Turkey stuffing is one of those foods that commands great loyalty in some families, who make it holiday after holiday, year after year, sometimes generation after generation. You can try a new salad or change up dessert, but unless you want complaints, don’t mess with the stuffing.
“I think it’s a pretty strong tradition,” says Emily Richards of Guelph, Ont., home economist, cookbook author and former Food Network host. “For Thanksgiving dinners and any kind of holiday dinners, (most families) stick to the tried and true. In my family, I make a mushroom stuffing and if that stuffing isn’t present, it’s not Thanksgiving.”
The history of stuffing is not well documented, but Richards believes it goes back to Roman times.
“In European countries it’s referred to as farce, as in forced meat, like when anything — nuts or seeds or bread — was used to stuff meat,” she says. At some point, the upper crust decided they didn’t like scooping stuffing from the inside of the bird and began cooking it in a separate dish.
This is the only difference between “stuffing” and “dressing.” The former is cooked inside the bird and the latter outside, although some families still use the terms interchangeably.
“I do both — stuff the bird and make a separate casserole,” Richards says.
In her husband’s Scottish family, the traditional dressing was large-flake oatmeal, sauteed onions and salt and pepper cooked in some of the turkey drippings.
Jennifer Hunter’s family wouldn’t dream of cooking a turkey without traditional Irish dressing, made with potatoes. The recipe goes back at least as far as her great-great-grandmother and her Irish grandparents brought it to Ontario in the 1950s.
Richards says there’s no practical purpose for stuffing other than the taste. In fact, stuffing complicates things because “the bird takes a little bit longer (to cook) when the cavity is full.”
“But if you’re cooking your turkey properly, you’ll always end up with a moist turkey, whether it’s stuffed or unstuffed.”
Pear and Chestnut Stuffing
50 ml (1/4 cup) butter
4 pears, cored and chopped
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
45 ml (3 tbsp) chopped fresh sage or 15 ml (1 tbsp) dried sage leaves
45 ml (3 tbsp) chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 bag (300 g) roasted peeled chestnuts, chopped, or 250 ml (1 cup) chopped roasted chestnuts
2 l (8 cups) cubed sourdough or potato bread
1 ml (1/4 tsp) salt
In a large non-stick skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat and cook pears, onion, garlic, carrots, celery, sage and parsley for about 25 minutes or until softened and starting to become golden. Add chestnuts and stir to combine. Add bread and salt and toss to combine. (If your pears are not as juicy, you may need to add some turkey stock to moisten.) Scrape mixture into large baking dish, cover and bake in a 160 C (325 F) oven for 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake for about 15 minutes longer or until crisp on top and golden.
Notes: To stuff a turkey, you will need 1.75 l (7 cups) of stuffing for a 9-kg (20-lb) turkey; place remaining stuffing in a small casserole to bake alongside. Cook casserole with turkey for about 30 minutes or until hot and crisp on top.
Stuffing option: For a drier-textured stuffing, toast bread cubes before tossing. Place on baking sheet and toast in a 200 C (400 F) oven for about 10 minutes or until crisp. Let cool before tossing with vegetable mixture.
12 to 16 servings.
Source: Emily Richards.
Classic Turkey Sausage Stuffing
This stuffing gives you a double shot of turkey with low-fat turkey sausage.
50 ml (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
500 ml (2 cups) yellow onion, quartered or finely diced
500 ml (2 cups) carrots, peeled and finely diced
500 ml (2 cups) celery, finely diced
500 g (1 lb) loose turkey sausage meat or turkey sausages, casing removed
15 ml (1 tbsp) dried thyme
10 ml (2 tsp) pepper
10 ml (2 tsp) salt, divided
30 ml (2 tbsp) ground sage, divided
1 loaf fresh egg bread (crust on), cut into cubes or ground into crumbs
In a large stock pot, melt butter and saute onion, carrots and celery until soft. Add sausage meat, gently breaking it up into small pieces. Add thyme, pepper, and half of each of the salt and sage and combine. Cover and cook on medium-low heat for 10 minutes.
In a large mixing bowl, place bread. Pour vegetable and sausage mixture over and add remaining salt and sage. Mix until combined and set aside to cool before stuffing turkey.
To bake separately from the turkey, place in a lightly greased 23-by-30-cm (9-by-13-inch) casserole dish, cover and bake in a 180 C (350 F) oven for 25 minutes. Uncover and bake for 10 minutes more or until crisp on top. If roasting in the turkey, place stuffing loosely in turkey’s cavities just before turkey is placed in a preheated oven. When roasting, any stuffing placed in the cavity of the turkey should reach an internal temperature of at least 74 C (165 F). This recipe will make enough dressing to stuff an 11.3-kg (25-lb) turkey.
Makes 10 to 12 servings.
Source: Turkey Farmers of Canada.
Traditional Irish Dressing
Like many family recipes, this potato dressing is “more of an art than a science,” says Jennifer Hunter. But she says the taste is worth it. And unlike most dressings, it should be made the night before.
4.5 kg (10 lb) potatoes
125 to 150 g (1/4 to 1/3 lb) butter, cut into small pieces
2 medium onions, finely chopped
1.5 l (6 cups) flour (or a little more)
Salt, to taste
Peel and boil potatoes until soft. Drain. While potatoes are still hot, rice them onto a large work surface (like where you would knead bread). Mix in butter and let it to melt. Add onions.
Add 250 to 500 ml (1 to 2 cups) of the flour and start kneading it into the potatoes. Work with a light hand until all 1.5 l (6 cups) or more of flour are added. Add salt to taste. Work it to create a dough. You know you have the right amounts of everything when it tastes good and it sticks to the roof of your mouth. Too little flour and it is soupy; too much and it is too dry and heavy. Moist potatoes will require a little more flour.
Transfer to a foil-lined 23-by-30-cm (9-by-13-inch) baking dish, cover and refrigerate overnight.
Cover loosely with foil and bake in a 180 C (350 F) oven for about 2 hours. Check and stir after 1 1/2 hours. The cooking time can vary and you know when it is done by the evenness of the colour and the texture. The volume of the dressing doesn’t change significantly, but when you get it just right, it is fluffy (airy) and light.
Source: Jennifer Hunter (family recipe).