I am a big fan of cornbread, but I've never tried making cornbread stuffing. There are many recipes on the web, but i'd rather try one from someone who has made it. Maybe something with apples, raisins, cranberries or even sausage. My favorite way to make cornbread is in a cast iron pan I pour in half the batter then I grate some brick maple sugar over the batter ( just enough to cover lightly ) then cover with the rest of the batter and cook. Simple but very good.
One of the best stuffings I ever made had chopped dried prunes in it and nuts, pecan I think or maybe walnut. At a subsequent Thanksgiving feast I was asked if I would share the recipe for that particular past year's stuffing. I had to dissapoint them as it was totally impromptu and not recorded as is the case with the vast majority of my culinary efforts.
If you don't go too far afield (out of the envelope) you should be able to pick and chose ingredients and proportions from among those listed in the various published recipes and be guaranteed that you won't have a failure.
For the stuffing in question I used a cornbread base (straight cornbread, no bacon, no jalepenos, no cheese, no onion) you can add any or all of these in when compounding the stuffing.
Some food safety thoughts... DO NOT over stuff the bird. Stuff it lightly. Cook any additiional stuffing separately (or cook all the stuffing separately.) Remove the stuffing from the bird as soon as practicable and serve from separate platter or bowl. DO NOT leave stuffing in bird longer than necessary and ESPECIALLY DO NOT refrigerate the carcass intact with bones and stuffing. You can remove the meat from the bones and boil the bones to get a soup base. Better to do this right away and not refrigerate the bones and then boil them.
Other health and nutrition considerations: real butter is better for you than margarine that has trans fat or hydrogenated oils and will make your stuffing TASTE GOOD. There are alternatives that are just fine if you don't want the animal fat. Healthy Choice margarine has no trans fat or hydrogenation and taste fine, just not as good as butter.
I have used rather strongly smoked pork sausage to good effect in stuffing. I prefer the rather hot variety and diluted out in the stuffing it shouldn't set the more timid on fire.
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
Pat, Thanks for your reply, the cornbread stuffing will be cooked outside the bird. My French-Canadian Heritage mandates [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] that inside the bird is reserved for the traditional pork based meat stuffing. This is pre-cooked on the stove then put into a white linen dish towel sewn into a bag, then inserted into the turkey to absorb the juices while cooking. The bag makes things a lot easier for serving.
This is the recipe my mom has used as long as I can remember, and I'm 53 [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] . The wife has been making it for 33 years. She makes her own family's recipe (no cornbread) as well since she prefers it to this one.
Boil and dice the turkey heart, gizzard and liver, use the water to moisten the dressing in the later step.
3 slices white bread, broken up
1qt. crushed cornbread
1/4 bellpepper diced
1/2 onion diced
1 cup dates diced
1 cup raisins
1 cup nuts (pecans or walnuts or a mix of the 2 is what we use) chopped
1 diced boiled potato
2 stems celery diced
2 hard boiled eggs chopped
1 tblsp. sage
1/2 apple diced
1 cup wine (we usually use a blackberry wine)
1/2 or 1 pt. oysters cut up into chunks (optional) (we love it with the oysters)
Mix all ingredients in a pan suitable for the oven.
Add enough turkey juice to the mixture to make it sloppy, then place pan in 250deg. oven for 1 1/2 to 2 hrs.
Hope this is what you where looking for, and if you try it I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Happy Thanksgiving to every one on the board.
Wil
Guess I messed up, not being much of a cook myself, that was a dressing recipe I posted not a Stuffing recipe. But if you where going to use a pork stuffing on the bird any way perhaps you really where looking for a dressing recipe.
Ours turned out great as it does every year, glad I married a great cook. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
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