bacon drippings
2 large eggs
1-1/2 cups corn meal
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1-1/4 cups buttermilk
Preheat oven to 450°F.
Put the bacon drippings in a 9x13-inch baking dish and put it in the oven while it is preheating. The drippings will melt while you're mixing up the batter.
Beat the eggs in a medium bowl until frothy. Add the corn meal, salt, baking soda and baking powder, and stir to combine. Add the buttermilk and stir well. Remove the hot dish from the oven. Swirl the dish to coat it with melted bacon drippings, pour the bacon drippings into the batter and stir to combine.
Pour the batter into the pan, and bake 20 to 25 minutes. The cornbread will begin to pull away from the sides of the pan.
Make the cornbread a day before you intend to make your dressing. Leave it out, uncovered, overnight.
The Dressing:
1 9x13-inch pan of cornbread, crumbled
10 white or whole wheat bread heels (left out overnight)
poultry seasoning (see below)
rubbed sage (see below)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 large stalks celery, chopped
1 large onion, chopped (2-1/2 to 3 cups)
1 large green pepper, chopped
3/4 cup butter (1-1/2 sticks)
4 cups chicken stock
1 cup turkey pan drippings (from cooked turkey -- you are cooking a turkey, aren't you?)
3 large eggs, slightly beaten
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Crumble the cornbread and white bread into a very large baking dish or pan (This is the pan you will cook your dressing in, and you need room to stir it while it's cooking).
In a large skillet, sauté the celery, onion and green pepper in butter over medium heat until onion is transparent. Combine the sautéed vegetables with the bread crumbs and mix well. Note: The dressing up to this point can be prepared an hour or so in advance.
When you are ready to bake the dressing, add the beaten eggs, chicken stock and turkey pan drippings, and stir. (You may need a little more chicken stock -- better if it's too moist than too dry; the uncooked dressing should be a little on the slushy side.) Add 2 teaspoons poultry seasoning, 1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage, black pepper, and mix thoroughly.
After baking for 15 minutes or so, stir dressing down from the sides of the pan so that it cooks uniformly (my mother's term was "rake through it"). Check the seasonings; that is, taste it. If you don't taste enough sage for your liking, add 1/4 teaspoon or so with a little chicken stock, stir it in, and taste again. Careful, a little sage goes a long way.
Total cooking time should be about 30 minutes.
Old-Fashioned Southern Baked Cornbread
1 1/2 cups stone ground cornmeal (white, yellow, or blue)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
4 tablespoons olive oil or melted bacon fat, divided
1 cup (or more) buttermilk
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In large bowl, mix cornmeal, baking powder, flour, salt, 2 tablespoons of the oil or fat, and 1 cup of buttermilk. If cornbread batter is too thick (should be the pour-able consistency of pancake batter), add more buttermilk.
Have a large cast-iron skillet with the remaining 2 tablespoons oil or fat heating on a burner. Heat until skillet and oil are very hot, but do not allow the fat to get hot enough to smoke. Leaving heat on under skillet, pour batter into sizzling hot skillet. This insures a nice, crispy crust and a tender middle.
Allow batter to cook for about 30 seconds to 1 minute or until bubbles around edges of batter begin to look a bit dry. Instantly remove skillet from burner and turn immediately into preheated oven to bake until top is a deep golden brown (about 20 to 25 minutes). Remove skillet from oven, loosen edges and bottom of cornbread (if skillet has been properly seasoned, this step should be an easy one) and turn bread onto serving plate so that the crisp bottom side is uppermost. It is now ready to cut and serve immediately.
If you make cornbread frequently, reserve one large cast-iron skillet, season it well, and use it exclusively for baking cornbread or homemade biscuits. A well-used, properly cared for cast-iron skillet will eventually become so seasoned that you will seldom have any trouble with the cornbread crust sticking to the bottom of the skillet.
Most old-timey country folks did not cut their cornbread. They took it to the table whole and allowed each person to use his fingers and break off his own individual-sized portion. The above bread is delicious crumbled warm into a glass of cold milk and eaten with a spoon.
My family enjoyed many a supper of hot cornbread and cold milk when I was a child. This cornbread is also a basic ingredient, paired with crumbled commercial white bread, in old-fashioned cornbread dressing for that Thanksgiving turkey or hen.
Old-Fashioned Cornbread Dressing
1 pan baked cornbread, cooled
1 bunch celery, washed, trimmed, chopped
1 large loaf light bread (sandwich white bread)
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
4 to 6 eggs
1 teaspoon powdered sage
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
coarsely chopped meat of 1 boiled chicken or fryer chicken
1 to 2 large onions, chopped
chicken or turkey stock and pan drippings in which the chicken or turkey was cooked, or 2 to 3 cans commercial chicken stock
With hands, crumble cornbread and light bread together. Add seasonings. Stir in eggs, chicken meat, onions, celery, and moisten with the chicken stock or drippings. Mixture will be soupy. If it is dry, add more chicken stock. Turn mixture into large, well-greased sheet cake pan or roasting pan. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for about one hour to one and a half hours or until top of dressing is golden brown. If making giblet gravy, 1/2 to 3/4 cup of the dressing may be removed to stir into the giblet gravy to thicken it either before or after cooking, or at any time during the baking process.
We start with cubed dried bread in a large mixing bowl.
We fry up a tube of pork sausage meat, drain the excess fat.
Mix with chopped onion & poultry spice (sage, thyme, etc.).
Mix together, moisten with a little white wine, perhaps.
Stuff your bird from both ends, skewer the kneck skin under.
Tie the drumsticks & lace up the back end. Then roast.
Be sure to test stuffing with thermometer for safety.
* - you probably will NEVER please her if she's "complaining" about your stuffing.
* - Ask HER to bring the stuffing it may possibly make her feel better.
* - After the Holidays, ask if she can teach you to make stuffing (of course when she's done, you can always go back to the way you like it, but again, it will probably make her feel better).
These are all suggestions just to make peace at home for the Holidays! Whew! I know.
This is what I make and my family loves it.
I make a semi homemade version:
1 box of Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix
8 oz mushrooms slices
1 large red onion diced
1 stick of butter
Italian seasoning
Salt
Pepper
I package, fresh hamburger buns torn into pieces
Fry the mushrooms and onions in the butter then in the same pan fix the box stuffing mix according to package directions. I then add salt, pepper, Italian seasoning and pieces of the hamburger buns to taste. The hamburger buns will soak up excess moisture form the mushrooms and butter and the added seasoning just changes the box mix taste. It is fast and simple and yet it tastes like you spent a lot of time on it. This has even replaced my mothers recipe.
Good Luck! Happy Thanksgiving!
BEST EVER STUFFING
INGREDIENTS
9 cups white bread cubes
3 cups chopped celery
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup melted shortening
2 onion, chopped
3 teaspoons paprika
3 teaspoons salt
3 teaspoons poultry seasoning
2 eggs
DIRECTIONS
Saute; onions in melted shortening.
Mix together bread cubes, celery, baking powder, sauteed onions, paprika, salt, poultry seasoning, and slightly beaten eggs. Mixture will be dry.
Pack lightly into uncooked turkey. Roast turkey as directed.