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Poultry Stuffing No. 2
4 cups stale bread crumbs 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper 3/4 cup melted butter Mix ingredients in order given. This rule is sufficient for an eight pound turkey. Fine herbs may be added if desired. If the fowl is very large and a good deal of stuffing is liked the body may be filled with thin slices of bread well buttered, sprinkled with seasoning and dipped lightly in stock.
A plain butter-and-crumb dressing of the sort that dominated American poultry cookery before boxed mixes. It is essentially seasoned buttered bread, and the quality of the bread decides the result.
- What "stale bread crumbs" meansNot dry packaged crumbs, which will turn to paste. Use day-old firm white bread torn or cut into rough half-inch pieces, or coarsely grated on a box grater. Four cups is roughly 5 to 6 ounces of bread.
- The butter is not a typoThree-quarters of a cup is a stick and a half for four cups of crumbs, which by modern taste is very rich and will read as greasy to some. Half that amount, with a few tablespoons of stock to bring it together, gives a lighter dressing.
- Season more than thisA teaspoon of salt and a quarter teaspoon of pepper is the whole seasoning. The suggested "fine herbs" are worth taking up: sage, thyme, parsley, and a chopped onion sweated in some of the butter are common additions in stuffing recipes of the period.
- Stuffing inside the birdIf you pack it into the cavity, the stuffing must reach 165F on a thermometer, which usually means the breast overcooks waiting for it. Baking it in a covered dish alongside, moistened with stock, is the reliable route.
- YieldThe stated quantity for an eight-pound turkey is modest by current expectations, likely filling the body cavity only. Plan on doubling if you want leftovers or are also filling the neck cavity.
- The buttered-slice variantThe alternative at the end -- bread slices buttered, seasoned and dipped in stock, then layered into the bird -- behaves like a savory bread pudding rather than a crumb stuffing. It is good, but it soaks up more fat and juice, so skim the pan drippings before making gravy.
Bread stuffings built on little more than crumbs, butter, salt and pepper were common in American cookery through the nineteenth century, and some cookbooks of the era printed more than one numbered version.