So if you don't use Stove Top, how DO you make stuffing?

[Renthead Mommy]

I love stuffing out of the bird.  And we eat it during the year with both chicken and pork.  Always Stove Top.   There are usually only three of us so Stove Top works great, especially since I think only two of us will eat it. 

 

I've had had fancy stuffings with oysters, and Italain ones with sausage.  They were fine.  We don't like cornbread stuff which is one of the reasons we stopped ordering Thanksgiving dinners, they usually come with cornbread stuffing so we ended up making Stove Top anyway. 

 

Years ago I once made it with bag of bread cubes.  I don't remember it being all that exciting or better than Stove Top. 

 

So if you make stuffing, how do you make it to make it better than Stove Top? 

[Zoo Keeper]

I've used this recipe for years....making it slightly more moist than suggested helps it be a little more "Stove Top" ish--but better and fresher tasting.  Homemade bread is nice, but not necessary. 

 

CLASSIC BREAD STUFFING WITH SAGE AND THYME

 

 

by Cook's Illustrated

Drying the bread before making the stuffing is crucial for texture and flavor. If you plan ahead, you can simply leave the bread cubes out on the counter for a few days to become stale. Otherwise, spread them out on baking sheets and dry in a 300-degree oven for 30 to 60 minutes. Let the bread cool before using in the stuffing.
   You can substitute three 14-ounce bags of plain dried bread cubes for the homemade dried bread cubes, but you'll need to increase the amount of chicken broth to 7 cups. This recipe can easily be halved and baked in a 13 by 9-inch baking dish for a smaller crowd.
Serves 16


Ingredients
• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter plus extra for the dish
• 4 celery ribs, chopped fine
• 2 medium onions, minced
• 1/2 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
• 3 tablespoons minced fresh sage leaves OR 2 teaspoons dried
• 3 tablespoons minced fresh thyme leaves OR 2 teaspoons dried
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh marjoram leaves OR 1 teaspoon dried
• 3 pounds high-quality white sandwich bread, cut into 1/2-inch cubes and dried (see note)
• 5 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons ground black pepper


Directions
1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 400 degrees. Melt the butter in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the celery and onions and cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Stir in the parsley, sage, thyme, and marjoram and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Transfer to a very large bowl.

2. Add the dried, cooled bread, broth, eggs, salt, and pepper to the vegetables and toss to combine.Turn the mixture into a buttered 15 by 10-inch baking dish.

3. Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and continue to bake until golden, about 30 minutes longer. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Variations:
BREAD STUFFING WITH SAUSAGE, PECANS, AND APRICOTS
Follow the recipe for Classic Bread Stuffing with Sage and Thyme. Before cooking the vegetables in step 1, cook 1 1/2 pounds bulk sausage in a large skillet over medium heat, breaking it up into smaller pieces with a wooden spoon, until lightly browned, 5 to 10 minutes. If desired, substitute the rendered sausage fat for an equal amount of butter in step 1. Add the cooked and crumbled sausage, 3 cups chopped pecans, toasted, and 2 cups dried apricots, sliced thin, to the bread mixture with the vegetables in step 2.


BREAD STUFFING WITH BACON AND APPLES
Follow the recipe for Classic Bread Stuffing with Sage and Thyme. Before cooking the vegetables in step 1, cook 1 1/2 pounds bacon, chopped fine, in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat until crisp and brown, about 12 minutes. Transfer the bacon with a slotted spoon to a paper towel-lined plate. If desired, substitute the bacon fat for an equal amount of butter in step 1. Add 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about 2 cups), to the skillet with the celery and onions. Stir the crisp bacon into the bread cubes with the vegetables in step 2.

Edited November 22, 2017 by Zoo Keeper

[EMS83]

I can't help you if you don't like cornbread.  I make a 9x13 pan of cornbread in order to make a big casserole dish of stuffing.  I'll dig up the links in a bit, but the stuffing proper involves eggs, celery, onions, mushrooms, salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, and sometimes cooked turkey bits (or at least the stock from said process).

 

 

ETA: I'm a recipe googler, and the I may or may not tweak what I find.

 

Homesteader Cornbread

 

Grandma's Cornbread Dressing

 

I actually make two batches of the cornbread so we can have hunks of it along with our dressing and other fixings.  But we love cornbread, lol.  The next time I make it will be the first time using cane sugar and avocado oil instead of white and vegetable, so I wonder if it will be any different.

 

So the dressing recipe is a guide; I use a whole pan of cornbread instead of the box it recommends.  

I use about 1 C celery, about 4 oz. diced mushrooms, and 2-3 diced hard-boiled eggs, poultry seasoning instead of just sage, and I start with the 2 C. of chicken broth, but make 4 just in case I need to add.  That part is just sort of playing with it after mixing in the first 2 cups.  Salt and pepper, same thing.  I start with 1/2 tablespoon of salt and a teaspoon of pepper (it's not as much as it sounds because there's so. much. dressing).  It ends up baking for 45 minutes at least.

 

Clear as mud?!  :D

 

And irony: I've only made this for Thanksgiving once.  MIL usually hosts and does all the cooking, but occasionally DH wants a mini Thanksgiving feast in say, May, so that's usually when I pull this stunt.  But last year we were all sick, so we had a 5-person feast at home, which was more or less the same as our mini oddly-timed feasts.

Edited November 22, 2017 by CES2005

[amy g.]

I made a really good GF stuffing this morning.

 

First, I roasted 2 chickens and we had those for dinner last night. Then I picked the rest of the meat off of the bones and saved it for the stuffing.

 

This morning, I heated 1/2 a stick of butter in a cast iron pan and sautéed a large onion and a small bunch of celery.

 

To that, I added salt, pepper, fresh sage and fresh flat leaf parsley.

 

Then I added some cubed GF bread, the leftover chicken and just enough chicken broth to moisten the bread.

 

I put it in a greased pan and topped with the other half of the stick of butter.

 

Tomorrow, I’ll brown it in the oven before we eat, but today, the kids kept sneaking bites, so I expect them to devour it when they get a chance.

[Halftime Hope]

I don't know how to make dressing without the cornbread either.  My MIL used to make bread stuffing; it had the gooeyness of cold oatmeal, but with good stuffing flavor.  No one in my family really cared for it.

 

When MIL passed away, and we had our first Thanksgiving as a nuclear family, I made my grandmother's cornbread dressing, and my kids came back for seconds and thirds.  We've never looked back. (We aren't turkey lovers, so making it at any other time of the year didn't make sense, and I didn't want to hurt MIL's feelings.)

[ktgrok]

I'm plan and simple. I melt 1 stick of butter in a dutch oven or other large pot/pan. Saute a few ribs of celery and one large onion (probably better to dice the onion but my mom hates to bite into onion so we do large slices so she can pick them out). Season with salt and pepper. Pour in a bag of Pepperidge Farm stuffing and toss in the butter. Add however much water the bag calls for (or can use broth). Stuff in the bird. Yum. 

 

We do usually also chop up the giblets and saute them as well, which I love, but I know others don't. 

[Annie G]

I use a little cornbread...

 

Combine a cup of cornmeal mix and an egg and a little milk and then cook in cast iron on the stove top. No need for fancy oven baked cornbread. Then I toast bread...I use with 10 slices. Toast, then break into bite sized pieces.  Crumble cornbread on top.  Saute in half a stick of butter a finely chopped onion and a couple ribs of finely chopped celery. Toss that on top of the bread/cornbread. Add hot chicken or turkey broth until it's 'wet', which is subjective but to me means you could pour it into a baking pan but would still need to spread it with a spatula. Add three beaten eggs, salt and pepper, and spread in a baking pan. I bake at 350 about 30 minutes. I cut it and use a small spatula to get it out of the pan, so it's served in rectangles. 

 

Some people like poultry seasoning added but I don't. 

[Mama Geek]

I've used this recipe for years....making it slightly more moist than suggested helps it be a little more "Stove Top" ish--but better and fresher tasting.  Homemade bread is nice, but not necessary. 

 

CLASSIC BREAD STUFFING WITH SAGE AND THYME

 

 

by Cook's Illustrated

 

Drying the bread before making the stuffing is crucial for texture and flavor. If you plan ahead, you can simply leave the bread cubes out on the counter for a few days to become stale. Otherwise, spread them out on baking sheets and dry in a 300-degree oven for 30 to 60 minutes. Let the bread cool before using in the stuffing.

   You can substitute three 14-ounce bags of plain dried bread cubes for the homemade dried bread cubes, but you'll need to increase the amount of chicken broth to 7 cups. This recipe can easily be halved and baked in a 13 by 9-inch baking dish for a smaller crowd.

Serves 16

 

 

Ingredients

• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter plus extra for the dish

• 4 celery ribs, chopped fine

• 2 medium onions, minced

• 1/2 cup minced fresh parsley leaves

• 3 tablespoons minced fresh sage leaves OR 2 teaspoons dried

• 3 tablespoons minced fresh thyme leaves OR 2 teaspoons dried

• 1 tablespoon minced fresh marjoram leaves OR 1 teaspoon dried

• 3 pounds high-quality white sandwich bread, cut into 1/2-inch cubes and dried (see note)

• 5 cups low-sodium chicken broth

• 4 large eggs, lightly beaten

• 2 teaspoons salt

• 2 teaspoons ground black pepper

 

 

Directions

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 400 degrees. Melt the butter in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the celery and onions and cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Stir in the parsley, sage, thyme, and marjoram and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Transfer to a very large bowl.

 

2. Add the dried, cooled bread, broth, eggs, salt, and pepper to the vegetables and toss to combine.Turn the mixture into a buttered 15 by 10-inch baking dish.

 

3. Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and continue to bake until golden, about 30 minutes longer. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

 

Variations:

BREAD STUFFING WITH SAUSAGE, PECANS, AND APRICOTS

Follow the recipe for Classic Bread Stuffing with Sage and Thyme. Before cooking the vegetables in step 1, cook 1 1/2 pounds bulk sausage in a large skillet over medium heat, breaking it up into smaller pieces with a wooden spoon, until lightly browned, 5 to 10 minutes. If desired, substitute the rendered sausage fat for an equal amount of butter in step 1. Add the cooked and crumbled sausage, 3 cups chopped pecans, toasted, and 2 cups dried apricots, sliced thin, to the bread mixture with the vegetables in step 2.

 

 

BREAD STUFFING WITH BACON AND APPLES

Follow the recipe for Classic Bread Stuffing with Sage and Thyme. Before cooking the vegetables in step 1, cook 1 1/2 pounds bacon, chopped fine, in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat until crisp and brown, about 12 minutes. Transfer the bacon with a slotted spoon to a paper towel-lined plate. If desired, substitute the bacon fat for an equal amount of butter in step 1. Add 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about 2 cups), to the skillet with the celery and onions. Stir the crisp bacon into the bread cubes with the vegetables in step 2.

This is the recipe my family of origin uses and what I really like.

[FriedClams]

Saltines...crush

Butter (I don't know...4 T per sleeve) melted

Sage...a lot

Smoosh together with warm water to make a blog that sticks together so you can stuff it I the turkey.

 

 

Oh my deliciousness.

[umsami]

We doctor up our Stovetop with extra chopped onions and celery....so good.   I've made it with Pepperidge Farm bread cubes, but honestly StoveTop is better. :)

[bolt.]

I make it with butter-browned whole baby onions, browned whole canned mushrooms, bread cubes, fresh herbs, celery salt and turkey broth. I add pan juice from the turkey throughout the cooking process.

[KrissiK]

Betty Crocker cookbook.

 

But then again, I do like Stove Top. For me, the difference is, I cut my bread in a bit larger cubes. And the flavor is a bit different. Homemade doesn’t taste packaged to me.

[Mommyof1]

I melt butter and saute onions and celery. Then I add chicken broth and pour it over seasoned croutons. Then stir. I bake it in the oven till done.

[unsinkable]

I brown a pound of breakfast sausage, whatever brand you like is OK. I don't use Italian sausage...I use Bob Evans or Jimmy Dean or Wegmans breakfast sausage that comes in a round tube. I don't drain it but I take out the sausage, leaving the fat in the pan.

 

Depending upon how much fat there is, I add between 4 to 8 TBS butter and melt it. I want about a 12 TBS of fat and butter total. Meanwhile, I rough chop an onion and about 3 or 4 sticks of celery then liquify the veggies in my blender with chicken broth. I pour the liquified veggies and broth back into the pan with the fat and butter and simmer this about 10 minutes with some Bell's poultry seasoning.

 

Add back in the cooked sausage, a bag of dried stuffing cubes (seasoned kind, not plain) and enough broth to reach the consistency I like. I like it wet enough that the bread cubes begin to lose their shape but not so wet that all the cubes completely disintigrate. It is usually about 1 cup more than the recipe on the back of the bread cubes recommends.

 

You can eat this immediately or use it to stuff a turkey or bake it alongside a turkey at the end.

[Carol in Cal.]

We use Pepperidge Farm.  Upscale Stovetop, LOL.

 

There is an Old Family Recipe that floats around among my relatives.  I remember my parents making it when I was a kid.  It took hours, it seemed.  My mom would cook things and add them to a big wide wooden bowl in my dad's lap, and he would chop continuously with a mezzaluna kind of thing while watching TV.  This went on and on and on.  The result was chopped so fine and packed in so tight that it was invariably very gummy and nasty.  My mom loved it, but I can't stand the stuff.  DH introduced me to Pepperidge Farm, and I was an instant convert.  Before that I thought I didn't like stuffing, LOL. 

 

But the OFR is my great-grandmother's. 

[teachermom2834]

Pioneer Woman recipe. It is half cornbread and half white bread but the same recipe could be used with whatever kind of bread you want. I never had cornbread stuffing growing up, and family members don't really like cornbread but we do like it in the stuffing.

 

You can google the recipe but it is easy. Basically sauté onions and celery in butter. Add chicken stock and parsley, rosemary, thyme, and sage (optional). (I do sing the song to remember what spices to use). Cook for a few minutes and then mix with bread cubes and bake. I love it. Not everyone eats it but it seems the ones that do go crazy over it.

[fraidycat]

I make grain free biscuits. Cube it, dry it. Saute celery and onion in butter, add sage and thyme. Also rosemary if I have it. Mix. Pour over bread cubes. Add liquid (water or broth) until moist, mix. Bake

Edited November 22, 2017 by fraidycat

[Alessandra]

I brown a pound of breakfast sausage, whatever brand you like is OK. I don't use Italian sausage...I use Bob Evans or Jimmy Dean or Wegmans breakfast sausage that comes in a round tube. I don't drain it but I take out the sausage, leaving the fat in the pan.

 

Depending upon how much fat there is, I add between 4 to 8 TBS butter and melt it. I want about a 12 TBS of fat and butter total. Meanwhile, I rough chop an onion and about 3 or 4 sticks of celery then liquify the veggies in my blender with chicken broth. I pour the liquified veggies and broth back into the pan with the fat and butter and simmer this about 10 minutes with some Bell's poultry seasoning.

 

Add back in the cooked sausage, a bag of dried stuffing cubes (seasoned kind, not plain) and enough broth to reach the consistency I like. I like it wet enough that the bread cubes begin to lose their shape but not so wet that all the cubes completely disintigrate. It is usually about 1 cup more than the recipe on the back of the bread cubes recommends.

 

You can eat this immediately or use it to stuff a turkey or bake it alongside a turkey at the end.

We do something like this. For the sausage, I have been using store-made sausage meat from al local butcher. Onions, celery, and lots of chestnuts. Stock, herbs, and a few bread crumbs or cubes of bread, but not so much as to make a bread stuffing. Sometimes I add a finely chopped apple. The idea is that you get chestnut in every bite.

 

The Washington Post recently had an article on stuffing. They mentioned that chestnut stuffing was extremely popular in the northeast before the chestnut blight.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/thanksgiving-stuffing-or-dressing-is-the-dish-that-best-reflects-americas-diversity/2017/11/15/941d4c02-c326-11e7-84bc-5e285c7f4512_story.html?utm_term=.f2eabfebaa40

 

The article is about regional differences in stuffing/dressing.

Edited November 22, 2017 by Alessandra

[LifeLovePassion]

I would have to search for the recipe, but my grandma made stuffing that had close to a dozen eggs it was yummy and never dry.

 

Also, white castle stuffing is good.

[Renthead Mommy]

I don't get the cornmeal stuffing at all.  It tasted funny.  It felt funny.  I'd never heard of it before we moved south.  I grew up with cornbread.  And I'd never heard of cornbread stuff till then.  For years we'd order Thanksgiving dinners from different places and in different states even.  I finally had to start cooking dinner because they all came with cornbread stuffing and broccoli. (Husband can't eat broccoli.)  

[gardenmom5]

dh makes a sage stuffing.

bread cubes, celery, onion, spices, turkey broth, I don't remember what else - stuffed and cooked IN the bird.

 

[KathyBC]

Betty Crocker recipe here, too. We've tried a few of the variations, the favourite being adding apples but not raisins. I do the casserole version, not in the bird. If I have been organized enough throughout the year to be thrifty, I chop up bread heels and older buns into cubes and store them in a ziploc bag in the freezer until needed. If not, that is what inexpensive grocery store loaves are for!

[Carrie12345]

I do use bagged and seasoned bread, but not Stove Top.  (I use Stove Top other days, though I try to avoid it all together because I have a serious stuffing addiction that my kids inherited.)

 

I mostly wing it with butter, broth, and eggs until it fits my desired consistency. Sometimes I add additional seasonings depending on which brand/flavor I happened to pick up.  One batch is just that, and a second batch gets a crumbled and cooked tube of sausage.  And then bake.

 

It's nowhere near "from scratch", but I find it a lot more homey than the nearly-instant stuff. Probably because that's how my mom and grandmother did it!

[DawnM]

Can't help.   I don't care about stuffing enough to spent tons of time prepping it.....and anything beyond open the box is too much time.   :lol:   I think Thanksgiving takes way more effort than it is worth, and if it were up to me, I would buy the meal for 6 at the grocery already prepped and be done......but we can't as we don't have it at our house, so we won't.

 

 

[Guest]

I make homemade stuffing and I LOVE it. I don’t put in oysters or sausage or cornbread or chestnuts or any of those bougie ingredients. I just make a regular bread stuffing. I don’t have the recipe, but from my head, this is generally what I do:

 

Sauté chopped onions and celery in butter. Season bread cubes with salt, pepper, sage and poultry seasoning. (I have bought bread cubes sometimes, but I have also used heels of bread that have been frozen and saved all year. This is my mother’s frugal way to do it.) Add chicken broth to the celery and onions, then pour and mix into the bread cubes. Pour the stuffing mixture into a pan (or three pans, in my case, lol!); cover with foil. Bake at, I think 350, for 30 minutes. Remove the foil for last ten minutes for crisping. Some people make a very cohesive stuffing and thus, add a lot of broth, but I like it more loosely adhered with still-definable cubes of bread.

 

I love stuffing this way and if it were socially accceptable, I would eat just this and grandma’s gravy noodles.

[SparklyUnicorn]

I buy a bag of those dried bread cubes (the seasoned ones).  All of them have instructions on the back.  That's basically what I follow.  It's melted butter, heated broth, sauteed chopped celery (can do onion as well, but I don't), and I add in extra poultry seasoning then stuff the bird.  I cover the cavity with a piece of bread (the crust if I have it).  That's how my mother did it too.

Edited November 22, 2017 by SparklyUnicorn

[Twolittleboys]

I make the stuffing recipe from the Fanny Farmer cookbook - fairly similar to Zoo Keeper's above but no eggs. I think it is rather similar Stove Top. It really isn't much work (we buy the bread cubes already dried) and can't get Stove Top here anyway.

[SamanthaCarter]

I like cornbread dressing and use the recipe from the (Mennonite) More-with-Less Cookbook.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[creekland]

Mostly Betty Crocker's sage and thyme version with fresh Italian bread (not croutons or dried breads).

 

It's celery and onions, sauteed in a bunch of butter, poured over the bread crumbs, add in the sage, thyme, salt and pepper.  We also add in very small chucks of finely diced liver - then we mix it all together by hand, tightly squeezed, and stuffed into the bird.  If there's extra (and if we're making it, there's always extra), we put some turkey broth on it (made from the neck and innards) and bake that separately (not squished) in the oven.  The bird stuffing is better, but the other will do for leftovers if we run out of the inside bird variety.

 

https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/classic-bread-stuffing/129aa22f-2203-483e-a7a9-dde5b5c6b715

 

We use the same recipe when stuffing chickens.

 

It's just plain good.  There are other types of stuffing, but (to us) they are always inferior because we love what we've grown up with.  In our (human) minds, different = wrong.  That's pretty much a typical human reaction BTW, so not a reflection at all on those who disagree with what "right" is.  Things only need improving when they aren't perfect "as is." ;)

[Baseball mom]

We eat cornbread dressing. And my way is the easiest. Call MIL AND say "we want dressing. What do you need to fix it?" lol Yeah I don't fix it but she makes good dressing.

[ondreeuh]

I like the Mrs. Cubbison's stuffing. I think it's just seasoned bread cubes. But I use broth made from the turkey neck, lots of butter, onions & celery, herbs, bake it in the oven ... and we like it. I guess I could cube bread and let it dry ... but why?

[SparklyUnicorn]

Never heard of putting eggs in stuffing.  What exactly is the purpose?

[ashfern]

Pioneer Woman's recipe is what I use. http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/stuffing_dressing_my_favorite_thanksgiving_food/ It's the only stuffing, other than Stove Top, that I will eat.

[Annie G]

Never heard of putting eggs in stuffing.  What exactly is the purpose?

I think it's just a binder, kind of like why I put an egg in meatloaf.  My mom never added eggs but hers was a bread stuffing. I actually make what southerners call dressing and it has bread and cornbread and it calls for eggs. 

 

I suspect you could leave eggs out and nobody would know. Everyone's dressing/stuffing is different so it's hard to tell if it's 'right'. 

[Bluegoat]

I cut up some bread, I fry onion, garlic, apple in butter.  Add sage and thyme.  Add bread to the pan and let it get a little crispy.  Salt and pepper.

 

Usually I stuff the bird, but if I have extra a butter a baking dish, add a little chicken stock, and cover, and bake it in the oven.

 

 

[Bluegoat]

I don't think I've ever had Stove Top - I always assumed it was the same kind of thing in a bag, so less fresh.  Is it something different altogether?

[Sneezyone]

I use Mrs. Cubbison’s cornbread dressing. I’ve done scratch cornbread and dried it but can’t tell the difference really. This year, I added sliced Cumberland sausages w/green apple to the sautéed onion, celery, green bell pepper, sage and butter mix. The guests were skeptical but loved it. #winning!

[KungFuPanda]

My dh is the turkey-cooker. He spatchcocks the turkey and then cooks it wing-side upon a roasting rack in a roaster in which he has put the “stuffingâ€. The turkey drips in the stuffing as it cooks but because the stuffing is not smooshed into the bird cavity, it is completely cooked and crispy even on the top so it is not pasty. It’s really good!

I've been spatchcocking my bird for a few years and it never occurred to me until your post to put the stuffing under the rack. That's genius! I told a guest of mine "One of my online invisifriends puts the stuffing unde the bird! I'm gonna try it next time. I'll bet it tastes like stuffing used to before we all got afraid of bacteria!"

[Lizzie in Ma]

I've been spatchcocking my bird for a few years and it never occurred to me until your post to put the stuffing under the rack. That's genius! I told a guest of mine "One of my online invisifriends puts the stuffing unde the bird! I'm gonna try it next time. I'll bet it tastes like stuffing used to before we all got afraid of bacteria!"

 

We spatchcocked our turkey for the first time this year and grilled it, it was amazing!

I love sausage stuffing like my Mom always made.