How do you folks make dressing ( stuffing ) for your turkey

I'm going to try to make some , but need some home cooking ideas from you all.

I know that lizzards and gizzards go into the dressing.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

a reply to: musicismagic

Bread crumbs. Chicken stock. Onion. Real bacon bits.
and about 1/2 lbs of ground sausage.
Then pack that bird right to the rim with it.

a reply to: musicismagic

Stale bread cubed... covered in poultry seasoning and let sit over night

onions and celery diced mixed in to taste... you want those crunchy bits...

a good amount of salt, and lots of pepper, depending on how hot you like it

add milk until the mixture is moist... about 1/3 of a cup... depending on the amount of stuffing

and stuff the bird with a bit of butter with every handful

perfect!

originally posted by: Akragon
a reply to: musicismagic

Stale bread cubed... covered in poultry seasoning and let sit over night

onions and celery diced and mixed in...a good amount of salt and lots of pepper, depending on how hot you like it

and stuff the bird with a bit of butter with every handful

perfect

Should I put mushrooms in it ?

a reply to: musicismagic

There are so many yummy ways to make stuffing!

I use dried bread cubes, two sticks butter, one yellow onion diced, one bunch green onions diced, three or four cloves of garlic finely chopped, three or four celery stalks diced, and chicken broth.

Simmer the onions, celery and garlic in butter until onions are soft and translucent. Mix it all in with the bread crumbs, add the chicken broth and mix well. Salt and pepper the inside of the bird well. Stuff with the stuffing.

I also tie up a couple sprigs of rosemary, sage and chives and insert between the skin and the meat of the bird on the breast, right next to the cavity. My own version of a bouquet garni. This infuses both the meat and the dressing with all the herbal goodness!

Any leftover stuffing is put into a casserole dish, and when I take the bird out, before making gravy, I spoon a couple ladles of the juices over the stuffing before putting it in the fridge for another day. This brings all the flavor of the roasted turkey and herbs to the stuffing that didn't make it into the turkey for roasting.

Have fun and good luck!

originally posted by: Boadicea
a reply to: musicismagic

There are so many yummy ways to make stuffing!

I use dried bread cubes, two sticks butter, one yellow onion diced, one bunch green onions diced, three or four cloves of garlic finely chopped, three or four celery stalks diced, and chicken broth.

Simmer the onions, celery and garlic in butter until onions are soft and translucent. Mix it all in with the bread crumbs, add the chicken broth and mix well. Salt and pepper the inside of the bird well. Stuff with the stuffing.

I also tie up a couple sprigs of rosemary, sage and chives and insert between the skin and the meat of the bird on the breast, right next to the cavity. My own version of a bouquet garni. This infuses both the meat and the dressing with all the herbal goodness!

Any leftover stuffing is put into a casserole dish, and when I take the bird out, before making gravy, I spoon a couple ladles of the juices over the stuffing before putting it in the fridge for another day. This brings all the flavor of the roasted turkey and herbs to the stuffing that didn't make it into the turkey for roasting.

Have fun and good luck!

Now do you add lizards and gizzards ?

originally posted by: musicismagic

originally posted by: Akragon
a reply to: musicismagic

Stale bread cubed... covered in poultry seasoning and let sit over night

onions and celery diced and mixed in...a good amount of salt and lots of pepper, depending on how hot you like it

and stuff the bird with a bit of butter with every handful

perfect

Should I put mushrooms in it ?

nope... that simple recipe is well over 100 years old

my family has been making it for generations... and theres nothing that compares

Being from the south we call it dressing, not stuffing, both my grandmothers could put together a meal and cook. We have had this "recipe" since well according to my mom the 40's as it was the dressing her mom always made.

It really is almost I can't describe it but almost a souffle, the exact measures are lost to history, but my sister with Mom's help make a damn good representation of the dressing all my family still enjoys, expanded now to well over 30 persons.

Grandmother's dressing is so iconic for us LOL one of our nieces is driving 2 1/2 both ways to make sure her family has the same dressing this year, that's dressing dedication.

It's nothing special that I can tell, but I'm a decent chef and have never been able to duplicate its taste and texture. First of all, it's a mixture of an equal ratio of cooked crumbled biscuit (6) and cooked cornbread crumbled, turkey stock boosted by chicken bullion, lots of finely cut celery and onions a bit of butter to grease the pan, some salt, and pepper and sage to the point where you almost go there is too much sage, 2 eggs, and milk or creme for one normal pan, mix well the mix should be really wet and soupy but and you try and mix it all up when it's warm. Then put in a shallow pan about one and a half inches thick, cook until it sets up edges get well browned and the top is a golden tan.

We love our turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, and all the different dishes of Thanksgiving dinner but there are usually tense negotiations for any leftover dressing along the lines of an Arab and Israel summit meeting. My ex-wife scolded me when I use to try and trade our oldest child for the extra well-done corner piece.

The irony is our other grandmother's recipe was also really really good but it was prepared totally different it was sans the cornbread was thicker but she cooked hers with the turkey stock and a cut-up whole chicken. It was so denser than the other version but still had that wonder subtle sage onion celery combo. It was a meal by itself, but with gravy and some homemade cranberry sauce damn it's so good.

Go out and buy you a Church Produced Recipe Book......More ways to create stuffing than Biden has excuses for being an idiot. Plus most recipes will leave a pleasant taste in your mouth....Joe not so much.

a reply to: musicismagic

Now do you add lizards and gizzards ?

Nope. My mom used to boil those and then add to the gravy, but I've never messed with those.

Sorry!

a reply to: putnam6

It's nothing special that I can tell, but I'm a decent chef and have never been able to duplicate its taste and texture. First of all, it's a mixture of an equal ratio of cooked crumbled biscuit (6) and cooked cornbread crumbled...

Oh wow. You just brought back some awesome memories... I have tears in my eyes! My grandmother used to make this -- or something very close to this. She would bake a batch of buttermilk biscuits about a week before, then let them sit until the big day. It wasn't put in the turkey but was served as a side dish and it was AMAZING! My mother never learned to make it, so my grandmother took the recipe with her to Heaven and is no doubt treating all the angels to its deliciousness. And yes, that corner piece was always the best! I also love that magical combo of sage, onions and celery. Some flavors are just made for each other.

Thank you. I know it's a little silly, but this was so special just to hear about again.

I only ever ate turkey in a different country but it was quiet good!

They had the whole bird including the neck (or fake neck?) cooked as a whole and wrapped in foil, then cut from the bird as needed. Is that a thing in the USA too, preparing it with the neck?

It was on a research ship on New Years eve, so I wondered how they got it baked / broiled as a whole. Probably fake neck?!

I had the opportunity to eat stuffing from a turkey that was composed of rice, chestnuts and whole hard boiled eggs.

It was weird for me.

My standard has torn up white bread, mixed with onions and celery that have been sauteed in butter, then seasoned with salt and black pepper.

No sage, thank you.

Cornbread dressing…man, the things you miss not living down south anymore.

Oddly enough, no one I know actually stuffs the turkey. Mostly due to the strong risk of undercooking where stuffed and overcooking where not stuffed.

The worst dressing I ever tried to eat was cold, wet and doughy in the middle. What made it even worse was it was a “company Thanksgiving Dinner” which was a ruse to try to marry me into the family by pushing the two eligible cousins on me. Wasn’t the first and wouldn’t be the last time either. Except Lynn saw through it and tactfully put her foot down a week or two later after “discussing” it with me. And by discuss, I mean shrieking because she thought I was in on it.

Honestly, a box of Stove Top as the base bread works well. Just add celery, onion, chicken broth, butter, etc. And yes you can use mushrooms if that is your thing. Add peas and shoepeg corn if you want. Never heard of anyone using jalapeños or banana peppers, but I bet it could work, especially with a deep fried turkey.

A bucket full of lizards, and a bucket full of gizzards, mashed up with a hammer. Add in a half a roll of paper towels, diced, and a half a bottle of catsup. Season with a whole cup of nutmeg spice, a fist full of cloves and 3/4 cup of peanut butter. In a blender, puree a cup of cat treats, two bottles of Nyquil and 1/8th teaspoon of dijon mustard. Fold in to stuffing mixture. Bake at 450 for 3 hours, or until you have a blue colored peanut brittle like texture that smells like nutmeg. Smash glass like crystals with a hammer, top with Cool Whip and serve.

Oh, and speaking of gizzards, I have 5 pounds of turkey gizzards ordered for the day before Thanksgiving.
My sister used to fight over the one gizzard that a turkey comes with.
Now I get extra ones and she roasts them in the bottom of the roasting pan with the turkey.
No more fights.

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My mother’s recipe was to die for…she had apples and browned pork sausage in it. Seldom ever actually stuffed the bird, but baked in a casserole dish. Get some gravy on that and you have a meal.
She passed this March but I’m hoping to recreate it.

Stuffing/dressing is as personal and varied as the family. Generally it's a stale bread base soaked in egg/ broth custard and seasoned in various ways and baked. Stuffing is in the bird; dressing is out of the bird.

It can be white sandwich bread, Italian bread, whole grain, rye, corn bread, a mix, etc., but it will be stale to dry.

You can use sausage, oysters, nuts, cranberries, mussels, the giblets, or none of these or a mix as you like.

It might take you several years and lots of trial and error to find the one you and family likes best. We're still looking.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk
Hahaha that's one way to see the inlaws but not have to acctualy be there