Dressing the Bird

[cape chef]

So,Whats your favorite dressing to serve with Mr tom turkey?

My Inlaws love my apple,sausage dressing with aromatics and tones of sage.

This might sound odd but I like a oyster-cornbread dressing as well.

I got a ton of em,

So..What do you like?
cc

[shroomgirl]

I like the pretty standard one....white bread crumbs with onions, celery, button shrooms, sage, butter, turkey stock or chicken, parsley......that's what I grew up with and adore the day after in bowl with gravy cranberry sauce and some dark meat...COMFORT food at the best.....I enjoy the others but this is what blankets my soul

[Melina]

Cape Chef

Do you mind if I propose something lighter?



Melina

[cape chef]

Melina,

Please do.
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[nancya]

I don't really care for dressing but I have to say that when I read the title of your thread...I was enjoying a mental image of a Turkey in a little suit and tie.

[chefboy2160]

Shroomgirl , please let me know when its ready . Mine is very similar to yours except I use half white bread and half cornbread.
also I love the sage..........

[Anneke]

Melina, very cute!
Maybe you folks can clear something up for me. I was taught that dressing is cooked separately (often in a roll) and stuffing is, well, stuffed in the bird. Is that the case? What you all have been talking about, is it inside or out of the bird?

Does anybody actually stuff turkeys anymore? Seems all the cooks and home ecs are teaching to do it separate, to the dismay of my husband who needs to know that his stuffing is bathing in turkey fat...

[cape chef]

Anneke,

I always cook my dressing outside the bird.

There are a couple reasons why.

First When you pack the cavity with a dence mass by the time the stuffing has reached a proper temp 165 degrees the bird will be over cooked,especially the breast meat.Also if you don't get the right internal temp you risk having bacteria in the stuffing.

I always fill the cavity with a concasse of mirapiox and fresh herbs to add flavor from the inside out.
just my 2 cents
cc

[Afra]

I still stuff my turkeys and at every holiday feast I attend, there is always stuffed turkey, mostly with the bread stuffing. Now that I have tried Cchiu's recipe of the slow roasted sticky chicken a while back, using turkey in place of chicken, I feel that I like that version of turkey better for right now. hehe I mostly like to eat mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, corn, carrots, and almost every good vegtable with the turkey, along with some gravy and the food that other people make. For dessert, there are soo many things to try that I will never get finished if I try to name them all! Click here to view my own questions about what we like to eat at Thanksgiving.

[Melina]

All of your recipes are great!

Having in mind that in a thanksgiving day you take up to 2500 cal. why not to eliminate some!

What about a roasted turkey with balsamic brown sugar sauce or if you prefer it stuffed, try the cranberries stuffing!

We make roasted turkey in Greece the day of Christmas ,

My dad was making the best but he was locking himslef in the kitchen with Athenaeus and they didn't tell anyone their secret!
It was one of our familiy's tradition!
I think that they were doing some injections with butter and cognac sauce to the poor bird.

Melina

[chrose]

I, like most of the rest of you apparently, like the old fashioned dressing with the addition of pork sausage.
However this year I was thinking of breaking tradition, but only just a little, in so far as dressing goes. My wife and son still want the whipped sweet potatoes with pineapple and marshmallows and I still like tat standby from the 50's "Green bean casserole". Hokey and old fashioned, but still darn good! I also have a Brussel Sprout and Pecan custard thing that I love as well. So we'll see what happens this year to tradition.

CC, what did you have in mind. Bear in mind I love my leftovers!

I always do my stuffing outside of the bird and do a mirepoix inside the cavity. Safety first. Besides it leaves more drippings for gravy, rather than all of it getting soaked up in the dressing.
Mmmmmm....soaked up in the dressing.

[cape chef]

Chrose,

I'm not sure what you mean by "what I had in mind"
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[Isa]

Great question Anneke.


I still don't understand what the difference is between the two. IDoes the name only indicates where it was cook? Stuffing in cooked in the bird dressing if cooked outside of it?

[cape chef]

Isa,

thats all it means..

Stuffing is in the bird and dressing is outside the bird

[Isa]

Makes sense. Thanks CC