Every family has their favorite stuffing or dressing to be served on Thanksgiving Day. Unfortunately, the secret recipe is rarely handed down, so grown ups who were once kids in the kitchen may have a vague idea or maybe not. If you were a kid who skipped the kitchen in favor of football, parades, or playing with cousins-forget it.Here are four recipes from The Modern Family Cookbook and one might just be close to the one Aunt May made. Note that the Fluffy Dressing and Celery Stuffing give amounts for a chicken, double the recipe for turkey. Stuffing recipes are exceptionally forgiving so feel free to add, combine, and put it together by feel. (of course, then your children will one day call weeping about how their stuffing doesn’t taste like yours!)
These recipes say cook inside the turkey, but really, you should not cook stuffing inside the turkey. Cook it in a casserole dish instead. Add a few drippings from the turkey before serving if it is dry, or a bit more stock or milk in the beginning. Read and follow these tips from the USDA on how to cook a turkey safely (including instructions on how to make sure your stuffing is safe even if you absolutely insist on cooking it inside the turkey.
Bread Stuffing for Roast Turkey
1½-lb loaf day old white bread
1 cup diced celery
¼ cup chopped onion
¼ cup butter
2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
1½ teaspoons salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
¾ cup broth from cooking giblets or milk
Remove crust from bread and cut in 1-inch dice. Place in a 4-qt. bowl. Sauté celery and onion in butter until soft and yellow: then turn over bread; add seasonings and toss together until well mixed. Cool. Add broth last and again toss until mixed. Stuff lightly into turkey. Sufficient for a 10-lb. turkey.
Fluffy Dressing
6 cups bread crumbs
6 tablespoons butter
½ cup chopped celery
½ teaspoon salt
1¼ teaspoons poultry seasoning
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
Pull crumb from crusts or 3 or 4 day-old white bread and crumble lightly between palms of hands; do not use crusts. Crumbs should be fine–about twice the size of rice grains. Melt butter in large skillet, when hot, stir in the crumbs. Continue heating over low heat, turning crumbs constantly until all are coated with butter and slightly brown. Remove from heat and add other ingredients, mixing thoroughly but lightly. Stuff into chicken lightly to keep fluffy. Makes about 4 cups stuffing, enough for a 4 to 4½ lb. bird. Make at least twice this amount for a turkey.
Celery Stuffing
¾ lb. 3-day old white bread
3 tablespoons butter
1½ cups diced celery
1 tablespoon chopped onion
½ teaspoon poultry seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
½ cup broth from cooking giblets, or ½ cup milk
Tear bread into small pieces after removing crusts; there should be about 6 cups of coarse crumbs. Melt butter in saucepan, add celery and onion and cook with frequent stirring until soft and yellow. Add bread and seasonings and toss together until well mixed. Cool. Drizzle the cold broth over crumbs, then mix lightly with a fork and stuff lightly into the dressed chicken. Enough for a 4-lb chicken.
Oyster Dressing
3½ qts. coarse white bread crumbs, loosely packed
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
¼ teaspoon white pepper
¼ lb. butter
¾ cup finely chopped celery
½ medium onion, chopped
1¼ cups chopped oysters
Pull crumbs from crusts of 3 or 4-day-old bread, discarding crusts. Add salt, poultry seasoning and pepper, and toss to distribute seasonings. Melt butter in saucepan, add celery and onion, and sauté until just softened, then stir in oysters. Pour over bread crumbs and mix lightly with fork or hands. Stuff lightly into turkey. Enough for 12-lb bird.
