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Stuffing for Fowls
Trim off all the crust from two pounds of bread; put the crumb into a basin of cold water, soak it for five minutes, then turn it onto a sieve and drain well, pressing out the water with a plate. When nearly dry, cut the bread into small squares, and season it well with powdered sage, salt and pepper. Warm one breakfast cupful of butter, beat in an egg and three teacupfuls of warm water, and pour it over the bread, stirring it lightly, but not mashing it. Allow it to soak for ten minutes, and the stuffing will then be ready for use.
A plain English bread-and-sage stuffing scaled for a hotel kitchen. The quantities are large and the cup measures are period ones, so read them before you shop.
- Cup sizesA breakfast cup is roughly 8-10 fl oz, so the butter is about half a pound. A teacup is smaller, about 6 fl oz, making the three cupfuls of warm water close to 2 cups. Add the water gradually rather than all at once.
- YieldTwo pounds of crumb gives something like 10 to 12 cups of stuffing, enough for a 16-20 lb turkey with some left to bake alongside. Quarter the recipe for a roasting chicken.
- The soaking stepSoaking and pressing the crumb was a common treatment for bread in stuffings of this period, though Oscar does not specify stale bread. If you are using fresh sandwich bread, skip the water bath entirely, dry the cubes in a 300F oven, and treat the warm water in the recipe as your only moistening.
- Press it hardThe success of this hinges on how dry you get the bread before seasoning. Squeeze it between two plates until it stops weeping, or the finished stuffing turns to paste when the butter and water go in.
- Sage is unmeasuredOscar gives no quantity. For two pounds of bread, 2 to 3 tablespoons of rubbed sage is assertive without being medicinal; ground sage is stronger, so use less. Salt at about 2 teaspoons, then taste a fried spoonful before committing.
- Cooking itThe recipe stops at the mixing bowl. Stuffing packed inside a bird has to reach 165F at the center, which usually means overcooking the breast. Baking it in a buttered dish at 350F, covered 30 minutes and uncovered 15 more, gives a better result and a browned top.
- The eggOne egg in this volume is a token binder rather than a custard. It is there to keep the squares from crumbling; if you want the stuffing to slice, use three or four.
Oscar Tschirky ran the dining rooms of the Waldorf from 1893 and published his Cook Book in 1896, a volume that reads less like a chef's notebook than a compendium of everything a large American hotel might be asked to send out. This stuffing is the English side of that repertoire: bread, butter and sage, with an egg, salt and pepper. Sage has long been the standard seasoning for stuffed poultry and pork in Britain, and it crossed to American tables intact. The water-soaking suggests an economical formula at heart, a way of turning ordinary loaves into bulk, here at the two-pound quantities a hotel kitchen would work in.