Chestnut Turkey Dressing

A plain, old-style chestnut dressing that leans entirely on the chestnuts for body — there is no onion, no celery, no egg. The whole job is getting the chestnuts peeled and cooked soft enough to rice.

• Chestnuts, from scratchTwo cups of cooked chestnuts means roughly 1 to 1 1/2 lb of fresh nuts in the shell. Score an X in each flat side, boil or roast 15 minutes, then peel while hot — the inner brown pell will not come away once the nut cools.
• Or use the jarred kindVacuum-packed or jarred whole cooked chestnuts work directly and save an hour. Two 7-oz jars gives about the right volume. Avoid sweetened chestnut purée and candied marrons, which are dessert products.
• "Boil chestnuts" means boil them softThe recipe assumes they go through a ricer, so they need to be tender all the way through — 20 to 30 minutes at a simmer for peeled nuts. Underdone chestnuts turn gritty rather than creamy.
• ShorteningA third of a cup of melted shortening is about 5 tablespoons. Melted butter can be used in its place.
• Bread crumbs"Dry bread crumbs" here most likely means stale bread dried and grated or rolled, rather than a fine commercial crumb. Tear day-old bread and pulse it briefly, or the half cup of hot water will turn the mixture to paste.
• SaltTwo teaspoons for this small quantity is aggressive by modern taste, especially if you use salted butter and jarred chestnuts. Start with one and correct after mixing — the mixture is safe to taste since nothing raw is in it.
• YieldThis makes about 3 cups. At the usual allowance of roughly 3/4 cup per pound of bird, that will only part-fill a 10 to 12 lb turkey; multiply the recipe if you want the cavity full.
• Stuffing the birdFill loosely and only immediately before the turkey goes into the oven — never the night before. The centre of the dressing must reach 165F, which usually means testing the stuffing separately from the thigh. Baking it in a buttered dish for 30 minutes at 350F is easier and drier in the good sense.