Traditional Classic Bread Stuffing Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is traditional stuffing made of bread? ›

BREAD STUFFING INGREDIENTS

Classic dried bread cubes, butter, celery, onion, herbs, and chicken broth or chicken stock is all you need for this moist bread stuffing. The recipe itself is very basic, but make no mistake, it does not skimp on flavor, presentation, sturdiness, or everything Thanksgiving.

The earliest documentary evidence is the Roman cookbook, Apicius De Re Coquinaria, which contains recipes for stuffed chicken, dormouse, hare, and pig. Most of the stuffings described consist of vegetables, herbs and spices, nuts, and spelt (a cereal), and frequently contain chopped liver, brains, and other organ meat.

Make the stuffing, melt butter in a large frying pan and gently sauté onion and garlic for five minutes until soft. Stir in the herbs for one minute then add breadcrumbs to absorb butter. Mix in zest, pine nuts and seasoning and cook over medium heat for about seven minutes until crumbs start to brown and crisp.

You can use any kind; store-bought white bread works well and would probably be my #1 suggestion for stuffing. You could also try using cut up dinner rolls, sourdough bread (actually this would be my personal first pick), challah, or anything else you want to experiment with.

Turkey stuffing was popularized in the early days of Thanksgiving, as it is written in many 16th-century Boston area documents. Stuffing most often uses dried bread, herbs, and vegetables that are reconstituted with liquid, stuffed into the turkey cavity, and baked until it is firm and finished cooking.

Although most people in America debate on whether the dish should be called stuffing or dressing the people of Pennsylvania call it filling. Essentially filling is the same as stuffing or dressing. The name suggests that it will fill something like stuffing does.

How do you make traditional stuffing? If you've never made Thanksgiving turkey stuffing before, you may think it is difficult. Our recipe is very simple, though and calls for just a handful ingredients: bread, butter, onion, celery, chicken broth, eggs and spices.

But for the Thanksgiving side dish in the South, the term dressing was adopted in place of stuffing, which was viewed as a crude term, during the Victorian era. Although dressing and stuffing are interchangeable terms, the signature ingredient of this Thanksgiving side dish in the South is cornbread.

Eggs: Two lightly beaten eggs help hold the dressing together and add moisture.

Any attempts to make stuffing with soft, fresh baked bread will result in a bread soup with a soggy texture. Follow this tip: Stale, dried-out bread makes the best stuffing.

Should you toast bread before making stuffing? ›

We start by cubing our bread—for traditional recipes, we favor a simple white sandwich-style loaf—then toast it in the oven at a low 275°F for about 45 minutes, tossing it every now and then to help it dry evenly.

Spread bread cubes in even layer on 2 rimmed baking sheets. Bake until edges have dried but centers are slightly moist (cubes should yield to pressure), 45 to 60 minutes**, stirring several times during baking.

Spread the cubed bread on top of two cooling racks set in two half-sheet pans. Heat your oven to the lowest setting (typically 150°–200°F) and bake for 45 minutes to an hour, or until completely dry. If your oven only goes down to, say, 250°, start by baking for 30 minutes, then check the dryness of a cube or two.

For starters, it's far and away the most flavorful—savory with herbs and spices and dripping with butter. Stuffing has everything in one: vegetables, dairy, bread, and often meat. There's a gorgeous interplay of texture with softened celery and crisp, buttery cubes of bread.

Stuffing is a mix of edible ingredients such as herbs, bread and a binder such as egg, traditionally stuffed into a meat cavity before it is cooked. Other ingredients in stuffing might be meat, nuts, butter, chopped vegetables and even fruit or oysters.

Stuffing and dressing are commonly used as different names for the same thing—a dish consisting of bits of bread (or other starchy things) and various seasonings.

Dressing and stuffing are staples of a Thanksgiving dinner. While dressing is more of a Southern affair, stuffing is a Northern spin on the dish. The significant difference between the two is the bread. Dressing is made from cornbread, and stuffing is made from other breads.