We've talked Turkey, now how about Dressing?

[mattl]

What is your favorite dressing? I make the one my mother made and her mother made so it's been going strong for 3 generations.

This is the basic recipe, though I usually make 4 to 5 times this amount.

1/2c. chopped Celery
1/2c. chopped Onions

Sweated in olive oil and butter till tender but not brown.

To that add:

1/2c. ground chicken gizzards and hearts that have been cooked till tender in a stock pot.

1/3c. sautéed chicken livers ground.

5c. bread cubes.

1 Tbs. dried Celery leaves
1 Tbs. dried Parsley

Salt and Pepper to taste.

Mix and add enough of the reserved broth from cooking the gizzards to make it semi moist if going into the turkey or quite moist if going into a pan. If baking in pan, bake 45 minutes till just a bit crusty, uncovered th last 5-10 minutes.

I remember as a kid how much fun it was to clamp the old grinder to the kitchen counter and crank it. It was fun when I was old enough to be trusted with this job. Now I just break out the grinder for the Kitchen Aid mixer and have at it.

 

[mixfinder]

Grandma's Sausage "Meatloaf" Dressing

My Dutch grandma cooked two 28 pound turkeys every year, special ordered from Olsen's market. She was legend for her bread made from clabbered potato water and cake yeast. For the dressing she boiled the necks and giblets (thank goodness she fed the cooked portions to the cats. No offal in my stuffing or gravy, thank you) ripped 6 leaves of homeade bread into hunks, chopped 6 onions, added 5 pounds of sausage and a dozen eggs. She then poured the stock over the ingredients and mashed it all together with her hands. Just before bed, she stuffed the Turkeys and set them out on the back porch. (Cold in Eastern Washington in November) She would get up at 5:00 am to start the turkeys breast side down in her double oven Kenmore range with a deep well and griddle between the burners. We always ate promptly at 1:00 pm. The sausage was raw and the seasonings and fat basted the turkeys internally. In the 40's, 50's and 60's turkeys took longer to bake and had a more even amount of light and dark meat, so there was plenty of time for the sausage to come up to temperature as the turkey roasted. About 9:00 she truned the turkeys breast side up.It was scooped out before carving the bird and it looked just like meatloaf. The breast meat of the turkey was tinged pink from the sausage. I still make it the same way but bake it in a roasting pan covered with foil. Turkey goes in unstuffed, uncovered, breast side down at 400 for 13 minutes a pound.

 

[charbee]

I make mine exactly like my mom did...it's one of the only recipes of hers that I have never tweaked or altered in any way...pretty sure she'd come back to haunt me if I dared! She would *never* stuff the turkey, the dressing was always served on the side. A big mound of this dressing with giblet gravy is still one of my favorite things to eat in the whole world...ultimate comfort food.

It starts by baking the cornbread the night before, by about 9 or 10 pm. The cornbread for this is made differently than "eating cornbread"...it's denser, so that it doesn't turn to mush in the dressing: 2 cups cornmeal, 3/4-cup flour, 1 tblspn baking powder, 1 tblspn salt, only enough whole milk (NOT buttermilk) to moisten into a batter. No egg. Bake at 425 for about a half hour. She always made two batches, and baked it in greased layer-cake pans. After it's cool, it sits out and dries overnight on a rack on the counter, with just a tea-towel over it.

Next morning, boil the giblets and neck of the turkey, along with about a pound of extra chicken livers and gizzards, in a large stock pot. After they're cooked, remove and chop the giblets and livers fairly fine, and pull the meat off the neck. Keep the liquid on a low heat. You'll use half of the chopped giblets and neck meat in the dressing, and the other half in the gravy. You'll use the stock to moisten the dressing and make the gravy.

In a very large bowl, crumble both rounds of the cornbread into roughly 3/4" chunks. Chop two yellow onions and five full ribs of celery and add to the bowl. Toast six slices of regular white sandwich bread (only time of the year I buy the stuff...feed the rest of it to the birds!) and let them cool, then tear them into small pieces and add to the bowl. Add half of your chopped giblets and neck meat, and then mix well with your hands until everything is distributed evenly.

Pour the mixture into a large rectangular foil roaster on a cookie sheet. Now begin to slowly pour only enough of the broth from the stock pot to moisten, no more than about 4-6 cups, about a cup at a time, stirring as you pour and pausing before adding the next cup to allow enough time for the cornbread and toast to begin to absorb some liquid. Stop when it's just beginning to get evenly moist. You don't want liquid standing in the bottom of the pan, and you don't want mush...the chunks of cornbread should maintain their integrity for the most part. Salt and pepper to taste, cover with foil and bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes, after you've removed the turkey from the oven and it's resting. Use this time to make your giblet gravy!

For the gravy, use a deep cast-iron pan. Melt one stick of real butter, and add one chopped yellow onion. Cook over medium-high heat until the onions are just about done. Add 1/4 cup of flour and stir continuously until your roux is a medium-golden brown. Now add the other half of the giblets and continue to stir while you start slowly adding the liquid from the stockpot. When you've got as much stock as you want in there, allow to come to a boil, stirring occasionally as it begins to thicken. Lower the heat just a bit and let it finish thickening, about another fifteen-twenty minutes. Boil three eggs until hard-cooked, chop them and add to the gravy for about the last ten minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.

 

[michaelman2]

Charbee, My recipe is much like yours except I do make the cornbread with buttermilk and I use several eggs in the final dressing recipe. A good cornbread dressing is one of my favorite foods. I have found that many times folks will add so much sage that the dressing looks green. I pass on the sage and noticed that you did not add it to your list either. I do use a bit of poultry seasoning. The turkey broth is so much more flavorful than chicken that really not much seasoning is necessary.

 

[norgeway]

My Dressing.....

This is a little different,The first Thanksgiving I spent with my partners family, I was asked could I make good dressing, I told them I made it just like my granny did,,and everyone usually liked it, when we took it in,Dons sister had made some also,her husband took one bite of mine and said...Sue, take yours on back to the car!!!Here is the recipe.
Mamie Craigs turkey dressing...1894-1969
bake a large cake of cornbread, unsweetened
crumble into a very large bowl..add 1 large package of Pepperidge Farm cornbread stuffing mix...yellow pkg
boil and mash 2 eggs,add saute 4or5 finely chopped stalks of celery with 1 large chopped onion,in a stick of butter,brown and crumble 1 pound sausage...I use Neeses extra sage.add about 2 tbsp sage and 1 tbsp poultry seasoning with 1 tsp black pepper and about 1 to2 tsp salt, add rich broth from cooked turkey or chicken parts...canned is not as good,until about the consistency of oatmeal....more moist than you think it needs to be,pour into a well greased large pan...375 for an hour,Granny made hers a little less moist and baked it in muffin pans.

 

[travlincub321]

Mine isnt fancy

I just season up and flavor up a package of the pepperage farm stuff.. Add onions and celery and such...

Yeesh, my grandmother as a kid (auntie too) used stove top at thanksgiving