On "Turkey Day USA", more appropriately, Thanksgiving Day, some purists, (my wife), will serve the traditional bird.

Do you have favorite recipes for stuffing/dressing?

As these threads seem to go wherever they choose, I'll through it wide open, and ask about the entire feast.

Traditional sage stuffing.

In the bird, and stuffed in the neck area too, right under the flap of skin up there.

Bread, freshly ground sage, black pepper, celery salt, finely minced onion, butter, reduced turkey stock.

I rub it with melted butter and sprinkle with pepper.

Traditional like my Maternal Grandmother prepared her turkeys for the holidays.

Roast Turkey
Crispy roasted potatoes
Stuffing
Carrot and rutabagas (we Canadians call it turnip) mash
Green beans
Gravy
Cranberry Sauce
Fluff Salad
Soft rolls
Assorted Pickles (I love pickled beets)
Assorted desserts

For dessert I prefer a piece of plain bread on a plate with gravy poured over it, got that from my Grandma Rosanna

Our traditional stuffing which I am sure originated with my maternal grandmother consisted of Bread, Bell's Poultry Seasoning, salt & pepper, finely chopped celery and onion, butter and reduced turkey stock made from the neck, heart, gizzard etc.. We stuffed it in the main body cavity, under the neck flap and put an equivalent quantity in a large Pyrex baking dish that went into the oven with the bird. The extra dish made sure there was plenty for all that wanted stuffing plus some to have with the left-overs. With the left-overs I always ate the stuffing cold.

^^^^^^
Sounds very familiar.

Cornbread dressing outside the bird because we don't do a whole bird. Just to much wasted and we're off to Charleston for the week.

My Mother makes the dressing but it essentially involves left over homemade cornbread, chicken broth, shredded chicken and sauteed celery/onions. BUT most important a TON of BUTTER!! Assemble all the above ingredients with the obvious herbs and bake for about 30 minutes. Smother with more BUTTER and gravy!!

In addition:

Giant honey brined turkey breasts
Smoked ham--shank
Grilled/smoked duck breast
Mashed potatoes
Home grown green beans
Home grown creamed corn
Mac & cheese
Baked brussel sprouts
Squash casserole
Black eyed peas
Collard greens
Yeast rolls
Pecan and pumpkin pies--Of course!
Pumpkin roll
Various cranberry relishes, pickles and chow chow

Thanks!!

Lynn what is fluff salad please?? Guessing it involves fruit, jell-o and marshmallows?

Sausage & Herb Stuffing

2 pound sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
1 pound chicken gizzards/hearts (chopped into ¼ inch cubes)
1 cup butter (2 stick)
3 cups onion, chopped (into ¼ inch cubes)
2 cups celery, chopped (into ¼ inch cubes)
1 cup shallots, chopped (into ¼ inch cubes)
2 loaves french bread
2 cups chicken stock, plus extra as needed
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoon fresh sage, chopped
4 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
2 teaspoons fennel seeds, chopped fine
2 teaspoons dried tarragon, crumbled
2 tablespoons fresh thyme, chopped

1. Add a little olive oil to a large skillet under medium heat. Saute sausage, gizzards, hearts until cooked through, crumbling sausage into bite-size pieces as you go, about 10 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
3. Transfer sausage, gizzards, hearts with a slotted spoon to a large bowl. Discard sausage fat in pan. Add butter, onions, and celery to skillet and saute until tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Add to sausage, along with herbs and croutons, mix to combine.
4. Add chicken stock, if necessary. You’re looking for a consistency that is very moist, but not soupy. Transfer stuffing to a baking dish and cover with foil. Bake for 1 hour. Uncover and bake for another 20 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.
You can check the stuffing half way through the bake to make sure there is enough liquid. If it's too dry, add some extra stock, if it's too moist, cook it a bit longer with the foil removed.

This recipe is killer. You can't stop eating it. It's that good. I've made it in both a big Corningware dish and in my #14 Griswold cast iron skillet.

The friend I got the recipe from also has a big Griswold that gets dedicated to this recipe every Thanksgiving.

Yes, something like that.

We call it fluff salad, but that is not the true name. This stuff is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo addictive, and ends up at almost every family dinner or local church dinner, there is RARELY ever leftovers. We eat it as a side or as a dessert, either way it is very, very, very, good ! For the fruit portion of the salad I prefer canned mandarin orange sections.

Watergate/Fluff Salad

I double or triple it according to the number of guests.

1 can (20 oz.) crushed pineapple in juice, undrained
1 pkg. (3.4 oz.) JELL-O Pistachio Flavor Instant Pudding
1 cup JET-PUFFED Miniature Marshmallows
1/2 cup chopped PLANTERS Pecans
1-1/2 cups thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping

Combine first 4 ingredients in large bowl.
Gently fold in COOL WHIP.
Refrigerate 1 hour.

So far no one has suggested adulterating the stuffing with oysters - good.

+1 on the oyster dressing, it was standard fare with the turkey at deer camp. My wife's family makes it sometimes but not every Thanksgiving I sure miss it.

Cornbread, plain croutons, onions, celery, butter, stock, roasted giblet bits, Italian or poultry seasonings. Buttered dish and bake.

That said, looks like I'm having prime rib and Yorkshire pudding at mom's.

John, sometimes I do believe you march to the beat of a different chef.

I'll be so happy to take any oy$$$$$$ters you don't want.

I'd like to try an oyster stuffed beef roast, but just don't see the appeal for stuffing.

I'm not so much talking dressing, but I do like oysters scalloped, or in soup.

Stuffing needs raisins And a apple ...it ADDS to the dish...and is not weird...

this is close ...I cook up and add the giblets and use JD sage ...add the raisins and a finely chopped apple =good eats 😇

Richard,

So far, it seems like I'm dining @ Miss Lynn's !



P.S. Although, I'd likely forgo the "fluff".

Richard - I readily admit to marching to the beat of a different
(fill in the blank)! I must point out that I, too, like oysters, just see no place for them in stuffing/dressing. Best, John

I've did the oyster thing and the cherry thing ...to my dressing in the past ....AND that's where it belongs IMO ! Lol!

Used to have an in-law whose nose was always elevated skyward, talk about PIA. So, one Christmas I learned she asked whether 'he's making that same dressing again'. Well, I took that as an opportunity to make oyster cornbread dressing for the bird.

You should have seen her face when she got a whiff of that dressing! LOL That's the kind of person I am...

So I'm not the only one? You forgot the walnuts

Last week we had a pre-Thanksgiving potluck at work and I made stuffing. Just prior to tossing the goodies into the bread cubes and stock.



I was lazy so used store bought bag of bread cubes
2 stalks celery
1 large onion
1/2 stick butter
2 c chicken stock
2 small granny smiths
1 handful raisins
1 handful chopped walnuts
if adding sausage use an andouille or kielbasa, the breakfast sausage I used was a mistake.
As I hadn't cooked a bird, no giblets. When cooking a bird I'll dice the giblets and brown them with the onion and celery.

Thanksgiving stuffing will be pretty much the above with the addition of some shrooms. I bake the stuffing in a casserole dish. Out of the bird it's just too mushy and fatty. I do dice up onion, celery, carrots, taters and the cloves from a bulb of garlic for stuffing the bird.

Stuffing is my favorite Thanksgiving dish and to me the bird is mainly a vehicle to make gravy to pour over the stuffing

Oops, missed what will grace the table.

Turkey
Stuffing
Gravy
Mashed potatoes
Green beans
Cranberries
Jello
Pumpkin Pie

I don't do a green bean casserole, I've found sauteing them in butter with garlic and walnuts and dash of salt and seasonings does the trick.

You guys that are using walnuts in the stuffing - do you include some of the tooth-cracking bits of shell along in the stuffing, or do you save them all for the fruitcake?

Funny you mention the bits of shell. My dearly departed mom would hand sort the walnuts to pick out the bits of shell before chipping them. And my dearly departed dad would always find the bit of shell she missed.

Funny the neat little details we remember about good times past.

When did stuffing the main body cavity fall out of favour and why?

Growing up, turkey (and chicken) was always stuffed in both cavities, and the stuffing of choice was Sage and Onion Paxo!

I have had lots of fancy homemade stuffings since, but for me, with a bit of a heathen, nothing beats Paxo made with stock from the bird and a little added butter...

I have been just eyeballing this thread until Pete made me do a search for Paxo, as I had never heard of it. I like cornbread dressing with sage, but my wife does not like sage in her "stuffing", so guess which I get most of the time. It is good, but no sage. Miss Lynn's fluff sounds like what my late Mother called Ambrosia. I do like cold stuffing sandwiches, with cranberry sauce. A Thanksgiving meal without cranberry sauce should be illegal. miles

Miles,

Paxo is a very popular off-the-shelf brand leader over here..

Growing up, it was a stable if a roast bird or roast porkwas being cooked and I think thats how I become "set" on its taste..

We don't do Thanksgiving so we have our Turkey on Christmas Day..

A traditional Christmas Dinner would probably be

Roast Turkey with gravy made from the juices/gibblets ect.
Pigs in Blankets
Mashed or Boiled potatoes
Roast potatoes
Roast Parsnips
Sprouts
Carrots
Possibly another veg
Cranberry sauce and/or bread suace

Pete sounds pretty much like what we have both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Except no parsnips, in fact I have never had one. We do tend to use a lot of sweet potatoes at these times, and pecan pies. As a kid pecan pie was called Karo nut pie. Sweet potato pie, and pumpkin pie are staples on both occasions, with sweet potato pie my all time favorite. miles

Miles,

If you like sweet potatoes, you would love parsnips..

Peel and parboil for just a couple of minutes, (they go soft very easy) and then roast like doing roast potatoes...

They probably take a 10 minutes or so less than roast potatoes but that depends where in the oven they are ect..

Fat for roasting can be one of the various cooking oils, but usually at Chrismas, duck fat is used...not sure if its just in the mind, but it certainly seems to make the roasters tastier..

You guys have bread sauce over there? Not a favourite of mine, but lots of folks like it..

Regards,

Peter

I will look for and try some Parsnips. I like turnips but have never tried a rutabaga. They look like big turnips to me. miles

The dressing I'll be eating tomorrow is Cajun style rice dressing.

Had to google "Rutabaga" to see what it was! lol

We know it as Swede, and while I like a little in stews, I am not really a huge fan of it..

Dressing
3 packages of cornbread mix regular not the sweet variety
1 pan biscuits
2 medium onions
Chopped celery ~ whole package
6-7 boiled eggs
Add sage and poultry seasoning to taste ~2 Tbs of each
Use turkey or chicken broth for moisture
Cook in pan until done

Add 1-2 slices of toast if dressing is too grainy

I know my mom heard or read of some scare that if you stuff a bird there is a risk of Salmonella poisoning in the stuffing so that's why my folks stopped stuffing the bird. Personally I prefer the taste of the stuffing out of the bird, but still stuff it as previously mentioned.

The other reason is, stuffing the turkey did not allow for enough for everybody.

in a pan, separate from the turkey. the turkey will cook faster that way, because of the heat circulation inside the birdy.

that too

Used this recipe (added some mushrooms to the vegetable saute) and it was a hit! Thanks!

that does look like a great recipe

No problem, btb. Mushrooms sound like a nice addition.

Looks like a great recipe!

I do one very similar. Brown up the chopped turkey heart and liver with a pound of sage sausage. Set aside.

Chopped onion, celery, and leeks sauteed in the pan. Sage, thyme and parsley at the end.

Dried french loaf cut up, add meat, veg, couple eggs, about a cup of chopped pistachios, few cups of good stock or broth with a half cup of butter melted and whisked in. Mix and pack lightly into buttered pan

Bake for about 30, brush top with butter and finish off until top is crisp.