Grandma French's Stuffing Recipe
Plain, Simple. Delicious.
As promised, the recipe for my Grandmother’s stuffing recipe. Plain, Simple. Delicious.
Begin with about 1-2 loaves -depending on the size of loaf - of good white bread. Grandma French always used her own homemade white bread but I often mix in a bit of grain or whole wheat bread in. The evening before, break apart the bread into cubes either by cutting the loaf or breaking it apart with your hands into about one inch size pieces. You want 10-12 cups of bread after it is all broken up. Put the bread on a cookie sheet and allow to dry out overnight. If I’ve missed this step and forgotten to do it the evening before, I put the cookie sheets in a very low about 175 degree oven for one hour or until the bread is dry.
In the morning of the day you are cooking the turkey, prepare the following:
4-6 tablespoons butter
2 large onions sliced and chopped finely
6 celery stalks sliced and diced finely
Salt and pepper
Fresh or dried ground sage to taste. (In my recipe I put about ½ cup chopped fresh or 2 tablespoons ground.)
Danielle’s options: 2 fresh mild sage or breakfast or sweet Italian sausages
1 cup walnuts or pecans chopped (and toasted) (which my nephew does not like!)
1 tart apple coarsely chopped
For my recipe, I almost always put the sausages in. But my grandmother rarely did. Once I started doing it in our home, it seemed to become a habit.
Heat a large frying pan on medium high. I use a large cast iron frying pan just because I love this pan and it cooks so evenly but any large pan will do. Remove the sausages (if you are using them) from their casings by squeezing the meat out directly into the hot pan. Using a wooden spoon, cook the sausages through until they resemble a brown crumble. Through this process, take the wooden spoon and continually mash and press the sausage meat in the pan as it breaks down. This will take about 15 minutes. There should be enough fat from the sausages that you don’t need any extra in the pan. If you do, use a small amount of vegetable oil to get things started. Place the cooked sausage meat into a large bowl and remove the grease from the pan.
Heat the pan on medium heat and melt the butter. Add the onions and sauté until they are soft, do not brown - about 5 -8 minutes.
Add the celery and cook for approximately 10 more minutes or until the mixture is soft and melting.
Add the salt, pepper, sage and heat through until the spices are fragrant. Turn the heat off.
In the large bowl add the bread chunks and stir. Add the onion mixture and using the wooden spoon, combine all the ingredients including the sausage. If you are using apples and walnuts, add them both here.
My grandmother used water to wet the bread, some people use chicken or vegetable stock. Either works. Olivia used water for our Thanksgiving this year. Add only enough water to dampen the bread, don’t wet it. It’s just to add a bit of moisture to the mixture. About ½ cup or a bit more should do the job. Allow the mixture to cool.
My Grandmother cooked everything on her wood fired cook stove
In the meantime, the turkey is washed, dried and ready to be cooked. The insides have been removed! The oven is on - I preheat to 400 degrees. The roasting pan is waiting for you on the counter. Stuff the bird with cooled stuffing. We stuff in the neck and the body and remaining stuffing goes into a buttered casserole dish to be baked covered with foil later.
Salt and pepper the bird well and place in the oven. Turn the temperature down to 325 and cook until it is done. 20 minutes a pound or until the internal temperature of a meat thermometer inserted into the deepest part of the breast or into the thigh of the bird reaches 165 degrees. Make sure to allow the turkey to rest for at least 30 minutes after removing it from the oven. Just before serving, scoop out the stuffing into bowls.
