My Grandma's Best Stuffing Recipe. Over 60 years old! (2024)

FAQs

Is stuffing better with or without eggs? ›

You'll never make stuffing with dried herbs again! Vegetable broth – To moisten the bread. Eggs – They add richness and moisture, helping to create the stuffing's irresistible gooey center.

The best bread for stuffing is a sturdy loaf with a tight crumb. Bakery French bread, Italian bread, Challah, and Sourdough are all good choices. When you cut up a 1-pound loaf into cubes, it should fit in an even layer on a single half-size rimmed baking sheet.

Slightly stale bread absorbs meat juices and other ingredients better than moist, fresh bread. Some people simply use old bread for stuffing, while others prefer to dry out new bread as needed. Manually drying bread takes less time than waiting for the bread to dry on its own.

Nutrition Notes

Stuffing is essentially bread, salt, and butter, so it probably comes as no surprise that it isn't the healthiest food served on Thanksgiving.

Cover the baking dish tightly with aluminum foil. Bake at 400°F for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake until crispy. Uncover the stuffing and continue baking until the top is crispy and golden-brown, 15 to 20 minutes more.

Typically, baking the stuffing inside the bird helps keep the mixture moist. “I prefer stuffing (in the bird) to dressing (outside of the bird) because all those delicious drippings that come off the turkey gets absorbed right into the stuffing,” Bamford says.

Tear, don't cut, your bread.

(Yes, stuffing can be beautiful.) It'll let out some of your Thanksgiving stress to rip apart that loaf, and the crevices on each craggy chunk are the perfect crannies for chopped vegetables and torn herbs to nestle into.

Follow this tip: Stale, dried-out bread makes the best stuffing. Either dry out your bread starting a few days before you plan to make the stuffing by letting it sit out or, if you don't have the extra time, cut the bread into cubes, and then toast over a low heat in the oven until dry.

You haven't said whether you are going to cook the stuffing inside the bird or out, but it's fine to make almost any stuffing a few hours before you'll need it. The important thing is to keep it properly chilled so that bacteria won't have a chance to grow in it.

Dressing/stuffing: Like turkey, if stored properly, stuffing or dressing will be safe to eat for three to four days after cooking. It will last for about a month if stored properly in the freezer. Cranberry sauce – homemade and store-bought: Homemade cranberry sauce lasts seven to 10 days.

Do you cook stuffing before you stuff? ›

Fully cook raw meat, poultry, or seafood ingredients before adding to stuffing. Combine the ingredients and place them in your bird immediately before cooking. Don't stuff whole poultry with cooked stuffing. In addition to the turkey, the stuffing's center needs to reach 165 F.

Bacteria can survive in stuffing that has not reached 165 degrees that could then cause food poisoning.

The traditional turkey-day feast, replete with fatty, high-cholesterol, high-fat, and starchy foods like drumsticks, mashed potatoes, gravy and stuffing, is generally anything but heart-healthy.

Coconut oil, olive oil, safflower oil, and coconut butter are some of the most used butter alternatives. Depending on temperature, coconut oil can be both a solid and a liquid.

Turkey stuffing was popularized in the early days of Thanksgiving, as it is written in many 16th-century Boston area documents. Stuffing most often uses dried bread, herbs, and vegetables that are reconstituted with liquid, stuffed into the turkey cavity, and baked until it is firm and finished cooking.

Absolutely. Most Thanksgiving stuffing recipes can be made at least partially in advance since: A) They're easily assembled a day or two ahead of Thanksgiving Day; and B) They're often baked using a two-step process (once covered with foil to cook through, then uncovered to achieve a crispy top).

"Stuffing is cooked in the cavity of the turkey, so the juices soak into the ingredients, making it more flavorful. Dressing gets cooked on its own and needs extra liquid to make it flavorful." So stuffing is cooked inside the bird. Dressing is cooked outside the bird, usually in a casserole dish.