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Sausage Stuffing
2 tablespoons chopped onion 2 tablespoons shortening 1/2 pound sausage meat 2 1/4 cups mashed potatoes 1 cup bread crumbs 1 tablespoon parsley, minced Fry the onion in the shortening until transparent, add sausage meat and cook 5 minutes. Mix in mashed potatoes, bread crumbs and parsley. Stuff into turkey cavity, and sew bird.
A potato-based stuffing of the sort common in mid-century American holiday cookery, bound with sausage rather than egg. The proportions are generous for a small bird and modest for a large one.
- The safety hingeSausage meat cooked only five minutes goes into the cavity raw in the centre. If you stuff the bird, the stuffing itself must reach 165F on an instant-read thermometer taken at the middle of the cavity, not just the thigh. The reliable alternative is to bake it in a buttered dish alongside, 350F for about 40 minutes.
- YieldRoughly 4 cups, enough for a bird of about 6 to 8 lb. A 10-12 lb turkey will take rather more than this, and a 20 lb bird considerably more again; multiply up, or bake the surplus separately.
- Sausage meatThis means bulk pork sausage, uncased and unsmoked, of the breakfast type. Squeeze links out of their casings if bulk is unavailable. Season lightly: American breakfast sausage is usually already salted and often sage-forward, and the recipe adds no salt or pepper of its own.
- ShorteningIn American recipes of this kind 'shortening' may mean hydrogenated vegetable shortening or simply lard or other solid fat. Butter or the fat rendered from the sausage works as well; if the sausage is fatty, fry the onion in the drippings and skip the added fat entirely.
- Mashed potatoesUse potatoes mashed plain or with a little milk, not heavily creamed ones, or the stuffing turns pasty. Slightly dry leftover mash is ideal here.
- Bread crumbsSoft crumbs torn from day-old bread, not the dry fine crumbs sold for coating. Dry crumbs will absorb moisture from the potato and set the mixture solid.
- Sewing the birdCotton kitchen twine and a trussing needle, or simply close the cavity with skewers laced with string. Whatever is used must be removed before carving.