How To Make Home Made Bread Stuffing For Turkey
If you have ever wanted to make a home made bread stuffing for turkey from scratch, here is a delicious 65 year old recipe easily prepared from common ingredients. It is a very large recipe designed to have scrumptious leftovers.
Home Made Bread Dressing or Stuffing Baked In A Casserole Dish
This is a list of what you will need:
Tools:
— 4 large cookie sheets or combination of flat pans
— 2 very large bowls about 12-14 inches in diameter
— 2 cup measuring cup
— Set of measuring spoons
— Bread knife, electric knife and /or chefs knife
— 1 or 2- 13 by 9 by 2 inch pans or equivalent (depends on how much you compact the mixture)
Ingredients:
— 2-3 loaves sliced sandwich bread
— 1/4 pound of butter or margarine
— 1 medium onion (chopped fine-1/4 inch pieces)
— 2 large stalks of celery(chopped fine-1/4 inch pieces)
— 2 cups warm water
— 1 tsp salt
Bread Stuffing Seasonings Parsley Sage Rosemary Thyme
— 1 tsp black or white pepper
— 1 Tbsp poultry seasoning OR
Equivalent amount of parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, marjoram, turmeric
— 1 cup juices from poultry (chicken, turkey, game birds)
Start cutting the bread in to cubes the Day before (or at least 12 hours ahead of time to allow bread to dry out or become stale)…
Sliced bread laid out to dry
Remove bread from wrappers and lay out individually on cookie sheets to allow to dry out and become stale. Using fresh bread and drying it out is one of the secrets to this recipe. (This step is most effective when started a day before and left overnight to dry.) The bread only needs to dry until stale, not dry enough for it to crumble. This step can be sped up by drying the bread in the oven for about 25-30 minutes on about 175 degrees F, or dried in a food dehydrator for about 2 hours, but best results are from drying overnight. (Packaged bread stuffing can be used, however it becomes mushy when mixed with the moist ingredients.) When bread is dry, stack 5 to 6 slices at a time and slice into 1 inch squares. (Using an electric knife helps speed up this step)
Celery, Onions Cut To Size
Using a very large mixing bowl, combine the bread cubes, chopped onion and celery, mixing well to evenly distribute the ingredients. Sprinkle all the seasoning evenly over the bread crumb mixture stirring to cover all the bread mixture
Bread Cubes, Celery, Onion, Seasonings
Using a small saucepan melt the butter, add the warm water and stir to combine. Pour the water mixture over the bread mixture. Stir with a spoon.
Transfer the mix into the 13 X 9 X 2 inch pan or pans. Compacting the dressing or lightly spreading it around the pans is the only difference whether it fits in one pan or two.
Cover the pan(s) with aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes on the top rack of a 325 degree oven.
If bottom rack is used, place on cookie sheets to prevent over-cooking the surfaces touching the bottom and sides.
After 45 minutes remove from oven, remove foil, and pour one cup of poultry juices over the surface for added flavoring.
Re-cover and return to oven for 20-25 minutes.
If poultry juices are not completely cooked, microwave or boil the juices to fully cook before pouring over the dressing.
After allotted cooking time, remove from oven and serve.
— Adding moisture to the poultry being cooked will insure there is enough extra meat juice for the dressing and still enough for gravy. This recipe will serve 10-12 people. Although it is amazingly flavorful and complementary to poultry, other ingredients such as apples. pecans, and mandarin oranges can be added to change the flavor when used with wild game.
Tip– When using meat juices from poultry insure they are completely cooked! I use a meat thermometer if I have any doubts—165 Fahrenheit
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