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Chestnut Dressing
To 1/2 cupful of bread crumbs add 2 tablespoonfuls of melted butter and 1 tablespoonful cream. Season with salt, a dash of cayenne, a little grated nutmeg, 2 tablespoonfuls hot water; mix well together. Mash 1 cupful of boiled chestnuts and mix with the other ingredients. Use for stuffing turkey and chicken.
A small, plain chestnut stuffing meant to be packed into a bird. The quantities as given are modest -- enough for a chicken, not a large turkey.
- YieldHalf a cup of crumbs and a cup of chestnuts makes roughly a cup and a half of dressing, enough for a small chicken; a 12-14 lb turkey would need several times that quantity.
- ChestnutsBoiled chestnuts means peeled nutmeats simmered until tender, 20-30 minutes, then mashed while warm. Vacuum-packed or jarred cooked chestnuts are an honest substitute; canned chestnut puree is not, being far wetter and often sweetened.
- PeelingScore an X in the flat side of each shell before boiling. Both the outer shell and the papery inner skin must come off, and both come away far more easily while the nuts are still hot.
- Bread crumbsThe recipe does not specify. The added butter, cream and hot water suggest dry crumbs rather than fresh soft ones, since fresh crumbs are more likely to make the mixture pasty; stale bread dried in a low oven and crushed would suit.
- TextureChestnut dressing goes dense and heavy easily. Mash the nuts coarsely rather than smoothly and fold rather than beat, so some texture survives the roasting.
- Stuffing safetyIf you pack a bird, the centre of the stuffing must reach 165F, which usually means the breast overcooks. Baking the dressing in a covered dish alongside, moistened with a little stock, is the more reliable course.
- SeasoningCayenne and nutmeg were common seasonings for chestnut dishes of this period. Both are easy to overdo at this small scale -- a pinch of each, tasted before the mixture goes near the bird.
Chestnut stuffing came into American cookbooks by way of France and England, where chestnuts had long been paired with roast fowl and with Brussels sprouts, and it was a familiar part of the Thanksgiving and Christmas table by the later nineteenth century. Before the blight, American chestnuts were abundant and cheap in eastern markets and sold roasted on street corners in autumn; the blight was identified in New York in 1904 and had swept most of the range within a few decades, so nearly all chestnuts sold today are European or Asian.