Thanksgiving stuffing (my most asked-for recipe) and a round-up of Thanksgiving breads
(photo by Mark Luinenburg)
Like many people, my wife, Laura, and I live far from family, so this time of year, we're always reminded that you have to find family wherever you land. Well, we have landed; this is our thirty-sixth year in Minnesota. Over the years we've been lucky to be invited for Thanksgiving dinner by friends with a large and warm family, some of whom travel in from all over the state (and nation!) for the annual get-together. And it's a potluck, so no surprise, I always got the request for bread and a traditional Thanksgiving stuffing. That stuffing, although it doesn't appear in any of my books, became my most requested recipe from friends. Back in 2009, I published it on my website, and I thought I'd reprise it, because I recently made it for my mom, who is a lifelong dyed-in-the-wool roasted-in-the-bird stuffing believer. Well, she loved the oven-baked stuffing. One key to creating rich flavor without a bird is to use your poultry broth without skimming the fat. The second revelation was (and this is sacrilege for me): you don't have to use homemade bread. At my mom's place, I used a mix of ordinary white and whole wheat sandwich bread from the supermarket. Not artisan bread at all. The forward flavors are poultry broth, herbs, and egg (stuffing is really a kind of eggy bread pudding), so it turns out that the bread really plays second fiddle here.
That said, I usually do make stuffing from homemade loaves like the one pictured above, with the crusts left on for flavor and texture. Please join me on the website for the full recipe…