WHERES THE CORNBREAD??

It doesn't matter what kind of bread you use.

A couple more ingredients worth considering ...

Long Grain Wild Rice

Dried Cranberries

Yup, just like I mentioned in my recent post here, stuffing really is good when adding chopped chestnuts, cooked breakfast sausage meat, and the internal parts (and outside fat, neck, etc.) of the turkey that are cooked in water to make a broth, which is the added liquid. Celery is also good, as are shallots, onion, garlic, and of course Bells Seasoning.

Bear, mine is even more basic than your mom's!

Bread (torn into small pieces)
celery
onion
neck meat
giblets
sage
hint of garlic
salt
pepper
and yes, the broth from cooking the meat

That's it. My family wouldn't tolerate ANY changes.

This year I'm going to try putting the neck and giblets in the crockpot the night before. I'll set the timer so it goes off around 4am so it's cooling while I sleep.
By the time I've had my coffee, it will be ready to assemble....and stuff INSIDE the turkey.

I DO put a little in a separate bowl before I add the meat as one daughter is semi-vegetarian. Doesn't like meat, but is OK with the turkey broth....as long as she can't see it!

Got the grocery ads last night and have decided where to purchase my turkey.
Yep, I'm ready!!!

Christmas Bazaars this weekend.

Let the Holidays Begin!!!!!!!

Deanna (can ya tell I REALLY like this time of year?)

Cheapest Turkey I've seen is at Von's, here in CA. 47 cents / Lb.

KSRogers has identified another stuffing ingredient that some folks have been known to add ... sausage. Andouille sounds good. But I've never mixed sausage into my stuffing. I'll have to try it some time.

I suppose folks might also add Bran Flakes or Oats, Barley or other grains too.

I'm getting my turkey for .19/lb. with a $25 purchase of other "stuff". At that rate, I may have to go twice and put one in the freezer for later this winter.

Deanna (no sausage, no fruit, no nuts, no cornbread- grin)

I do cornbread dressing and I do add a few other ingredients but not nearly all that stuff you listed...there are some things that are just plain old good enough the way they are so you don't mess with them...even...and cornbread dressing is number one on that list.

There seems to be a regional line of preference for cornbread dressing, the south, Texas and the Ozarks. So I guess it does matter what kind of bread you use.

I wonder if anybody ever put Lentils in their dressing?

Most all the supermarket fliers this week have Jones breakast sausage on sale, 2 for the price of one. I usually use my own, but have recently run out. I do use some corn bread, but also some of the prepackaged bagged stuffing, like that from Pepperidge Farm, etc. Its was only a few years ago that I started to add a few cranberries to it. They seemed to had that sudden bit of tarness while also being spicey in a stuffing (or dressing).

I've never put turkey neck meat in my stuffing! That sounds like way too much work. My recipe calls for a green pepper and green onions. And also a can of cream of mushroom soup, which I've never used. I replace it with a cup of gravy made from a store-bought gravy packet. There's also broth in the recipe, otherwise I'd feel the need to alter the gravy mix. I make mine up in a casserole dish the day before, so the flavors meld before I bake it Thanksgiving day. It's the one part of Thanksgiving dinner that we always eat every last bite of the leftovers. I've thought about experimenting, but it's so good and I only make it once a year!

The neck and internals are boiled in water and create the turkey broth that is used as the primary liquid for stuffing. When I buy whole chickens, I cut off the wing tips, tail, and any excess skin and fat. Its placed in a saucepan with the internls like giblets, liver, etc. Simmer an hour our two and toss out all the solids, and you have a decent broth left. To reduce fat, I refrigerate and spoon off the solidified fat off the surface. Usually I will have big half gallon containers of these broths for use later for soups, etc. They are easily frozen. The neck has way too litle meat amd is not worth the effort, as you could accidentially miss a small bone, ouch! Because is just me this year, I only bought a turkey breast, and plan to brine soak it over night before roasting. Also, I will be adding some of my herbed butter I recently made positioned under the skin. My extra fancy stuffing is sometimes more tasty than the bird, so I usually make a lot of it. Any left over, is cut and a bit of gravy is added and its placed in a Fod Saver bag and frozen. Quick to thaw and you have stuffing for any poultry meal. My stuffing is also made seperate from the bird, and any liquids exuded from the bird during roasting, is poured into the stuffing, or gravy.

Julsie,

It seems a shame to add store bought instant gravy to dressing when later ... you can douse the dressing with real gravy you make from the Turkey you roast. And it's much more fun to make that gravy ... just as much fun as making the dressing.

But hey, Rachel's got us all beat.

I was flipping channels and there she was ... tee hee heeing about her T-day concoctions and I stopped to watch. This is neat, dressing under the skin of the Turkey, instead of in the cavity. And what kind of dressing? Pistacio, Cilantro and Parsley! Whoa! What did she put in her main dressing? Store bought pumpkin muffins torn up, pumpkin or sunflower seeds, apple bits, zuchini and some spices, to include thyme, of course. And the ol' Bear was wondering if he could put artichoke hearts in a dressing? How about pistacios and artichoke hearts with capers, fennel seed and a shot of some liqueur? It's just that easy to get off the well beaten basics.

The pistacio stuff under the skin sounds real good! I'm downright motivated.

It only shows to go ya. You can use your imagination and put together almost any kind of stuff to adapt Mom's Turkey Dressing, including dumping the whole list of basics and doing something totally new and off the wall, unique.

One thing I might suggest however, is the KISS ( Keep It Simple Stupid ) principle. In other words, don't throw in everything under the sun. Limit your ingredients so that you don't overpower the flavor of the individual ingredients you put in.

I think I'm gonna try that under the skin trick, but with the main dressing type I have planned, not something new and different than what might go in the cavity. Maybe that artichoke thing will be a good experiment around Christmas time. eh?

Ha! I wonder if Rachel's dressing was passed on by her mom? Hmmm? I don't think so.

The old fashioned way to make a gravey was using flour and fat to make a rue. Then add the juices and cook. I find that the Clear Jel starch dissolved in a little water will give the same results without any chance of lumps. If I have a lot of gravy left, the rest is added to the cut up meat, veggies, and placed in pie shells for turkey pies for the freezer. Thats where the Food Saver bags help keep these in good condition for quite a while. I plan to add a few sprigs of fresh thyme to my turkey breast when roasting it. Saw that on an Americas Test Kitchen episode today. Ive used white wine in my gravies too.

My stepmother was the designated dressing-maker for all the parish dinners, so she sometimes made enough to serve 400 at a time.

Hers was simple but unusual, 1/3 bread, 1/3 biscuits, 1/3 cornbread. Lots of turkey broth and butter but also lots of eggs. Plenty of sage, salt and pepper, onion and celery, no other seasonings. And if the dressing wasn't moist enough with the broth, butter and eggs, she'd add beer. The result was a kind of delicious souffle with a crisp browned crust.

We brine our turkey with kosher salt, brown sugar, cloves, peppercorns, apple cider, tangerine or orange peel and thyme. Then it's cooked outside on the covered grill.

Sometimes I do a turkey in the oven with a butter, orange juice and rosemary baste.

The dressing is 2 parts Italian bread and 1 part whole wheat bread torn or cubed and oven-dried. Celery, onions, apples, sage, rosemary, thyme, sometimes some dried cranberries, sausage. Butter and broth. I buy turkey drums and wings ahead of time and make broth so I have plenty for the dressing.

Carol

Hmmm. Gravy. That's whole different hat trick.

But before I go over Mom's Gravy basics, let me first say that I have a friend who's family run a small number of taquerias and I was invited one year to attend their T-day fiest and they Barbequed the Turkey on the back yard grill ... with barbeque sauce. Now that was interesting and muy delicioso.

Gravy is actually very easy to make.

Pour off the drippings from the turkey roast into a bowl.

Add a little milk or as KS advises, starch.
Add some flour.

If you have aquired additional giblets or Turkey parts or can take some from the bird, cut up a small amount and put them in. Don't overwhelm the gravy with this stuff. Just add a little.

Add some Pepper, Thyme, Sage and if preferred, Cilantro, Fennel and/or Oregano, preferably the same as what you used to make the dressing.

If preferred, add a little wine or Balsamic Vinegar or some other juice. It is advised to be consistant with what you used in making the dressing, unless you know how to compliment your dressing by using something alternate.

If you have any onions or peppers left, fine dice a small amount of each and add 'em. Don't overwhelm the gravy with this stuff.

Cook it in a deep pot and stir often to make sure the flour smoothes out and doesn't lump.

It's not unheard of to melt in a little cheese or some Honey.

When my mom made her gravy she added only the giblets and left out the liver and heart. She did, however use the broth made by boiling all these, and the neck. One year, we had dinner at my sisters inlaws, and when they started to carve the bird, they discovred that the internal parts were accidentially left in the paper bag inside. Not a nice thing to see at the table. To add to that, the father in law had poured us all apple cider, and we were shocked to realize it was apple cider vinegar! He said, no wonder it was so cheap... Not a very flavorful holiday that time, but was fondly remembered..

Let the games begin! 6:55pm, the evening before T-day and the ball is on the court.

Turkey Neck and giblets are in the pot.

Have a happy Holiday folks and travel safe.

Just finished your fun notes above - as I've been up since 3-ish this morning to do my yearly Tksgvng duties. So - the bird is in the oven, the taters pealed and resting in salty water, the "neck" has been duly simmered and the broth added to the dried cubes that were sitting out - to allow a bit more drying. And - into the bird it went, she's in the oven.

The ingredients basically are the same - but I also added a small can of mushrooms. No sage this year (forgot to buy/grow some), but have some nice mixed herbs (grown by myself) that seems to "dousy" up anything they are used in, which includes thyme, dill, oregano and celery seed.

I-too like some fresh apple in my dressing - but had some apricots that I happened to find in the fridge - so added it to some in the neck cavity. We shall see!

Just to refresh my thinking on cooking a turkey, I read one of the recipes in "The Frugal Gourmet" by Jeff Smith - and he notes the idea of injecting the turkey in several places with a mix of butter and sherry. He advises using one of those meat injectors.

Well - unfortunately, I don't have any sherry - but I did buy that fancy (and rather expensive) meat injector. Remember Ken? When we were all "doing" brine meat a few months ago?

It was a great tool - but as I don't brine meat a lot, it is still in a very pristine condition. Maybe - just maybe, for X-mas, I will try the recipe. It will give me a good excuse to get some mileage out of that injector.

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay

Gosh! Somebody actually started cooking the bird, last night? I only prepped the neck and giblets and cut up the onions, peppers, celery and shallots, in addition to lining up all the other stuff on the counter top at the ready. It only takes about 4 to 8 hours depending on the number of Lbs. My bird is small, just over 10 Lbs., so I can start cooking it at about noon or 1:00pm today and be on time. I was watching something on the boob toob yesterday that claimed that originally, Turkies were lean and brown meat birds. Later, industrious wholesale farming and breeding produced the 'White Turkey' which has more breast meat and hence, more white meat. It was recounted that because the dark meat has more fat and although the birds were not so rebust, they took more time in the past to cook and when the public got their hands on the first white turkies, they overcooked them, making them very dry internally.

There are a couple techniques to follow.

1) 30 minutes per Lb. of bird.
2) You can baste frequently

or

3) Coat the outside skin of the bird with butter, corn or olive oil. That apparently helps to keep the bird moist.

or

4) You can invest in a deep fryer and if you have a concrete deck somewhere, deep fry that turkey. You have to be carefull however, because these things have been known to create fires when the oil in the deep fryer gets volatile when the watery juices of the turkey are introduced at high temp. Deep fried turkey can turn into an inferno very easily. This apparently especially true since the TV show depicted it as a male bonding sort of thing, that includes lots of beer bottles in hand. I just got to try this some time. I'm a great fan of volcanoes and will tip a beer on a Holiday. This year I found a micro brew called 'Wing Walker' to lubricate my resolve to put this Turkey dinner together. I don't normally imbibe mind you; but on Holidays, I consider it a luxury food and invest in a good micro brew.

It's about 8:00am and I'm slacking, but already to start mixing up the dressing. But first, I've got to water my Banana plants, Palm saplings, Senna Alatas and so forth and then take a peak in on my seed starters to see if anything's started to germ.

Have a happy Holiday folks and if you are deep frying your Turkey, be careful.

I am tucking my herbed butter under the skin. Also, I have only a trkey breast with skin and ribs, and that went into a salt/sugar brine yeasterday.

Well, seems like you and I at least, are on our own this Holiday. Folks live back east and I am too new to BKF to know anyone yet. Travel is out of the question. I wish you the best for the season.

It's 10:40am here. The stove top's a mess. The table's a mess. The kitchen couter is a mess. But the sticky stuff has been washed off my hands and the two bags of garbage have been caried out; the turkey and a whole pyrex glass baking pan full of dressing have gone into a 325F preheated oven, with another smaller pyrex pan full of dessing covered with aluminum foil, tucked away into the fridge. I've even taken time to dig up my Christmas decorum and start putting it up.

4 to 5 hours should do it for the bird. I've put nothing under the skin, but oiled the outer skin with olive oil.

I've found some bulk dried cranberries and Granola mix and have added those to my dressing to make things interesting.

I will still need to make up some long grain wild and brown rice and mashed potatoes and a veggie of some sort. Cranberries Sauce is a can opener away. Gravy is an adventure that awaits upon the Turkey's completion. I'm going to baste the beast in 100% cranberry juice touched with balsamic vinegar. Cabernet is chill'n in the fridge. For desert if there's room, I plan a smoothie. I've got mango pieces in the freezer and some French Vanilla Yogurt.

3 Wingwalkers down and am looking for motivation to start cleaning up the mess.

I've got plenty of bread left to make Turkey sandwiches in the coming weeks.

Beauae of all the liquid once cooked, the turkey breast gave me a lot of gravy. I even added a bit of the same Cabernet to my gravy. My stuffing was quite bold with plenty of sage, both store bought sage as well as some of my home grown. I even added fresh thyme leaves to it just for a little different flavor I peeled some of my purple walking onions and added them afer they were sauteed with some celery. Usually never get affected by peeling onions, but these little guys were really POWERFUL, and I had to do just a few in stages.

Yes, it's amazing how much gravy you can get from a turkey, especially if you baste while cooking it. I got over 1/2 gallon of thick gravy. Basting in cranberry juice made for an interesting flavor.

My dressing was a winner, very crunchy. In the soft stuff from the inside of the Turkey, the pecan halves were the crunchy stuff. In the crusty stuff and in the stuff made in the pyrex pans, the celery was the crunchy stuff. The flavor of those dried cranberries subtley tinged by sorrano and habnero capsicum kick was excellent. In retrospect, I think I should have put a little sorrano and habnero into the gravy as it tended to muffle out this effect. Trying the dressing by itself w/o the gravy was more flavorful. I had chopped almonds put in, but put in the pecan halves as they were.

Well Turkey soup is next. I stripped out all the bones last night, putting them into one refrigerated container, while all the meat went into another.

The kitchen is again, a mess and I was too much in Siesta mode after the Fiesta mode to do anything about it last night.

I must say - this was probably the most organized Thanksgiving turkey dinner I've cooked. Thank goodness. My oven behaved - probably because I took care to tuck in the wings this time - so that the dripping grease wouldn't drop down onto the burners causing a bit of a "flare-up" which My oven is prone to do if something boils over.

Anyway, I cooked the bird as I usually do - upside down on the "X" shaped rack that has been a stand-by for such an event each turkey day. The bird is then slow cooked at 250 degrees - not basting until the skin hardens a bit. This seals in the juices, making the bird more moist.

About half way through after the underside is nicely browned, I turn the bird over, to brown and cook the breast. When the breast reaches 180 degrees internally, we grab the carvers and that beautiful creation soon becomes a mess.

Everything turned out quite well - expect perhaps for the marshmallows that were put on the sweet potato/pineapple dish - they refused to melt and perhaps the toasting oven was a bit too toasty. Ahem.

So - now for making the pies. I liked my scheme last year - freezing the turkey, dressing and gravy in a pie pan shaped container. Then it is ready for use - either put in a pie shell - adding frozen peas, and top crust and baking. Or - just heating it up for another plain meal. Either way, lots of good left-over eating in store.

As luck would have it - I had lots of volunteer help with clean up - and yours truly was ready for early retirement.

Hope you had a nice holiday. Soooo - on to the next big bash - right. What are you planning on eating for X-mas - another turkey perhaps/or?

Oh yes - about the dressing - it was a bit moist - will add less moisture next time, but tasty nevertheless. Some sage would have been nice tho.

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay

Because I have so much gravy, I plan to make another batch of turkey pies. Carrots, peas, stringbeans and a few bits of potato. All the turkey is white meat, and I want to enjoy some before doing the pies. I used to also do the turkey upside down, but the brining seemed to give it enough juice that the turning wasn't necessary. I roasted mine with a cover on the turkey pan most of the time. On PBS, they said to brown the turkey first, then slow bake after its browned. Ths seemed to help seal the skin.

Just coated my fruitcake with some Bacardi rum. Its the third application, the first two were Cointreau and then Boggs cranberry liquor.

If you want to make a nice easy dessert for the upcoming celebrations, Costco has these packages of do-it yourself cannoli kits. I found them in the refrigerated bagged vegetable area. The prepared shells are small sized, and they include a premixed sweet cheese filling with some chocolate chips in it. I bought some of these last year and they were a big hit. You fill the shells at the time of serving, as they will get soggy if they are done too much ahead of time. I found that even though they were all filled to the extreme, I still had some leftover cheese. The cheese is in plastic bags shaped like a pastry bag, for easy application.

I just wanted to say, as no one mentioned it except Carol, that ROSEMARY is an excellent herb to put into stuffing. Hubby isn't keen on the sage flavor being very strong, so I branched out one year with variuos herbs my sister had growing (she lives in FL so plantss are still alive there over the holidays.) I now always put rosemary in stuffing, it is great! It is so good I also put it in pizza crusts and even dinner rolls sometimes.

As for me, I always go with onions, garlic, mushrooms, and celery as additions to the bread and broth. I never knew people put eggs in stuffing, so I guess we all have something to learn.

Marcia

ROSEMARY was mentioned by me in another thread, and I also make a lot of 'herbed butter' that consisted of rosemary, thyme, and garlic. Not only that, my turkey breast was roasted in a pan with sprigs of rosemary and thyme. The gravy was also made with turkey broth with rosemary, and my stuffing also contained the same broth, as well as chopped fresh rosemary and thyme. I have plenty of it here and used quite a lot in the last couple of weeks. I added eggs to the stuffing as I like it to hold together as opposed to all being crumbly. Celery and onions were sauteed in olive oil with, yes, rosemary too

Turkey dressing for my family is vegetarian to accomodate the ones who don't eat meat. So I start by chopping onions, celery and carrots (a cup or more each) and sauteeing in vegetable oil until soft, then adding two cups chopped apples and continuing to cook. Then two pounds of chopped chestnuts (but we buy them already peeled and roasted to save work), one and a half big bags of cornbread stuffing mix, boiling water, marjoram and sage and a whole box of golden raisins. It goes into two caseroles and is a family favorite - we eat more of that than we do turkey. Of course for non vegetarians it's extra good with gravy as well as cranberry sauce.

Here it is, December, and we're still talking and eating Turkey Dressing. For me, the bird's all gone; the soup's all gone and the wine, the gravy and the veggies. But yep, I still have a small cassarole dish full of dressing.

But alas, I took time out for pizza, chicken cordon bleu, cheese burgers and other stuff over the past few evenings. I'll have to check on that dressing to see if its still worth keeping.

Next time, I'll do a goose.

The stuffing goes well with chicken, and pork also..

This is our family's recipe for cornbread dressing...

(3) 9 inch cake pans of cooked cornbread
(2) cups dry bread crumbs
(4) cups finely chopped onion
(2) cups chopped celery
(1/2) cup chopped bell pepper
(2) sticks butter
(1) clove chopped garlic
(2) cans cream of mushroom soup
(5) boiled eggs, chopped
(1) cup milk
broth from turkey
salt and pepper to taste

Saute onion, celery, bell, and garlic in butter. Crumble cornbread. Combine all ingredients and mix well. Bake at 350 F for about 1 hour.

My dad normally makes this and as you can see, he doesn't use any herbs. BUT, I definitely think it would do nicely with some of the herbs mentioned above.

bearstate -

You could do the goose - but I found another "out" recently. A recipe that fills the bird cavity with all sorts of goodies - such as whole oranges, lemon, herbs, onions, more herbs, etc. I tried it on a chicken and the mingled flavors were superb. That way, you could just use the neck cavity for dressing - soooo there won't be that much left over next time.

Sound viable???

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay