Real Southern Cornbread Dressing
Making cornbread dressing is an art, not an exact
science.
This recipe makes enough dressing for a crowd of
30 or more.
Experiment with the recipe to match what your
family likes.
Remember, cornbread dressing is a special type of
bread pudding ... you need plenty of liquid to start with.
Do not cook the dressing inside or with the
turkey. You run the risk of undercooking one item or overcooking the other.
Just cook the dressing in its own pan.
Oil the roasting pan. I use PAM, but you can use
butter or Wesson oil.
Most recipes call for equal amounts of white
bread and corn bread.
I use a little more cornbread, and a little less
white bread, rather than a 50-50 mix, roughly 2/3 corn bread and 1/3 white
bread.
For the white bread, use rolls or biscuits, not
plain white bread.
Buy the cheap kind of canned biscuits--those
without butter or other flavoring.
You can also substitute crushed unsalted saltine
crackers for some of the white bread.
Rip the bread into pieces about the size of the
end of your thumb--it's therapeutic.
I usually cook about 40 biscuits and 48 dinner
rolls. This makes enough for me to eat a few while I am cooking.
Cook this bread several days early, rip it up,
freeze it, and then pull it out to thaw the night before the day you will cook
the dressing.
I make four 8.5 x 11 pans of yellow cornbread
(each pan requires 3 packages of instant cornbread--so, you need to buy 12
packages total of cornbread mix). The corn bread should be crumbled into
lumps.
You can make the cornbread from scratch, but it
will not improve the flavor. I cook the cornbread in advance, crumble it,
freeze it, and put it out to thaw the night before.
If you live in a dry climate, you can let the
bread and cornbread sit out and go slightly stale (the mixture soaks up more
liquid that way). Otherwise, you can lightly toast the bread, if you want. But,
you can also use untoasted bread if you prefer.
You will have bread left over after you assemble
the dressing. This is okay --the exact amount you will need will vary depending
on how dry it is and how much liquid it absorbs. Bread is cheap, and it is okay
to throw some away (or feed the birds) -- but you don’t want to be left short when
making dressing, trying to get more at the last minute.
I use two bags of frozen onions and 3 or 3.5 cups
of chopped celery.
Most recipes call for a lot more celery, but
unless your crowd is a big fan of celery, err on the side of adding too little.
You can also keep some onion powder on hand,
in case you decide you need more onion flavor at the last minute, after you
have mixed up the raw dressing.
Sauté the onions and celery before you mix
everything together. As my mother and my Aunt Madge both used to say, no one
wants to bite down on a piece of raw celery. I do this the day before, when it
is less hectic.
I sauté the celery first in a little Wesson
oil. While that is cooking, I thaw the onions in the microwave.
Then I sauté the onions (separate from the
celery), again using Wesson oil. You can use other vegetable oils, but avoid
any with a strong flavor.
After those vegetables are cooked, I mix in
some of the butter (or margarine) and sage, and let those flavors meld together
in the refrigerator overnight. I am not sure it makes a lot of difference,
except that it is less work when I am actually putting the mixture together
right before baking.
I add two or three small tubs of margarine to
the dressing. You can use butter, if you prefer. This total includes the butter
you already added to the onion / celery mix.
I can't tell much difference between using
butter or margarine. The butter has a slightly better flavor, but it also makes
the dressing greasier. Soften the butter/ margarine before you add it to the
celery and onions – this makes mixing the ingredients much easier.
When its time to add the celery / onion
mixture to the dressing, soften it first in the microwave. This makes it much
easier to mix the ingredients.
A lot of recipes saw to use poultry seasoning.
Well, I use sage, and only about half as much as most recipes suggest. I
usually add two or three teaspoons of sage – sometimes just a bit more. This
depends on how well your crew likes sage.
The most important thing is, buy a new bottle
of sage. Old sage doesn't have much flavor (which is a good thing, according to
some people).
Tossing out the old bottle of sage is a
Thanksgiving tradition at my house.
Most recipes say add salt and pepper to taste.
I *never* use pepper.
Salt may or may not be needed, depending on
how salty your broth is.
I add 4 to 6 eggs slightly beaten. You really
do not have to beat the eggs, but you will probably break the yokes when you
crack the eggs, and beating them slightly does not add much labor to the
overall process.
If you're concerned about salmonella, you can
add the egg last – because all great cooks (ahem) taste the dressing as they go
along.
I've never heard of anyone getting sick from
the eggs in raw dressing, and I don't worry about it (you can quote me on your
tombstone).
But I would not feed raw dressing to a young
child or to a person with health problems … why tempt fate?
You need to add chicken broth or bouillon. I
use a mixture of canned broth and powdered bouillon. You can make your own
broth but I can't tell much difference, except it's a lot more work to cook the
broth first. However, the broth does smell wonderful when it’s simmering. And
if you carve the turkey the night before, cooking the bones makes you feel
really virtuous. As for me, I favor sloth.
I generally use two 2.25 ounce jars of
Weylen’s Chicken bouillon granules (mixed in 3 or 4 cups of water), plus 2 to 4
cans of low sodium chicken broth. You can buy the more expensive organic
chicken broth, but I can’t tell any difference.
If you are worried about the dressing having
too strong a chicken flavor, add less of the powdered bouillon granules to
start with. You can always add more later, but you can’t take it out once it is
in the dressing.
I add enough milk to make the mixture
"soupy". I usually use four small cans of canned milk, which makes
for a richer flavor. If you use regular milk, you may want to increase the
amount of butter somewhat.
If you need more liquid, you can add a little
water, or plain milk.
The desired texture of the raw dressing is
hard to describe – it should be a bit thicker than lumpy oatmeal, and you
should have a little free liquid around the edge of the pan. Remember, you want
the raw dressing to be “goopy” – this is a bread pudding you are making.
The raw dressing should taste about like the
final product, after it has been cooked.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
It usually takes me 20 to 30 minutes to
assemble the raw dressing – just about long enough for the oven to get hot.
Bake in a covered container.
If you want, you can uncover the dressing for
the last 10 to 15 minutes, either to brown the top of the dressing, or if you
get too much liquid in the mix this will dry it out.
The cooking time depends partly on how much
liquid you used. It typically takes between 1 ¼ and 1 ½ hours – sometimes a
little more, sometimes a little less.
The dressing will stay hot for a long time,
especially if you wrap the pan in clean towels.
