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We're not having our Thanksgiving till Saturday, so my wife is making her skillet of cornbread for it tomorrow and making the dressing with the cornbread Friday.
I always prepare the dressing in advance. I make it up right to the point of baking, cover it and refrigerate it.
In the "old days," I ran a hospital kitchen. I would roast the turkey that am and make all the sides. I would wrap them up and place them in the walk-in refrigerator. I would come back to work at 11 pm and serve dinner for the 3rd shift from 1:30-2:30 am.
My family had several women who were great cooks & bakers. They literally had their own "brigade" that began preparing foods a day or two before the event dinner. One of my favorite memories as a little kid was helping my grandmother shred loafs of bred into a large ceramic bowl so it could "stale". She would turn the bread pieces around about every 3 hours so it would dry.
I guess that was my historic beginnings into cooking for Thanksgiving.
I remember her buying some Turkey parts way before Turkey Day and making the stock for the dressing with it. She always bought those cello envelopes of sage leaves along with celery to combine into the dough mixture. Eggs also went into it. I've got her original recipe tucked away in my cook books and have made it in the past. But the irony for me is that I can make a box of Turkey dressing (Stove Top or any other knockoff) and it taste nearly the same. I also remember her buying Mrs Smith's Pumpkin Custard pies
and lamenting that she just couldn't beat one of those. So she gave into buying those for our dinner.
We live in Tennessee and have called it dressing forever (as long as it isn't inside the bird). Our neighbors who are from Ohio were baffled when we asked if they wanted dressing. They said the only thing they called dressing went on a salad.
Same here. When I saw the title of this thread, I thought it was about salad dressing, nothing to do with a turkey.
Normally I fry up the various veggies for the stuffing the day before, then I'll get my electric skillet going Thanksgiving day, throw all the veggies in to reheat them. I then boil the chicken stock with butter, throw in the stuffing bread, let it soak a good hour then I'll add the veggies, mix and put in 2 glass dishes. One has mushrooms, the other doesn't.
I make a cheese cake the day before too but this year I'm scaling down, doing the stuffing today. I didn't do the cheese cake because our main fridge keeps going out. It was warm yesterday before I left to buy cream cheese, decided I wouldn't have room in the spare fridge, so just doing pumpkin pie, I couldn't find coconut custard so no dessert for me. Hub does the giblet gravy the day of.
Normally I fry up the various veggies for the stuffing the day before, then I'll get my electric skillet going Thanksgiving day, throw all the veggies in to reheat them. I then boil the chicken stock with butter, throw in the stuffing bread, let it soak a good hour then I'll add the veggies, mix and put in 2 glass dishes. One has mushrooms, the other doesn't.
I make a cheese cake the day before too but this year I'm scaling down, doing the stuffing today. I didn't do the cheese cake because our main fridge keeps going out. It was warm yesterday before I left to buy cream cheese, decided I wouldn't have room in the spare fridge, so just doing pumpkin pie, I couldn't find coconut custard so no dessert for me. Hub does the giblet gravy the day of.
Dressing goes on salad for us too.
I'm making my stuffing, the bag for the cubed bread says stuffing cubes.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope no one has COVID show up for dinner. We're keeping it small. Hub, my adult son, 7 year old grandson and myself. Daughter doesn't feel well so she will be staying home. Have to pick up grandson in a little while.
Is it safe to actually stuff the inside of a turkey with anything? Doesn't seem so to me - use a separate dish.
There's a difference in stuffing and dressing. Dressing is made with cornbread, but stuffing is made with regular bread. Dressing is so much better.
I disagree with your definitions. Stuffing is what you put in the bird. Dressing can be stuffing or it can be a dish made and baked in a dish. I grew up eating cornbread dressing that was stuffed and separately baked. In other words, my mother prepared it both ways for Thanksgiving.
And cornbread dressing—what I have eaten all my life—is excellent eating.
My family had several women who were great cooks & bakers. They literally had their own "brigade" that began preparing foods a day or two before the event dinner. One of my favorite memories as a little kid was helping my grandmother shred loafs of bred into a large ceramic bowl so it could "stale". She would turn the bread pieces around about every 3 hours so it would dry.
I guess that was my historic beginnings into cooking for Thanksgiving.
I remember her buying some Turkey parts way before Turkey Day and making the stock for the dressing with it. She always bought those cello envelopes of sage leaves along with celery to combine into the dough mixture. Eggs also went into it. I've got her original recipe tucked away in my cook books and have made it in the past. But the irony for me is that I can make a box of Turkey dressing (Stove Top or any other knockoff) and it taste nearly the same. I also remember her buying Mrs Smith's Pumpkin Custard pies
and lamenting that she just couldn't beat one of those. So she gave into buying those for our dinner.
that is what i say about stovetop dressing - some people cannot tell the difference. To me it tastes the same as homemade - oh well.
that is what i say about stovetop dressing - some people cannot tell the difference. To me it tastes the same as homemade - oh well.
I can't eat stove top. Never really cared for it. There was a time my hub would be ok with me giving it on the side of a baked chicken but he refuses to eat it for the last 10 years. He won't have stuffing unless it's mine. He always tells me to make one batch but the year I did there was none for left overs. Making 2 batches isn't hard when you're making one batch already.
I can't eat stove top. Never really cared for it. There was a time my hub would be ok with me giving it on the side of a baked chicken but he refuses to eat it for the last 10 years. He won't have stuffing unless it's mine. He always tells me to make one batch but the year I did there was none for left overs. Making 2 batches isn't hard when you're making one batch already.
I can't stand the stuff. Maybe it was better in the 1970s and early 1980s when I used to eat it once in a while.
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Dressing is made with cornbread, but stuffing is made with regular bread. Dressing is so much better.
