The Great Dressing/Stuffing Controversy

MaryMumsy

the original blond bombshell
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 18, 2008
Messages
3,396
Reaction score
829
Location
Scottsdale, Arizona
Nah, not the 'what do you call it?' controversy. The 'what do you put in it?' controversy.

Ours starts with Mrs. Cubbison's Seasoned Stuffing Mix. Add chopped onions and celery, chicken stock, and some additional poultry seasoning. Baked in pyrex pans cause the turkeys got cooked yesterday.

How do you make yours?

MM
 

mscelina

Teh doommobile, drivin' rite by you
Requiescat In Pace
Registered
Joined
Jan 18, 2007
Messages
20,006
Reaction score
5,352
Location
Going shopping with Soccer Mom and Bubastes for fu
fresh cornbread, day old bread--crumble into large bowl. Add sauteed onions and celery, along with carrot shavings. MUST. HAVE. SAGE. Add salt, pepper Add two eggs and the drippings from the turkey pan. Add stock until the mixture is moist.

Then bake in a buttered pan.
 

smoothseas

Life sucks... Then ya die...
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 10, 2008
Messages
3,250
Reaction score
1,079
Location
yawn... in da land of the terminally bored.
Bake some southern-style cornbread, crumble it up. Sauté some onions and celery in butter. Pour over cornbread, add about 1 cup of chicken stock and two-beaten eggs, along with a tablespoon or two of sage, salt, pepper, mix well. Stuff Bird.

Stuffin’ is cooked inside the bird. Dressing doesn’t have to be.

Yummy! We all love dressing made with cornbread.
 

mscelina

Teh doommobile, drivin' rite by you
Requiescat In Pace
Registered
Joined
Jan 18, 2007
Messages
20,006
Reaction score
5,352
Location
Going shopping with Soccer Mom and Bubastes for fu
I actually stuff the turkey with apples, onions, bacon, garlic cloves and a stick of butter. Interestingly enough, you'd be surprised at how good that stuffing turns out. Keeps the bird tender and juicy and makes for a good and healthy snack for the rest of the day.
 

Jersey Chick

Up all night to get Loki
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 9, 2007
Messages
12,320
Reaction score
4,278
Location
in the state of carefully controlled chaos
Website
www.kimberlynee.com
2 lbs of onions

8 bags of hamburger buns

a tube of sausage

at least 1 stick of margerine

about 3 boxes of poultry seasoning

Broken down, it actually looks quite disgusting, doesn't it? But it is sooooooo yummy! And it's an old recipe - my grandmother's. Quite possibly my great-grandmother's.

Not at all healthy, but yummy and since I only eat it on Thanksgiving, I'm good... :D
 

SPMiller

Prodigiously Hanged
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 30, 2008
Messages
11,525
Reaction score
1,988
Age
41
Location
Dallas
Website
seanpatrickmiller.com
I make both dressing (very much like Celina's and smoothseas' recipes, but baked separately) and stuffing (which actually goes in the bird). The stuffing is nothing more complicated than sausage, onions, celery, and wheat bread.
 

Plot Device

A woman said to write like a man.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 14, 2007
Messages
11,973
Reaction score
1,866
Location
Next to the dirigible docking station
Website
sandwichboardroom.blogspot.com
StoveTop.jpg
 

blacbird

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Messages
36,987
Reaction score
6,158
Location
The right earlobe of North America
Mushroom, especially inexpensive criminis or, for fancier and more expensive, morels, chopped up, go excellently in any stuffing.

As an aside, we tried a simple trick I learned from one of the TV chefs a year or two ago, with the turkey. Cut up an orange or two and a lemon, and stuff them inside the turkey for baking. At the end, you don't eat this, just discard it. But it provides a very nice light aromatic overtone, and good moisture to the turkey. Worked wonderfully.

caw

caw
 

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 26, 2005
Messages
23,708
Reaction score
10,657
Location
In a world of my own making
Website
shadowferret.wordpress.com
Ours starts with Mrs. Cubbison's Seasoned Stuffing Mix. Add chopped onions and celery, chicken stock, and some additional poultry seasoning. Baked in pyrex pans cause the turkeys got cooked yesterday.

How do you make yours?
Pretty much how we do it, but if it isn't baked IN the bird, I don't want it.

At all.
 

blacbird

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Messages
36,987
Reaction score
6,158
Location
The right earlobe of North America
Pretty much how we do it, but if it isn't baked IN the bird, I don't want it.

At all.

A lot of chefs recommend against baking stuffing in the bird, for health reasons. And the stove-top or pyrex baking mixes have improved a lot in recent years, in my observation. Adding fresh finely chopped vegs such as carrots, celery, scallions, bok choi, swiss chard, kale and mushrooms gives any of them a big boost, too. Another variant I've done that works well is to add pine nuts.

caw
 

Plot Device

A woman said to write like a man.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 14, 2007
Messages
11,973
Reaction score
1,866
Location
Next to the dirigible docking station
Website
sandwichboardroom.blogspot.com
This year I made that quick and easy box of good old Stove Top five minutes before dinner.

But earlier that morning when I was preparing the bird, I spontaneously --on a total whim-- shoved a bunch of uncut veggies (carrots, mushrooms, a few hand-snapped cellery stalks and small onions) into its top and bottom cavities at the last minute. It was a super quick and admittedly lazy thing I did (it took all of two minutes), but it turned out great. The turkey was a lot more moist, and when I spooned those veggies out after dinner was done, they were just fabulous.

*hopes Haggis will now return my Cooking Forum visa again*
 

MaryMumsy

the original blond bombshell
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 18, 2008
Messages
3,396
Reaction score
829
Location
Scottsdale, Arizona
*hopes Haggis will now return my Cooking Forum visa again*

If he doesn't, I'll give you a new one. I've used Stove Top too. Just not for Thanksgiving. I don't have a free burner to use, and it doesn't make enough.

MM
 

Elaine Margarett

High and Dry
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 24, 2007
Messages
1,718
Reaction score
282
Location
chasing windmills
Cheapeake Oyster Stuffing

One (or two) bags of potato bread crutons. 1 and a half cups each celery and onions sauted in 6-8 TBS butter. 1 teaspoon each dried sage, thyme and salt. Mix together in large bowl. Add 1 pint fresh shucked oysters, rinsed and drained well, and chopped. Place in large casserole or baking pan. Cover with alum. foil and bake 30 minutes at around 350. Last five minutes loosen the foil to allow the top to brown.

That's it. Best dressing/stuffing I've ever had. Very moist and sweet/savory.
 
Last edited:

Chumplet

This hat is getting too hot
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 18, 2006
Messages
3,348
Reaction score
854
Age
64
Location
Ontario, Canader
Website
www.chumpletwrites.blogspot.com
I wonder how smoked oysters would taste. Probably too expensive.
I like all the variety here. My stuffing is never the same twice. The old standbys like bread, sage, celery, mushrooms and onions are always in my stuffing, but sometimes I add walnuts, sausage, chestnuts, apples or whatever's hanging around the kitchen. Within reason, of course.
 

MaryMumsy

the original blond bombshell
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 18, 2008
Messages
3,396
Reaction score
829
Location
Scottsdale, Arizona
Thanks for sharing

Interesting to see all the variations. The strangest stuffing I ever had was at my former sister-in-law's house. I think most of it was pretty normal, but they put sliced hard-boiled eggs in the stuffing. And chopped hard-boiled eggs in the gravy. I took a spoonful of each to be polite.:D

MM