[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.
cc

 

[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

 

[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"
cc

 

[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

 

[hubuk]

Never mind the dressing . . .

Never mind the stuffing . . .

We don't have Thanksgiving in the UK but we go big time on turkey at Christmas and I always serve mine with a great British delicacy - Mushy Peas.

 

[shroomgirl]

mushy peas and turkey!!! um is this a thankful time for you guys?

Nope I still make dressing and stuffing, it is sooooo wonderful days later and no one in my family throughout all the years has made a bad turkey or died of stuffing bacteria....yummmmmmy

 

[anneke]

I think it's safe as long as you don't overstuff the bird...

 

[athenaeus]

As HubUK we make turkey during Christmas.

I am glad to find out that professionals agree that the stuffing must be cooked separetely for safety reasons.
We do it the old fashioned way.
We cook in advance some minced meat with a lot of chesnuts and pine nuts and we stuff the bird with this pre-cooked stuffing.
As for the dressing, I personally make a sauce using fresh butter and brandy.
Some times when I have the mood I play with the injections.
When I am in great mood when it's half cooked I take a cheesecloath, soaked in the drippings after adding my butter and brandy and I "bandage" the poor turkey

If you like light food beware of this recipe. Thousands of calories, tones of cholesterol etc etc etc : Everything that makes Christmas worth celebrating!



PS of course we put the turkey in the oven the night before Christmas, we wake up at 5 in the morning to go to church so this is the perfect time to "bandage" the Turkey and leave it there until 8 o'clock in the morning !

 

[hubuk]

Putting the mushy peas to one side - after all they are a side dish.

I cook my stuffing separately but I stuff my turkey with raw onion carrot and apple. No more than one or two onions and carrots and one apple just chopped enough to roughly insert them into the cavity. The turkey is then smothered in butter and covered with foil for most of its cooking time.

This creates wonderfully moist and flavoursome turkey even on frozen birds.

:chef:

 

[chrose]

Sorry Brad,

Melina asked if she might propose something lighter and your name was right above it. My eyes and brain are playing tricks on me again. However you did say you have a ton of them. I like the Apple, Sausage, etc. Cornbread too.
I don't know what I'm going to do this year. Stay with tradition, make a clean break or just move over a litlle. Toss me a couple of ideas from your overflowing larder if you would.