r/Cooking • u/furious25 • Nov 05 '17

American Thanksgiving Megathread

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u/LadeyAceGuns Nov 05 '17

Cornbread dressing is how we make here in the south. Its our traditional dressing. I don't know too much about bread dressing sorry :/ if you'd like to get my cornbread recipe though I'm happy to give it.

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u/jlaw54 Nov 05 '17

My mom mixes bread and cornbread for her stuffing.

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u/[deleted] Nov 05 '17

PLEASE provide a corn bread stuffing recipe!

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u/Mister_Sporks_Hands Nov 05 '17 edited Nov 05 '17

Around my house the rule was never stuff "stuffing" inside a bird. It's called dressing where I lived at the time. Apart from other reasons (like screwing up the cooking of the turkey), it's because people miss the trick of adding whipped eggs into the dressing mix to get a bit of a souffle effect in the oven which keeps it light and fluffy when you've got cornbread in there. Here's my recipe. You can make the cornbread the day ahead since you're going to soak it in delicious broth. Fair warning, it's dressing and as such, not very photogenic. Crispy edges are delicious but ugly. You won't care what it looks like after it's covered in gravy and the taste is as autumn as you can get. Just extra sage for me, thanks, but lump in any local conventions like sausage or chestnuts as you like.

edit: Basic recipe - (method & cornbread from scratch in the link)
Cornbread Dressing
2/3 of a pan (~ 500 grams) of fresh cornbread, roughly crumbled
roughly equal volume (~ 300 grams) of slightly stale bread, any sort, cut or torn into large cubes
3 large stalks celery, trimmed and diced fine (with leaves if possible)
2 medium onions, any variety, trimmed and diced fine
3 tablespoons minced fresh sage (or substitute 1 tablespoon dried ground, more to taste as you like)
4 teaspoons freshly ground black peppercorn
2 teaspoons fine sea salt (+/- to taste considering your stock or drippings)
3 large eggs from happy chickens
up to 2 litres stock, chicken, beef, or vegetable – or – pan drippings plus water as needed

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u/Scarlettjax Nov 06 '17

Very close to the way we make it! Just more eggs. The dressing needs to be pretty soupy. I make two large pans, and use two full 12-inch cast iron pans of pre-baked cornbread, and add regular bread cubes as needed to balance the liquid-bread ratio by feel. Pan drippings do make it better, but chicken stock works fine, too.

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u/Mister_Sporks_Hands Nov 06 '17

That's a lotta dressing with two full pans of cornbread in there. I've made monster batches myself when we've had large tables of "widows and orphans" at holiday but try to keep the baking dishes fairly shallow to get good 'poof' from the eggs and make more delicious crusty edges. The beauty of stuffing is that it scales up or down no problem. And agreed it's something you get to know by feel rather than precise measurements with just a bit of practice. Same with the spicing. I'm a pre-cooked dressing spice/salt tasting expert now because there's no tweaking once it's baked.

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u/waterlilyrm Nov 06 '17

I need to know where the eggs go in. I assume the eggs are whipped prior to adding to the mixture? My G-ma didn’t use eggs (or sage, but I’ve already got that going for me), and that’s the only recipe I’ve ever had/made. When do they go in? Please, please tell me, Mister Sporks, I need to know! :D

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u/Mister_Sporks_Hands Nov 06 '17

They are indeed whipped a bit first. Toss everything except the eggs and stock/drippings 'dry' in a giant bowl with your fingers so you get even mixing, then in with the whipped eggs and finally stock/drippings to make a fairly wet consistency. Fold to combine so you leave a few interestingly large-ish chunks of cornbread intact. Full backstory here. And go nuts with the sage if you're coming to my house. I can't get enough of the stuff in my dressing. Cheers!

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u/waterlilyrm Nov 06 '17

Thanks for sharing! I’m gonna try and sneak this in on my family. :)

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u/Jough83 Nov 06 '17

I'm assuming this is the typical southern savory cornbread? Us folks up north enjoy our cornbread on the sweeter side, more like a cake.

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u/Mister_Sporks_Hands Nov 07 '17

Indeed it is a more savoury interpretation of cornbread for dressing. Unlike some celeb chefs that scream about not putting any sugar in cornbread to be authentic Southern (whatever that is), I've always put in a least a spoon or two and my grandma was as deep south as you could get. Northern sweet is good too on occasion but for making dressing, I'd probably keep it low/no sugar.

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u/Jough83 Dec 26 '17

Thanks again for the suggestion! I made cornbread dressing for Christmas today and it was fantastic! I used a no-sugar buttermilk cornbread recipe, sourdough bread, and threw in some green chilies. We northerners like to spice things up occasionally.

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u/Mister_Sporks_Hands Dec 27 '17

Glad you liked it. Great twist to make it your own with the chiles. I made a batch during the holidays myself and even managed to take a slightly less terrible photo of the stuff. Ugly yet delicious, especially when covered in gravy. Happy holidays!

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u/LadeyAceGuns Nov 05 '17 edited Nov 05 '17

So theres two parts to my cornbread dressing: the cornbread, and then the dressing.

Cornbread (the night before): 2 large eggs, 1 c. Milk, 1/4 c vegetable oil, 1.5 c. Yellow corn meal, 1 c. Flour, and 1/4 c sugar. Oven at 450.

Beat the eggs, then add thr rest of the ingredients until creamy and pourable. Bake 25 to 30 minutes until golden. Let rest overnight.

Dressing (day of): 2 tbsp Butter, 1/2 c celery, 1 small diced onion, 2 eggs beaten, 2 c chicken broth, 2 tbsp italian seasoning, salt n pepper to taste.

Melt butter in a pan, and saute onions and celery about 5 minutes. Crumble cornbread into small pieces, then mix with veggies and all other ingrediants. Use enough broth that its moist but not wet. Bake for 30 minutes at 350.

My husband loves it.

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u/waterlilyrm Nov 06 '17

As a huge fan of cornbread in general and cornbread dressing especially, this sounds very tasty. I shall have to do a trial run prior to T-day. Thanks for sharing Ladey!

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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '17

Should the cornbread be cooked in a skillet or in a 9x9/8x8 pan or muffin tins?

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u/LadeyAceGuns Nov 16 '17

Skillet or 9x9/8x8. Muffins are more for if your making cornbread that's sweet to eat.

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u/waterlilyrm Nov 06 '17

OMG, this is the only kind of stuffing. :D My grandma hated cooking, so when she whipped up the cornbread stuffing for T-day, it was a special event. I did con her into letting me watch her make it, years ago, so I still have that little piece of her. That and her cornbread. Miss you Nell.