Kitchen

[foggy!]

To me, the crouton bag in the store recipe is heavy, tasteless goo. We always use an old Family recipe that begins with cubing one loaf white bread. Lightly drizzle the cubes in a very large bowl with about 1/3C milk to moisten. Brown ground beef and chopped onions, stir in poultry seasoning (sliced celery if you like.) Combine all ingredients into the large bowl with bread cubes. Taste to see if you have enough poultry seasoning. Stuff your birds cavities. If you made too much for the turkey to hold, you can fold it in foil and bake alongside the turkey pan in the oven. The Dressing in the turkey will taste better, so combine the foil one into the dressing you take out of the cooked bird. Yum

If you're lucky enough to have left-overs on day2, this dressing is marvelous heated with some turkey, a spoon of gravy (slice of cranberry sauce if you're game) wrapped in a warmed flour tortilla.

Many of us l like the turkey burritos even better than the turkey dinner!

[PamelaSue72]

Ground beef in turkey stuffing? I've truly never heard of such a thing.

[FranandZoe]

For my regular, everyday stuffing I buy bread already cubed from the bakery. I add an egg, chopped onion & celery, some chicken broth just enough to moisten and hold it together, salt & pepper, and poultry seasoning. It's delish.

I make sausage stuffing for Thanksgiving.

[Poodlepet2]

I use store stuffing mix-usually P Farm, but there are a couple of things I do. I agree with Betteb: there is nothing like fresh herbs. I Saute onion and celery, but I also add a little carrot for color. For moist stuffing, I chop up a Granny Smith Apple: it is not sweet, but it brings a wonderful moistened. Finally, the broth....this is the one time of the year I go out of my way to make chicken broth. Do it the way you like, BUT don't get rid of the fat!!!! This is an old Jewish way, but Schmaltz rocks!! Yes, it's decadent, but it's not an every day thing. Poodlepet

[Boehm Collector]

Unfortunately I would not be able to provide a recipe as I have to eyeball the quantity of each ingredient. This ""recipe"" was concocted by my paternal grandmother (who was a phenomenal cook) when she came to this country from Italy. They did not celebrate Thanksgiving or stuff turkeys in Italy back then. It is probably one of the rare stuffings that does not call for bread or croutons. It consists of ground pork; ground beef; onion; garlic; nutmeg; spinach; rice; potato;egg; walnuts; etc. I haven't served it to anyone who didn't love it. Unfortunately it takes a long time to prepare as each ingredient has to be cooked separately.. and then combined in the end. But the end result is well worth the time and effort.

[Lucky Charm]

I remember the Uneeda biscuit stuffing. I'm sure there are many recipes out there with good substitutes. My mom used them in her own recipe. Her stuffing was greenish (from sage?) and also had cubed potatoes in it. Loved it!

[Campion]

Have you tried regular bread? My mom always made her own, never bought bags of stuffing cubes and hers is still my favorite of all time. She would chop up the turkey liver after simmering it, and put that in, but most people do NOT like liver. So I don't suggest you do that. And we never liked water chestnuts, chestnuts, sausage or oysters. Just the plain stuffing.

I'd suggest Pepperidge Farm or Arnold's White bread.

/4

cup butter or margarine (I like Land o Lakes Soft Butter with Olive Oil)

2

large celery stalks, chopped

1

medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)

9

cups soft bread cubes (15 slices)

1 1/2

teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves

1

teaspoon salt

1/2

teaspoon ground sage

1/4

teaspoon pepper

Directions

• 1Melt butter in 4-quart Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Cook celery and onion in butter 6 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender. Remove Dutch oven from the heat.
• 2Gently toss celery mixture and remaining ingredients, using spoon, until bread cubes are evenly coated.
• 3Use to stuff one 10- to 12-pound turkey. Or to bake stuffing separately, grease 3-quart casserole or rectangular baking dish, 13x9x2 inches. Place stuffing in casserole or baking dish. Cover with lid or aluminum foil and bake at 325°F for 30 minutes; uncover and bake 15 minutes longer.

[chickenbutt]

There are a couple other current threads about this, that might also help.

I make my own croutons using sourdough bread. No, I don't use anything stale (gross). I buy a loaf of unsliced sourdough (the round, San Francisco, style) and cut it into small cubes. Then I shake it in a baggie with a little olive oil and some herbs. I lay it out on a sheet pan and toast them in the oven. Cool completely before using so that they hold up nicely. The sour dough makes it very nice. I don't stuff it in the turkey, though (also gross. hehe). I make it in a casserole.

I also cook up some wild rice and add that in. I also add in a combination of sausage, but I know you are not interested in that.

You can pretty much just make it exactly the way you like, to your tastes. That's how I made up my recipe.

[BeckiWV]

I like to add some of the drippings from the cooked turkey to the stuffing. I think that really adds a bit of flavor.

[Reva]

My recipe is very similar to yours only I fry up about a 1/2 lb. of bacon with the onions & celery. The flavor of the bacon really amps the taste. I also use a package or two (depending on how much stuffing you make) of potato rolls and combine that with the Pepperidge farm seasoned cubes. The potato rolls add sweetness to the stuffing. Combine everything together and put in a buttered baking dish, cover and bake about an hour. I remove the aluminum foil towards the end because I like a bit of a crust on top. Everyone loves my stuffing which was handed down from my mom who was an awesome cook! Reva