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Clam Stuffing
4 1/2 cups bread crumbs boiling water 2 eggs, well beaten 3 1/2 teaspoons salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper 1/2 teaspoon paprika 1/2 teaspoon sage 1 onion, minced 4 1/2 cups clams, chopped Soften bread crumbs with boiling water and press out excess moisture very carefully. Add other ingredients in order given, mixing well. This is sufficient for a good sized turkey. Use half the recipe for a chicken.
A straightforward bread stuffing carrying an unusually large amount of shellfish. The proportions are sound, but two things need attention before you commit a turkey to it: the moisture balance and the salt.
- The hinge: squeeze the crumbs dryChopped clams release a great deal of liquid as they heat, so the bread has to go in nearly dry or the stuffing turns to paste. Press the softened crumbs hard in a sieve or a clean towel until no water runs, and drain the clams well too.
- Use clam liquor, not plain waterSoften the crumbs with the strained liquor from the clams, topped up with boiling water as needed. It costs nothing and is the difference between a stuffing that tastes of clams and one that tastes of bread.
- Bread crumbs means soft crumbsBread crumbs probably means soft crumbs -- in older cookbooks this is usually torn or grated fresh bread, loosely packed, rather than dry packaged crumbs. Dry crumbs at the same volume will absorb more liquid and give a denser result; roughly 6-9 slices of day-old bread, crusts on, will give 4 1/2 cups of soft crumbs.
- Cut the saltThree and a half teaspoons is a lot for this quantity, and with canned clams, which are already salted, start with about one teaspoon and adjust. Judge the seasoning by frying a spoonful of the mixture rather than tasting it raw.
- Quantity of clamsFour and a half cups chopped clams is roughly 2 lb of shucked meat, or about nine to ten 6.5 oz cans, drained. Chowder clams (quahogs) are the usual choice and want a coarse chop rather than a mince.
- SageThe recipe does not specify the form. If the half teaspoon is read as dried ground sage, note that ground is stronger by volume than the rubbed leaf sold today, and a full teaspoon of rubbed sage would be closer to the same effect.
- Cooking it safelyAny stuffing containing shellfish and raw egg must reach 165F at the centre, which inside a bird usually means the breast is overdone by the time it gets there. Baking it separately in a covered dish at 350F, basted with pan juices, is the better route; allow an hour or more for a full batch and check the centre with a thermometer rather than going by time.
- YieldAs written it makes roughly 9-10 cups, which matches the recipe's 'good sized turkey'; the recipe itself gives no weight. Half the recipe suits a small chicken or an 8x8 baking dish.