Bread, Butter, and Sage Stuffing Recipe

Here's a very traditional stuffing recipe adapted from a recipe by my student and teacher, David Rosengarten. He was a student in my wine classes at Cornell, and I call him my teacher becuase he since became a famous chef, one of the first hosts of FoodTV, author of several cookbooks, and I have learned immensely by listening to him and reading his work. He travels the world, reports on his culinary adventures, and creates amazing, complex recipes for his Rosengarten Report. I was shocked when I saw him publish this recipe because it is so simple and easy. But great chefs like Rosengarten don't mess with a classic.

He says "I like to cook this stuffing outside of the bird in a separate pan; the chunks of bread achieve a terrific crunchy, chewy texture. This is almost like a delicious bread pudding!"

Recipe

Makes. 12 servings
Preparation time. Let the bread dry overnight, assembly takes 20 minutes, baking takes 1 hour.

Ingredients
2 pound loaf white bread, sliced
1/2 pound loaf whole wheat bread, sliced
1 1/2 pounds unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups chopped celery
2 cups chopped onions
1 cup peeled and chopped apple
3 cups chicken stock, turkey stock, or water
3 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves (or 1 tablespoons of dried thyme)
30 sage leaves, stems removed and the leaves cut into thin strips (or 2 tablespoons dried crushed sage, or 1 tablespoon sage powder)
1 cup dark raisins
2 tablespoons salt
Several generous grinds of fresh pepper

About the stock. If you use my recipe for the Ultimate Turkey, the gravy from this recipe is the best thing to use. Just remove 3 cups from the drip pan while the bird is cooking for the stuffing.

Do this
1) The night before cooking, spread all the bread out in a single layer on sheet pans or towels and allow to dry out overnight.

2) The next morning, break the bread into coarse 1 1/2 inch pieces in a large bowl. Precision not required!

3) Melt the butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Add the celery, onions, and apple, and cook over low heat for 5 minutes. Add the stock or water. Increase the heat to moderate and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and allow to cool for 3 minutes.

4) Pour the mixture over the bread. Add the thyme and sage to the bread mixture. Add the raisins, salt, and pepper, and mix well.

5) Put the mixture in a large roasting pan and cover with foil. If baking separately, bake the stuffing in a 375°F oven, covered, for 30 minutes. Remove foil, bake for another 30 minutes, and serve alongside roast turkey.

Optional. Instead of putting the stuffing in a roasting pan, put it in buttered muffin pans so everyone has their own muffin-size serving with even more crunchy stuff.

This page was revised 3/11/2010

Be Meathead's Facebook Friend Follow Meathead on Twitter Subscribe to my free email newsletter