I cooked my first Thanksgiving dinner 20 years ago. More than a dozen family members converged on our two-bedroom apartment with a narrow galley kitchen. I prepared a mushroom stuffing and, since that time, have only deviated once from the recipe.
Thanksgiving is three weeks from today. It’s never too soon to start making lists and inviting guests. Many dishes can be made ahead and frozen. Stuffing for our native bird is a good do-ahead dish.
I always use a packaged herb-crushed stuffing mix and doctor it up with saut�ed onions and mushrooms. The bread is a mix of white and wheat. You also can use the packaged cornbread stuffing in any recipe. Some cooks prefer the cubed variety of stuffing mix, while others like to make stuffing with bread. High-quality French or Italian bread or challah often forms the basis for stuffing. Down South, where stuffing is known as dressing, cornbread is used. A lot of Southerners bake the dressing in a casserole rather than stuffing the bird. Either way, it’s delicious.
Making stuffing is like making soup. Recipes are freeform, so let your taste buds be your guide. Contrasting tastes and textures is important. Many ingredients turn up in all sorts of stuffing recipes. Fruits such as prunes, raisins, dried apricots or dried cherries are excellent choices. Chestnuts are often combined with sausages. You can roast your own chestnuts, but I find the vacuum-packed variety much easier to handle. Just make sure you buy whole jarred chestnuts with no sugar added.
Here are stuffing recipes for the Thanksgiving turkey. You can either stuff the bird or bake the stuffing in a greased casserole.
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Mushroom Stuffing
Ingredients:
1 stick sweet butter
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1-1/2 pounds mixed mushrooms of your choice such as shiitake, cremini and white button, wiped clean and sliced
1 large onion, diced
1 (16-ounce) bag crushed herb stuffing mix
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 (15-ounce) can chicken or vegetable stock
Directions:
In a large saut� pan, melt the butter with the oil. Add the mushrooms and onions and saut� over medium-high heat until the mushrooms give up their liquid, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
Pour the stuffing mix into a large mixing bowl. Add the saut�ed mushrooms and onions. Season with kosher salt and pepper, to taste. Add the chicken stock and blend well. The stuffing should be nice and moist. If it appears a bit dry, add some warm water and blend well.
This recipe yields enough stuffing for a 15-pound turkey with some leftovers that can be placed in a greased casserole and either microwaved right before dinner is served or baked in a 350-degree oven for about 20 minutes or until hot.
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Chestnut, Prune and Sausage Stuffing
Ingredients:
1 pound pitted prunes, each prune sliced in half
1 onion, diced
2 ribs of celery, diced
4 tablespoons sweet butter
1 pound sweet Italian sausage, cut into small chunks
1 (15-ounce) can chicken or vegetable stock
1 pound mushrooms, wiped clean and sliced (any variety)
1(16-ounce) jar whole chestnuts, slice each chestnut in half
1 (16-ounce) bag herb-crushed stuffing mix
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Directions:
Place the prunes in a large bowl. In a large saut� pan, saut� the onions and celery in butter over medium heat until the onions are translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the onions and celery to the bowl. In the same saut� pan, add the sausage and cook over medium heat until the sausage has lost its pink color. Drain the sausage pieces and add them to the bowl.
Pour off the fat from the saut� pan. Deglaze the pan with the chicken or vegetable stock. Add the liquid to the bowl. Add remaining ingredients and blend well. If the stuffing appears a bit dry, add some warm water.
This recipe yields enough stuffing for a 15-pound turkey. Any leftover stuffing can be placed in a greased casserole and either microwaved or heated in a 350-degree oven.
Note from Phyllis: Any fruit would work nicely in this recipe. Or you can use a mixture such as dried apricots, golden raisins and prunes.
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Sauerkraut Stuffing
From Food for Friends by Barbara Kafka
Ingredients:
1 pound sliced bacon
4 medium onions, peeled and thinly sliced
1 to 1-1/4 pounds sour rye bread, with seeds and crusts, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
Freshly ground black pepper
2 pounds fresh sauerkraut, rinsed and drained
Kosher salt, to taste
1/2 cup chicken stock
Directions:
Separate the bacon slices. In a heavy frying pan, saut� them about six minutes over medium heat. The bacon should be just crisp but not dry. Drain the bacon on paper towels. Crumble coarsely.
Pour all but 3 tablespoons of the fat from the bacon pan. Reserve the extra fat if you want to baste the turkey with it. Add the onions to the pan and saut� them over medium heat, stirring frequently, about 10 minutes, until they are wilted and golden brown.
In a large bowl, toss the bread, bacon, onions, caraway seeds and 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper until mixed. Add the sauerkraut, a handful at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add salt to taste carefully; the bacon and sauerkraut give you plenty of salt. Moisten the mixture with about 1/2 cup chicken stock.
This recipe yields enough stuffing for a 15-pound turkey. Any leftover stuffing can be placed in a greased casserole and microwaved until heated through.
Note from Phyllis: When I first saw this recipe, I instantly thought it was Pennsylvania Dutch in origin. The sauerkraut and caraway seeds, staples in the Pennsylvania Dutch and German diet, gave it away. Kafka wrote that she made up this recipe but the late James Beard, an authority on American food, told her that folks in Maryland enjoy turkey with sauerkraut.
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Bread and Apple Dressing
From Craig Claiborne’s Southern Cooking
Ingredients:
8 cups coarsely blended or crumbled fresh breadcrumbs
2 cups dark raisins
4 cups peeled, cored and seeded apples
1/3 cup finely chopped parsley
1/2 teaspoon finely minced garlic
1 teaspoon ground mace
1 teaspoon dried ground or rubbed sage
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 pound butter, melted
Salt to taste, if desired
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients and blend well. Butter the inside of a baking dish measuring about 13-by-9-by-2 inches. Pour the dressing into the dish and smooth over the top. Place in the oven and bake one hour.
Serves 12.
Note from Phyllis: Granny Smith apples work well in this recipe. Since this is a Southern dressing — the late Craig Claiborne was born in Sunflower, Miss., and became a restaurant critic and food writer for The New York Times — some chopped pecans could be added to the recipe.
