The cooks in our family have started the annual stuffing "discussion"

[Danascot]

The divide is deep and emotional. We end up with at least two stuffings ... not necessarily a bad thing except for the anger and hurt feelings that go into it.

What stuffings are your go-to for Thanksgiving? What are your favorite added ingredients to basic stuffing? One of mine is water chestnuts. They add a nice crunch to an otherwise soft textured dish.

Maybe with some new ideas we can get some agreement between the warring parties. Not likely but it's worth a try.

[flying rabbit]

1. I really like Stovetop.

Does the job well.

[Freddie]

2. I'm Pennsylvania Dutch

And we have very strong opinions on what we call “filling”. Most popular here is potato filling. Sauté finely diced onions and celery in lots of butter, add unseasoned soft bread cubes (and more butter) to the pan until lightly browned. Fold this into mashed potatoes (I use leftover mashed) with a beaten egg, a little milk, and a couple shakes of parsley flakes. Bake in a casserole dish alongside turkey til browned. Some people add poultry seasoning but I’m not fond of sage.

[NotASurfer]

3. Do you have agreement on soft vs crunchy?

I'm partial to dense & moist, stuff that you can slice & use like bread the next day for a leftover sandwich. I married an individual who is of the opinion that big cubes of flavored crunchy bread, hot out of the oven and topped with gravy, is a sine qua non of the Thanksgiving table.

[MOMFUDSKI]

4. Used to make it from scratch using dried bread.

Switched to Stovetop years ago. I do add onion, celery, and giblets. I use wide-top container to bake in the oven so the inside is soft with a lot of crispy top.

[Diamond_Dog]

5. Here's what I have used for 35 years.

Stale bread cubes, onion, celery, parsley, salt and pepper, some melted butter. Stuff it in the turkey.

[chowmama]

10. Same, but with breakfast sausage

And a little different seasoning. Sage and thyme, plus a tiny bit of mustard powder. I remember when my mom made it once, she spilled some mustard powder on the table. I came along, wondered what it was, and put it in my mouth. A) it was awful and B) she was horrified and told me I must never eat unknown stuff again. It might not have been food.

I don't use Jimmy Dean's anymore, but made bulk sausage a few days ago and tossed it in the freezer. Got all the saved stale bread out of the freezer, cubed and toasted it over the last 2 days. There's more than I can use for stuffing, even after Fast Eddie attacked the last batch, so I guess I'll just crumb some of it. Now all I need to buy is the veg.

[Lunabell]

6. No stuffing.

We southerners call it dressing. Cornbread, with all the accoutrements of a good casserole: Onion, celery, egg, turkey stock, butter and seasonings. We put it in a dish to bake and don't stuff the turkey with it.

Some people put oysters in it, but I've never had it that way.

[getagrip_already]

7. We have vegetarians and the occasional vegan at our gatherings...

So the "stuffing" is baked outside of the bird so everyone can partake in it. I like chestnuts personally, but since it isn't my dish I don't get a say.

Really the only non vegetarian dishes we have are the turkey and one gravy. there is usually a tofurkey as well with a non-meat gravy for the vegivores.

We strive to eat and let eat.

[usonian]

8. Mom made sausage and chestnut dressing.

It's probably safer to make it separately, as the interior is the least cooked, but you might need some turkey gravy to moisten it up if separate.

[Kali]

9. I don't like soggy bread and therefore do not like dressing/stuffing

but I make it for the others. I use my Mom's old recipe from the Anchorage AK newspaper circa 1976. it is a sausage and cornbread version with chopped veggies. it smells delicious but the texture is so gross to me.

[HoosierDebbie]

11. I use Turkey Stovetop but,

I add celery, onion and slivered almonds to chicken broth instead of water. Sometimes I add a little bit of turkey as well. The more additional ingredients I use, the more I incrementally increase the amount of broth or water. I would add some cranberries also, but not if I take it to my brother's house as he is not a fan of them.

[MyMission]

12. I add tree chestnuts

Interesting you add water chestnuts. Lately I buy the cooked and shelled chestnuts, which makes it easy to add them. For years I used to buy a bag, slit, roast and peel them, and not all of them were good.

Haven't stuffed a turkey in years, I cook a turkey breast but still make stuffing with chestnuts every year. I'm not a big bread eater, usually clean out my freezer and use whatever bread I find there to make the croutons for the stuffing. Otherwise it's basic onion, garlic, celery, sweet peppers sauteed, maybe carrot. I use a vegetable broth to moisten, and bake it so it's vegetarian.

[rsdsharp]

13. I always used to do two.

One was (and still is) a tradition sage dressing. Dried bread, onions and celery sautéed in butter, chicken stock, sage, thyme, salt and pepper.

The other was often apple and onion, or cornbread and sausage. One year I did a chestnut dressing. After roasting the chestnuts, and peeling the sharp skinned little bastards for an hour until my fingers bled, I said never again.

The first year my sister came home from college she declared she wanted a “traditional” oyster stuffing. We had never had oyster stuffing. Nobody liked oysters. But my mother acquiesced, and the dressing was inedible — and the turkey tasted like oysters, too.

Now I just do one dressing, and I make that ahead the night before. The day is fast approaching when I pass the Thanksgiving baton to a younger generation.

[CANADIANBEAVER69]

14. I do it the way my mom did

Stale bread that I heavily season with poultry and sage let this sit in a big bowl. Then I fry up onion, celery with butter, bacon fat(sorry, it's they way I know lol) and a bit of oil. While that is frying I heavily season it as well. Once the celery and onion is basically cooked you pour it over the bread mixture and toss. If you find it's too dry add some turkey broth to moisten it up more. I make enough to stuff the bird and then have a loaf amount that I mix, once cooked, with the stuffing that comes out of the turkey. That way there are crunchy bits along with soft yummy bits. My stuffing is very dark because of the amount of herbs I use. I have to put some away because it's one of the dishes that gets eaten up every time.

[Danascot]

15. There are many wonderful ideas here

Thanks for contributing!

Another thing I like to do is skim off some turkey fat from the cooked bird and substitute it for some of the butter. It adds more turkey flavor.

One of the cooks in our family adds Craisins. I can take it or leave it but it's one of the things that creates heated discussions in our family.

If you google "no bread stuffing" there are some wild recipes. Cauliflower, oatmeal, squash, etc

[yellowdogintexas]

16. No stuffing at all. Cornbread dressing on the side please

with onion, celery, lots of pan drippings, an egg, turkey seasonings, broth from boiling the giblets if more liquid is needed. Some folks bake it in a cake pan but my mom made mounds of it and baked it in an iron skillet. Nice and crispy on the edges and just awesome.

She used stale cornbread and some stale biscuits ratio of 2 parts cornbread and 1 part biscuit
She never stuffed a turkey either. I find most stuffing to be doughy.