Stuffing from a box or a bag is acceptable, as most people have never had the real thing. You can still use this recipe to fancy up your stuffing. That said, scratch made stuffing is far better.
If you are following the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day, and heeded the November 1st post, you’ll have made a loaf each of cornbread, pumpernickel bread, and a white or wheat bread. If you just went out and bought three loaves, don’t worry- this is still FAR superior to stuffing from a box, you just won’t get that feeling of smug self-satisfaction doing everything 100% yourself.
Slice the bread into thin slices and, if possible, recruit children to rip the bread slices into pieces, as they love being destructive helpful. Halves are too big, sixths are about right, and don’t worry about getting them perfect. Arrange the pieces on a couple of cookie sheets and toast them in a warm oven. If you’re making a casserole for dinner tonight, that’ll be perfect. You want the bread to be a little crisper than toast-not burned, but somewhere between toast and crouton. The drier the bread is, the more juice it will absorb and the richer the flavor will be. Once it’s nice and dry, just put it in a paper bag in the pantry.
While that’s Doing It’s Thang, take a pan out and make some hahah I know a fancy French cooking word mirepox. Just dice one small to medium sized onion, and an equal amount of carrots and celery. Sauteed over a medium heat, with some oil or fat in the pan-butter or oilve oil works great. Make sure the mirepaux is fairly finely diced, because that really does make the texture lovely, and stir until the onions get translucent and lovely.
If you like, you can add as much garlic as your long suffering family can stand you like. I know some people who adore the color pop of red bell pepper chopped into the mirepox, and if there’s another vegitable that you just adore, chop it fine and throw it in the pot. I will restrain myself from throwing in some lovely hot peppers due to the fact my husband is allergic to them, but only barely, and only because I don’t want to spend thanksgiving in an ER.
When you pull it from the heat, you can also chop and add canned water chestnuts or jiicima for some crunch. Throw in a good double handfull of the dried currants, more if you like the flavor.This is the time to throw in the herbs- I personally like sage, rosemary, and a little basil, but do whatever you enjoy. I’ll throw in a tablespoon or two of sage, some chinese five spice powder, and whatever herbs get in my way happen to look good. If you’re not to the point in your cooking where you throw spices into things willy nilly, you can always cheat and simply look on the sides of your spice jars and throw in a dash of anything that says “Good with poultry”, or just stick with the tried and true sage and rosemary stuffing.
Take a half stick of butter and put it in a bowl next to your mirepox while cooking it, and every time you add an herb or spice, put some of it in the butter. When you’re finished with the herbs, mash the butter up with a fork, mix it nicely, cover it with saran wrap and stick it in the fridge- you’ll put this under the turkey’s breast skin when you’re done to make sure the meat stays tender, and to give some flavor continuity between the turkey and the stuffing.
When you’re mirepox is good and adultered enough that hard line cookbook cooks are right QUIVERING with anxiety seasoned to your tastes, you Put the toast in a nice paper bag, all dried and mixed up, and the mirepox in a baggie in the fridge. Mix them early in the morning on Thanksgiving day with a little (a cup or so) of stock, white wine, or some kind of tea (all will leave a distinct, gentle, and slightly different flavor), and let the stuffing rest for a moment. In about five minutes when you get boared of watching stuffing it’s time to stuff the turkey! Any leftovers that don‘t fit in the turkey, put in a piece of heavy earthenware corningware with enough tasty liquid to make it that lovely, soggy stuffing consistency that we all love.
When stuffing the turkey, gently fill the body cavity with stuffing, as well as the flap of skin where the neck used to be. Don’t overfill, as the stuffing WILL expand and if you overstuff it will be weirdly, inconsistantly dry when you take it out.. When the turkey releases its delicious juices mid-cooking, the stuffing will catch some of it and the flavor will be fantastic.
Now you have both parts of the stuffing ready and in your pantry/fridge, and you don’t have to think about it again until Thanksgiving day itself! HOORAY!
