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Dressing Up A Turkey Day Favorite

Photo by LYNN KESSEL

A good basic bread dressing is a welcome sight at any Thanksgiving feast. Some say it's even more important than the turkey!

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By LYNN KESSEL

Tribune correspondent

Published: November 26, 2008

In her early years, my mother always made stuffing spiked with the turkey's giblets. My memory is a little cloudy on this, but I seem to recall in her later years, she had a desire to shake things up a bit. So she made an outside-the-bird dressing, gloriously flavored with oysters.

Is it called stuffing or dressing? That depends on your ZIP code. Southerners make it out of corn bread, bake it separately and call it dressing. Northerners make it with white bread, put it inside the turkey and call it stuffing.

Whatever ...

Like Mom, I've become something of a tradition-bender, if not breaker, when it comes to stuffing and dressing.

Although I've made Mom's oyster dressing, over the years I've also plugged in all kinds of other enticing ingredients like wild rice, hot sausage, chopped apples and dried cranberries.

Asking around the community lately, I discovered I'm in the minority, though. Most of the folks I encountered make their once-a-year stuffing with a fervor that borders on the religious.

Most agreed it's probably the most essential dish of your Thanksgiving venue. But, it needs to done just right - not too wet, not too dry. You have to use the right bread, add the right veggies or mix in the right seasonings.

"I still do my mom's stuffing. It's the only thing I cook for Thanksgiving," says Linda Cardamone, owner of the Three Legged Poodle. "And stuffing the bird is the only way. I make enough for an entire army using two loaves of bread, lots of butter and a whole container of Lowry's poultry seasoning."

Linda sautes the giblets with onion and celery, and then adds them to the bread. Her adult children liked it so much, they learned to make it the same way.

"Dressing has to be made with cornbread and cooked outside the bird," insists Hydro Harvest Farms owner John Lawson.

"It's a Mason-Dixon thing. I was raised in the South and my Yankee wife wasn't. So to keep the peace sometimes we make two kinds of dressings."

Harriet Garbelman, owner of Harriet's Flowers, remembers her Uncle Strickland's dressing. "I thought it was so neat that a man was making something," she said. "It was his job to bring his homemade cornbread dressing made with shoe peg corn and celery. For at least 25 years, that was his Thanksgiving contribution."

Pam Malinoski's grandmother Reuland passed down this week's recipe for ground beef stuffing, a family heirloom that's never been written down.

"My mom thinks the recipe was probably made with pork, but my grandma didn't like anything greasy so she made hers with ground beef," Pam said. "It's very tasty and my family seems to only make it for Thanksgiving. This stuffing can be made inside or outside the bird. ... But just don't forget the gravy."

GRANDMA REULAND'S GROUND-BEEF STUFFING

1 loaf bread

1 pound lean ground beef

1/2 stick margarine

1 cup celery, finely chopped

1 onion, finely chopped

2 teaspoons poultry seasoning or sage

Salt and pepper

Chicken broth

Cut bread into cubes. Leave out to dry, or preheat oven to 250 degrees. Place bread cubes on a cookie sheet and place in oven. Turn off oven and remove cubes when they are dry.

Saute the celery and onion in margarine until opaque. Mix together bread cubes, ground beef (do not brown first), onions, celery and seasonings. Use your hands to do this. Add broth just to moisten. Don't add too much or the mixture will get soggy. If baking outside the turkey, place in a lightly greased casserole dish at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes. Stir mixture after 30 minutes in the oven. Meat should be cooked through and a little crispy on top. If not, bake a while longer.

Makes about 8 cups to fill a 10- to 12-pound turkey.

Lynn Kessel can be reached at lkessel@mac.com or P.O. Box 913, Ruskin FL 33575-0913. For more of her recipes, visit southshore .tbo.com and enter the search words: Lynn Kessel. Readers are encouraged to send in their favorite recipes, comments and suggest

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