Turkey Stuffing

A short, rich forcemeat in the French style: sausage, liver and chestnuts, with no bread at all. The recipe assumes you know how to get it into the bird and how long the bird takes, so a few gaps are worth filling.

• Yield and scaleA pound of sausage meat with two dozen chestnuts makes roughly 3 cups. That is a modest quantity for a whole turkey: enough for the neck cavity, or for the body of a small bird packed loosely. For anything larger, scale it up or use it alongside a breadier stuffing.
• ChestnutsFresh chestnuts must be scored, roasted or boiled briefly, then peeled while hot -- the inner pellicle will not come off once they cool. Vacuum-packed cooked chestnuts are an honest substitute and skip the boiling step; simmer them a few minutes only, to warm and soften.
• Sausage meatThis means bulk pork sausage, uncased, moderately fatty and seasoned with little more than salt, pepper and sage. Modern breakfast sausage with maple or heavy fennel will fight the chestnuts; plain ground pork with salt, pepper and a pinch of sage is closer to the intent.
• The liver stepTen minutes over a low flame without browning is the whole point -- the liver should stiffen and lose its raw colour but stay pale, so it seasons the mixture rather than dominating it. Chop it fine before it goes in the pan, not after.
• Cook it to temperatureMeat stuffing inside a bird is the standard food-safety pinch point: it must reach 165F/74C at the centre, and it will lag well behind the breast. Check it with a thermometer, or bake the stuffing in a covered dish alongside and let the bird roast unstuffed.
• Binding and moistureThere is no egg or crumb here, so the mixture holds together on fat alone and will be loose. If you bake it separately, press it into a buttered dish and add a few tablespoons of stock to keep it from drying.
• SeasoningThe original names no salt or pepper beyond what is in the sausage. Fry a teaspoon of the mixture, taste it, and adjust before it goes near the turkey.