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Bread Dressing
2 CUPS CORN BREAD CRUMBS 2 CUPS BISCUIT CRUMBS (OR MIXED BREAD AND BISCUIT) 1/2 CUP CHOPPED CELERY .
I ONION, CHOPPED FINE I TABLESPOON MINCED PARSLEY I TABLESPOON POULTRY SEASONING 2 TABLESPOONS MELTED FAT SALT AND PEPPER WATER OR MEAT BROTH 3 WHOLE EGGS If bread crusts are too hard, remove them. Mix all ingredients together, using only enough liquid to moisten, and then add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. This is a flexible recipe, since the breads can be whatever is on hand. It may be adapted to stuffing a bird, when the broth will be obtained by simmering the neck and giblets in water; it may be used for stuffing shoulder of lamb or spareribs: or as a stuffing for eggplant, green peppers, squash, and other vegetables. Or it may be just fried in bacon fat and eaten with gravy, in place of potatoes. 2 CUPS CORN BREAD CRUMBS 3 TABLESPOONS BUTTER OR FAT, MELTED
A dressing built on whatever bread is in the camp box, bound with egg and cooked either inside meat or fried in a skillet. The proportions are loose by design; the only fixed rule is restraint with liquid.
- Moisten, do not soakAdd water or broth a few tablespoons at a time until the crumbs hold together when squeezed and no more. Corn bread drinks liquid unevenly, and a wet mix bakes into paste rather than dressing.
- Crumbs, not cubesDay-old corn bread and biscuit crumble readily; fresh bread should be dried in a low oven, about 250F, for 20 minutes first. Depending on how coarsely it is crumbled, something in the region of half a pound of finished bread will give the 4 cups called for.
- Poultry seasoningA commercial blend of sage, thyme, marjoram and often savory and rosemary. A full tablespoon in 4 cups of crumbs is assertive; start with two teaspoons if your jar is fresh, since ground sage fades fast and old tins taste of little.
- Melted fatBacon drippings, lard or butter all work. Two tablespoons is modest for this volume; three or four gives a better texture if the dressing is going into a lean cut such as shoulder of lamb.
- The eggsThree whole eggs in 4 cups of crumbs makes a firm, sliceable dressing. If you want it loose and crumbly, use two. Add them off the heat and after the mix has cooled from the melted fat so they do not set in streaks.
- Stuffing a birdCurrent practice is to bake dressing in a separate dish rather than inside poultry, because the center of a packed cavity reaches 165F only after the breast is overdone. If you do stuff, fill loosely and check the stuffing itself with a thermometer, not the bird alone.
- Baked separatelyPack into a greased dish, moisten the top with a little more broth, and bake at 350F for 35 to 45 minutes, uncovered for the last 15 if you want a crust.
- Fried as a sideThe final suggestion is the most useful one here: form the mixture into cakes and fry in bacon fat over medium heat, about 4 minutes a side, until well browned. Handle gently; the egg is the only thing holding them.
- YieldAbout 4 cups of dressing, enough for a 5 lb bird, a shoulder of lamb, or six to eight fried cakes.
Corn bread dressing belongs to a Southern tradition in which the dressing is made from the week's leftover baking rather than from bread bought for the purpose: corn bread from the skillet, biscuits from breakfast, whatever crusts were still edible. The word dressing in preference to stuffing is itself regional, and is often said to reflect the older habit of baking the mixture alongside the meat rather than inside it. The closing suggestion of frying the mixture in bacon fat and serving it with gravy in place of potatoes is a genuinely old economy, the same logic that produced fried mush and scrapple.