An Ode to Stuffing

A rather pretentious title - but stuffing (not dressing) is important! Especially since potato stuffing is probably the only truly unique recipe I have - I've done numerous searches for something similar and keep coming up with nothing ... some use coarsely mashed potatoes - but these add bread and/or apples - nothing is really quite the same as the one we have. So here is one story about how we got it:

The Grandmothers - Great Grandma Hanley, Great Grandma Casey,
and Great Great Grandma Hughes

When she arrived in this country from Ireland in 1908, your Great Great Grandmother (in the case of James and Madeline, Great Great Great), Mary Collins Hughes, lived in an apartment in Long Island City, Queens with her husband Peter Hughes ( a poor stonecutter), and their six children. According to your Great Great Aunt Nellie (one of her daughters), a German lady lived next door. This long forgotten neighbor helped your Great Great Grandmother out when she first emigrated and taught her to make potato stuffing - making it not an Irish recipe at all! At any rate - this recipe has been served at hundreds of our family's Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter dinners for almost 100 years and to six generations. It should serve to remind you of whence you came and to be thankful someone was kind enough to help us when we first arrived here ...

Having one's own personal Irish/German Thanksgiving story (as opposed to the impersonal, we-weren't-even-here-then Indian/British Thanksging story) is a great responsibility! Sooo - even if you hate it - you need to prepare this potato stuffing - and if you make it for enough years - you will probably learn to like & eat it - but regardless - Tradition is Tradition - make it anyway!

This is one of those faintly vague recipes - so feel free to vary the ingredient amounts a bit -

4 or 5 white potatoes (this means not russet - you want waxy potatoes that will hold together - like those in potato salad - actually Yukon Gold or red will work too)

1 stick of butter

Pepper

Salt

Thyme

Onions

2 Stalks of celery

Sage

These amounts should produce enough stuffing to fill the neck end of a 20-something pound turkey.

Start to make the stuffing the day before you are going to cook the turkey. Don't peel the potatoes, just wash them. Boil them in salted water until you can stick a fork through them easily. Then put in the fridge until the next morning.

First thing in the morning, peel the potatoes, then cut into small cubes. Chop the celery and onions fairly fine. Melt the butter in a large frying pan and add the chopped celery and onions. Cook over fairly low heat until the onions are transparent & when you stick your head over the pan your eyes don't water - about 10 minutes. Add the potatoes - if it seems too dry add some more butter - up to a whole stick - Thanksgiving is no time to worry about your diet! {But do it a bit at a time - one year Nana added about a pound of butter and the potatoes were floating} Add the salt and pepper - you'll have to taste - but prolly less salt than you think and lots more pepper. Add the thyme - lots of thyme! ( I wonder if thyme has some important medicinal qualitites - I hope so - I seem to use it in everything in quite large quantities) ok, probably up to 1 tablespoon ... the other herbs are optional.

When it's all mixed well, stuff the turkey. It's best to stuff with the potato stuffing first - with the turkey upside down - then turn it over and stuff the rear with the bread stuffing. If you do it the other way round - you risk having everything drop out (Believe me, I know).

Do Not Leave the Turkey Sit Around Stuffed!
{Unless of course you have the flu and don't intend to eat and therefore hope to be the sole surving heir ... hmmm ... while writing the first edition this seemed like a poor option ... though the pay off would be better now - it's still a pretty bad idea}

Cooking the Turkey

Before you can cook the turkey, you must take out the stuff that's left inside (Jeanne from Levittown once did not do this - and almost got divorced after only 3 months of marriage) - I know none of you like to do this - but you have to - check both ends of the turkey - then wash in the sink - both inside and out.

Take the neck and giblets (do not use the liver - it will make the broth taste too strongly - see Note#1) - and place them in a small pot with some celery stalks, and onion chopped in large bits and some thyme salt and pepper. Simmer on low heat while the turkey cooks - if the water boils away - add a bit more. This broth will be used for the gravy - and it perfumes the air with the smell of Thanksgiving - making sure everyone develops a good appetite.

After stuffing the turkey (see Stuffing the Turkey), place the turkey in a roasting pan. Place slices of bacon across the breast and over the legs - this serves two purposes - it keeps the meat from drying out & it gives all the kibitzers and noshers something to pick at before dinner - otherwise they'll pull out pieces of stuffing or tear off pieces of skin to see if it tastes ok ...

Preheat the oven to 425F. Roast for about 30-40 minutes, then turn down to somewhere between 325F and 350F. Roast for about 4 hours, basting it about every 30 minutes.

When the turkey is done - take it out of the oven and let it rest for about 30 minutes - making sure it is on something that will catch any juices.

Carving - if you want to know how to carve it - you'll have to watch someone do it - I can't give a good description that would help in any way - except to point out that several generations of males in this family have royally messed it up and blamed it on bad knives, bad turkeys, bad cooks and bad weather - bad carving does not make good turkey taste worse and good carving doesn't make a bad turkey taste good.


Hmmm ... I forgot something - After Thanksgiving is over, there is a way to get even for having to do all the cooking - Make Turkey Soup! A large turkey will make enough soup to last until Christmas ...

Note#1: If you don't know which is the liver - get out one of your old anatomy books & figure it out - you should know this by now - don't call me!!

Buying the Turkey

Firstly, buy a turkey that has no stuff added to it - no self-basting - all they are adding is broth and fat - and it makes it impossible to make a decent gravy - they are just not worth it - if you are going to go through all the hassle of cooking a turkey dinner - the turkey ought to be the best you can get!

Buy a fresh turkey - there are two reasons for this - one is that they taste better - the second (as Chris knows only too well) is that you don't have to defrost it. If you do get a frozen one, defrost it in the refrigerator for at least 48 hours before you need to cook it - check the night before and if you think it is still too frozen - leave it out for a few hours.

Buy at least a 20 pound bird - it is stupid to go through all this trouble for a 10 pounder - and you certainly won't want to cook again for at least a week - so it might as well be a big one!

Thanksgiving Menu

It is time to start thinking about Thanksgiving - it doesn't really take much thinking as it is always the same - no one likes to be adventurous on holidays - the whole family is very big on tradition. This makes it much easier on the cook - So here is the menu as it appeared in the first edition of this cookbook:

Turkey Stuff

**WARNING!!**

Cooking Thanksgiving dinner for this family can be a real pain - do not - attempt it unless you are dedicated & are prepared to follow through on an extremely rigid menu - everything has to be done exactly the same as the year before - or the family curse will follow you forever (see Note #1).

The Menu

Shrimp Cocktail*

Olives and Celery

Roast Turkey

Gravy

Bread Stuffing

Potato Stuffing

String Beans

Sweet Potato Rolls

Mashed Potatoes

Broccoli with Cheese Sauce

Creamed Onions*

Cauliflower*

Mashed Rutabagas*

Jellied Cranberry Sauce

Pumpkin Pie

French Silk Pie

Apple Pie

Custard Pie*

Tawny Port (see Note #2)

*These are optional - to be served ony in case of large numbers of out-of-town relatives.

Note #1: No one knows exactly what this involves - because no one has ever taken the chance to find out!

Note #2: This is not to be served with the dinner - it is primarily for the cook - with a small amout to be added to the gravy. This is a tradition that dates back to your Great-great grandmother - it is not an optional part of the dinner!

Like Oil and Water or How to Make Gravies and Sauces

The basic idea behind any sauce is the mixing of oils/fats and water - and keeping them mixed. The way to do this is to form an emulsion using some third element - here, I'll only deal with using flour - but other things can be used - like eggs (for hollandaise and mayonnaise).

Since flour tends to get lumpy when mixed with water, the best way is to mix the flour with the fat first and blend them together well - which is easier when the fat is in liquid form. Then the water ( or any liquid ) can be added and the resulting mixture heated to allow the flour to thicken it.

Gravy

I think what makes gravy hard for people is that there are no recipes for it - the amounts are not absolute - but after all, this is cooking - not a chemistry experiment. You'll have to learn to judge how much gravy you can obtain from any given roast - mostly by the amount of brown stuff remaining in the pan


If you've roasted something and want to make gravy - I suppose that is what gravy is - a sauce made from the stuff leftover in the pan when the roast is removed - first pour off all the fat into a heatproof container. Now all the stuff you've poured off may not be fat - some may be juices from the meat - in other words - water! So cool the fat a bit and see if the fat rises to the top and skim it off - water in the fat will make your gravy lumpy. Save the broth remaining on the bottom to use as liquid for the gravy.

Take the fat you've recovered (if you've gotten a really large amount of fat - like 2 cups - don't use all of it) and add an equal amount of flour. Stir to make a paste like mixture.

Now there are two ways to go from here - either should be fine because you'll get an emulsion either way. You can first deglaze the pan with some liquid - this means adding some liquid to the pan, heating it to boiling and then scraping up all that brown protein stuff which make the gravy a nice brown and adds the flavor. You can use some wine, milk, broth, or water, or a mixture of liquids. Then you can add the fat/flour paste and while stirring constantly - so it will emulsify evenly and then heat it to simmer until it thickens. If it seems to get too thick - add a bit more liquid. Conversely, if it's too thin, add more of the paste. Season to taste and you're all done!

Some people add the oil/flour paste to the pan first - they believe it takes away a certain floury taste if the flour cooks a bit before adding the liquid (but if you burn the flour it will taste bad and the flour won't thicken the gravy as well). If you're careful - I doubt it matters much which you do first - so do whatever makes you happy ...

While you're practicing making gravy you should keep a jar of store bought gravy on hand - add some wine and a few herbs - most people won't ever know the difference ( but I will ).

Veloute/Bechamel/Cheese Sauce

These are really all the same thing - cooking can be a bit redundant - so if you can do one, you can do them all. They are much easier than gravy because you actually have a set amount of things to add - and you don't have to deal with an awkward size roasting pan on top of your stove - you can use a nice saucepan.

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup broth (for veloute) milk ( for bechamel or cheese)

Melt butter in pan.

Add flour and mix with a whisk til smooth.

Pour in liquid slowly while whisking.

Keep whisking and bring to a boil to thicken.

For cheese sauce add a few handfuls of whatever cheese you like.

For a thicker sauce use 3 talblespoons each butter/flour, for thinner, 1 tablespoon of each.

Cook for a bit and adjust seasoning ( this means add spices and herbs or whatever, but carefully - carefully because you can't take out stuff you've put in - so do it a little and taste after each addition).

When you've mastered all this you can make all kinds of intricate stuff - like canneloni, chicken croquettes, macaroni and cheese, Christmas dinner and I can let you cook dinner and your kitchen will be a mess instead of mine ....