Potato Stuffing

The ingredient list was set in two columns and has run together in transcription; read it as 2 cups hot mashed potato, 1 cup bread-crumbs, 1/2 tablespoon salt, 1 teaspoon sage, 4 tablespoons melted butter or other fat, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and 2 tablespoons onion-juice. It makes roughly three cups.

• Mix while the potato is hotThe heat is what lets the butter and crumbs disperse evenly instead of sitting in lumps. Mashed potato that has cooled and set will need to be warmed again before the other ingredients go in.
• Onion-juiceGrate a medium onion on the fine side of a box grater and press the pulp through a sieve, or pulse it in a food processor and strain. Two tablespoons takes about half a large onion; grated pulp used whole will work but gives a wetter, coarser stuffing.
• Bread-crumbsBread-crums -- The book does not specify dry or soft crumbs, and period usage covers both; stuffing recipes of this date often mean soft crumbs from stale bread. Dry crumbs absorb more and give a firmer mixture, soft crumbs a slacker one, so choose according to the texture you want.
• SageThe teaspoon is presumably dried sage rather than fresh. If you use fresh, chop it and use about a tablespoon.
• SaltHalf a tablespoon is a teaspoon and a half for three cups, which is on the assertive side by modern taste and assumes unsalted potato and unsalted butter. Taste before committing, particularly if the potato was already seasoned.
• What it is forPotato stuffing is traditionally associated with fatty roasts such as goose, duck and fresh pork, on the grounds that potato takes up rendered fat well. The recipe itself does not say what bird or joint it is for.
• If you stuff a bird with itPack it loosely and check with a thermometer that the centre of the stuffing reaches 165F, not just the meat. A dense potato mixture heats slowly, and baking it in a separate buttered dish for 30 to 40 minutes at 350F is more reliable and gives a browned top.