Thanksgiving: Bittman’s Favorite Bread Stuffing, Round Two
6 Nov
Last year, I brought stuffing to Thanksgiving after many attempts to get it right. Which was great, because it meant eating a ton of stuffing, and even the worst stuffing I’ve ever had was pretty good, you know?
So this year I’m doing the same thing. I have some ideas. Last year Bittman’s recipe failed me–it ended up so dry–but I wanted to give it another chance, moistening it with my own homemade stock (I ended up doctoring up some Whole Foods brand stuffing mix with more veggies and turkey stuffing, it was pretty damn good). This week I made my first delicious test batch. Last year on food52’s turkey hotline, it was suggested I use 2-3 cups of liquid for every loaf of bread. I was using a quarter of a peasant loaf and I used at least 4 cups of liquid (homemade stock, in this case). I added onions and sage, but didn’t have celery (a shame), and skipped the nuts. I don’t know why. I should give that a chance, but I think my brother might flip out if I use nuts. So it was a pretty bare bones stuffing.
I was very, very happy with this test batch–cooking it in my cast iron gave it a super crispy crust . I’d like to experiment with adding chicken liver, among other things. Bittman suggests adding liver and prunes, but I don’t know how I feel about prunes. Liver, fine; prunes, nuts, oh hell no. Go figure. Have stuffing suggestions I should try out? Serious eats has a great list here, including Bittman’s How to Cook Everything recipe that I have been experimenting with. Let me know in the comments.
