Too much dressing/stuffing

Karen wrote:

> I thought I had prepared a small amount of dressing to fit but I had
> tons leftover. So, with the extra, I put it all in a casserole dish,
> placed the turkey neck and a little turkey skin on top, and baked it
> for about a half an hour. To serve, I thought to mix the dressing from
> the casserole with the dressing from the cavity of the turkey, but
> then decided against it because they were both so different.
>
> Any tricks for making dressing in a casserole to come out nicely?

Add some stock, perhaps a little cream (new to me this year and it
worked well) to compensate for what it won't get from the bird itself
but not so much that it is "wet." And don't forget to butter the
casserole dish. I baked mine uncovered which allowed it to brown, but
then covered it while it kept in a warm oven until serving and that
allowed it to steam a bit. It turned out pretty good.

"Karen" <[email protected]> wrote in message
%<
> Any tricks for making dressing in a casserole to come out nicely?
>
> Karen

Try pouring some of the pan drippings from the turkey over the stuffing. You
can also add some broth to the turkey pan before you start cooking, then you
will have more drippings. After the burd has been on long enough to create
some liquid, just use a turkey baster to suck up juices from the turkey
roaster and squirt them all over the pan stuffing. Stick the baster well
down into the liquid so you are getting mostly juices as opposed to fat. A
little fat is OK. This is basically the same stuff that is flavoring the
dressing inside the turkey. Don't worry if there is not a lot of juice left
in the roasting pan for gravy. After the turkey is done, put it aside to
rest, pour off or separate most of the fat from the pan juices, and deglaze
the pan on the stovetop with milk and/or stock to get your base for gravy.
Then add the separated juices back in and thicken. If you have more pan
juices than you need, just add them to the pan stuffing.

MartyB in KC

"Karen" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:09fa49f5-9850-44c0-a926-efdc23d00fd1@d27g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
> The procedure of stuffing or dressing a turkey, there's always extra
> filling leftover that won't fit in the turkey. I guess that is one
> good reason to get a big turkey, is so one has a large cavity to fill
> with lots of delicious dressing.
>
> But, my turkey was only 10 lbs. and had a small little area to hold
> dressing.
>
> I thought I had prepared a small amount of dressing to fit but I had
> tons leftover. So, with the extra, I put it all in a casserole dish,
> placed the turkey neck and a little turkey skin on top, and baked it
> for about a half an hour. To serve, I thought to mix the dressing from
> the casserole with the dressing from the cavity of the turkey, but
> then decided against it because they were both so different.
>
> Any tricks for making dressing in a casserole to come out nicely?
>
> Karen

A friend made a great wild rice dressing this Thanksgiving, which was not
cooked in the bird so that it could be vegetarian. It came from a 2003 issue
of Gourmet, and was delicious.

IMHO, the problem with bread stuffings cooked outside the bird is that they
usually seem to dry out or get too crispy around the edges or are generally
bland or just not quite right in some indefinable way. So I've thought that
perphaps it would work better to bake them in a bain marie. Basting them
with some of the cooking juices helps also.

[email protected] writes:
>The procedure of stuffing or dressing a turkey, there's always extra
>filling leftover that won't fit in the turkey. I guess that is one
>good reason to get a big turkey, is so one has a large cavity to fill
>with lots of delicious dressing.
>
>But, my turkey was only 10 lbs. and had a small little area to hold
>dressing.
>
>I thought I had prepared a small amount of dressing to fit but I had
>tons leftover. So, with the extra, I put it all in a casserole dish,
>placed the turkey neck and a little turkey skin on top, and baked it
>for about a half an hour. To serve, I thought to mix the dressing from
>the casserole with the dressing from the cavity of the turkey, but
>then decided against it because they were both so different.
>
>Any tricks for making dressing in a casserole to come out nicely?
>
>Karen

use a lot of butter

On Nov 23, 1:12�pm, Karen <[email protected]> wrote:
> The procedure of stuffing or dressing a turkey, there's always extra
> filling leftover that won't fit in the turkey. I guess that is one
> good reason to get a big turkey, is so one has a large cavity to fill
> with lots of delicious dressing.
>
> But, my turkey was only 10 lbs. and had a small little area to hold
> dressing.
>
> I thought I had prepared a small amount of dressing to fit but I had
> tons leftover. So, with the extra, I put it all in a casserole dish,
> placed the turkey neck and a little turkey skin on top, and baked it
> for about a half an hour. To serve, I thought to mix the dressing from
> the casserole with the dressing from the cavity of the turkey, but
> then decided against it because they were both so different.

Stuffing should be placed into the bird very loosely, and even then
the bird will become over cooked and dry before the stuffing is
cooked... for proper food handling safety it's always best to cook the
"dressing" separately, because even if the stuffing is removed
immediately it's more likely than not that the interior portion of the
bird will not have been fully cooked. And spooning some pan dripping
over the dressing is better than the stuffing sucking the *uncooked*
moisture from the bird.

> Any tricks for making dressing in a casserole to come out nicely?

Kasha pilaf.

On Nov 23, 10:47 am, Sheldon <[email protected]> wrote:
> Stuffing should be placed into the bird very loosely, and even then
> the bird will become over cooked and dry before the stuffing is
> cooked... for proper food handling safety it's always best to cook the
> "dressing" separately, because even if the stuffing is removed
> immediately it's more likely than not that the interior portion of the
> bird will not have been fully cooked. And spooning some pan dripping
> over the dressing is better than the stuffing sucking the *uncooked*
> moisture from the bird.

Yeah, it's so hard not to want to pack that dressing in the bird but
loose is best.

I disagree that dressing a turkey isn't proper food preparation. I had
a 10 lb bird and it was not overcooked or dry or upside down and the
dressing (all 1/2 cup of it, ha!) was done to perfection. I imagine a
20 lb bird is trickier in some ways, though.

Karen

On Nov 23, 10:25 am, Goomba38 <[email protected]> wrote:
> Add some stock, perhaps a little cream (new to me this year and it
> worked well) to compensate for what it won't get from the bird itself
> but not so much that it is "wet." And don't forget to butter the
> casserole dish. I baked mine uncovered which allowed it to brown, but
> then covered it while it kept in a warm oven until serving and that
> allowed it to steam a bit. It turned out pretty good.

The milk solids from the cream sound like an excellent idea! They turn
nice and brown when baked like that uncovered.

Karen

On Nov 23, 10:35 am, tert in seattle <[email protected]> wrote:
> use a lot of butter-

You know, sometimes this butter thing gets over done. Butter is great
and all that but if you're not used to a lot of butter, it can get too
much too fast. Butter in the potatoes, a little in the gravy, and here
there and everywhere, just adds up to too much butter. I like butter
as well as the next guy, but I didn't want six people who normally eat
very low-fat meals, getting stomach aches because of my dinner.

Karen

Karen wrote:
> On Nov 23, 10:35 am, tert in seattle <[email protected]> wrote:
>> use a lot of butter-
>
> You know, sometimes this butter thing gets over done. Butter is great
> and all that but if you're not used to a lot of butter, it can get too
> much too fast. Butter in the potatoes, a little in the gravy, and here
> there and everywhere, just adds up to too much butter. I like butter
> as well as the next guy, but I didn't want six people who normally eat
> very low-fat meals, getting stomach aches because of my dinner.
>
> Karen

I think I used 3 sticks of butter yesterday. Lemme think..in the mashed
potatoes, dotted on the apples inside the apple pie and on the crumb top
of the cranberry-apple casserole, in the white sauce for the creamed
onions, in the pie crust for the pumpkin pie, a bit melted and poured
over the dressing, and a few tablespoons used to saute some ham bits and
red onions up for the peas. None in the gravy as I used the bird
drippings for that.
Yeah, a rich dinner for sure. Thank God it is but once a year!

On Fri, 23 Nov 2007 10:12:34 -0800 (PST), Karen <[email protected]>
wrote:

>To serve, I thought to mix the dressing from
>the casserole with the dressing from the cavity of the turkey, but
>then decided against it because they were both so different.
>
>Any tricks for making dressing in a casserole to come out nicely?

I add chicken broth to the casserole so it's not so dry, but I mix the
two anyway. That way the casserole dressing is just as tasty as the
stuff cooked in the bird.

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On Nov 23, 11:20 am, Goomba38 <[email protected]> wrote:
> I think I used 3 sticks of butter yesterday. Lemme think..in the mashed
> potatoes, dotted on the apples inside the apple pie and on the crumb top
> of the cranberry-apple casserole, in the white sauce for the creamed
> onions, in the pie crust for the pumpkin pie, a bit melted and poured
> over the dressing, and a few tablespoons used to saute some ham bits and
> red onions up for the peas. None in the gravy as I used the bird
> drippings for that.
> Yeah, a rich dinner for sure. Thank God it is but once a year!

ham bits and red onions in the peas, eh? That sounds great!

Karen

Karen wrote:

> ham bits and red onions in the peas, eh? That sounds great!
>
> Karen

Yes, it was.. Recipe came out of an America's Test Kitchen cookbook.
Basically it called for you to saute 6 ounces of ham (I used small diced
bits) in butter, add 1/2 a red onion (sliced) and cook that up a bit.
Add 2/3 cup cream and cook down a while. Toss in a pound bag of frozen
peas (still frozen) and heat it up.
This is what I recall off the top of my head (and paraphrased) as I sit
in bed too lazy to go downstairs and crack open the book. I'll correct
any errors later if need be?
I normally wouldn't have served two creamed dishes at the same meal but
wanted to try this recipe. They remained very bright and pretty but
weren't overly coated in cream sauce as the creamed onions were.

On Fri, 23 Nov 2007 13:33:40 -0500, "Janet" <[email protected]>
wrote:

>IMHO, the problem with bread stuffings cooked outside the bird is that they
>usually seem to dry out or get too crispy around the edges or are generally
>bland or just not quite right in some indefinable way. So I've thought that
>perphaps it would work better to bake them in a bain marie. Basting them
>with some of the cooking juices helps also.

If you're close enough.... Trader Joe's has a good house brand
vegetable stock (in a box).

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<[email protected] > wrote:

>On Fri, 23 Nov 2007 13:33:40 -0500, "Janet" <[email protected]>

>> IMHO, the problem with bread stuffings cooked outside the bird
>> is that they usually seem to dry out or get too crispy around
>> the edges or are generally bland or just not quite right in
>> some indefinable way. So I've thought that perphaps it would
>> work better to bake them in a bain marie. Basting them with
>> some of the cooking juices helps also.

> If you're close enough.... Trader Joe's has a good house brand
> vegetable stock (in a box).

This Thanksgiving, I was away from home and thus away from my
usual supply of homemade vegetable stock. So I used some
boxed, Wolfgang Puck brand vegetable stock which worked fine.

People liked the stuffing, but I think a large factor was
using 2 entire jars of oysters in a small batch of stuffing
(less than 2 lbs of bread).

Steve

One time on Usenet, Karen <[email protected]> said:
> The procedure of stuffing or dressing a turkey, there's always extra
> filling leftover that won't fit in the turkey. I guess that is one
> good reason to get a big turkey, is so one has a large cavity to fill
> with lots of delicious dressing.
>
> But, my turkey was only 10 lbs. and had a small little area to hold
> dressing.
>
> I thought I had prepared a small amount of dressing to fit but I had
> tons leftover. So, with the extra, I put it all in a casserole dish,
> placed the turkey neck and a little turkey skin on top, and baked it
> for about a half an hour. To serve, I thought to mix the dressing from
> the casserole with the dressing from the cavity of the turkey, but
> then decided against it because they were both so different.
>
> Any tricks for making dressing in a casserole to come out nicely?

Grease your pan, put in the dressing, pat it down a bit. When
reheating, use 350 F. for about 20 minutes for cold, 30 minutes
or more for frozen. If you want it crunchy on top, take the
cover off for the last 5 minutes.

Since we weren't stuffing the bird yesterday, I put our dressing
into two dishes, one's in the freezer for another night. DH generally
doesn't like dressing, but he ate two helpings last night...

--
Jani in WA

One time on Usenet, [email protected] (Little Malice) said:
> One time on Usenet, Karen <[email protected]> said:

<snip>

> > Any tricks for making dressing in a casserole to come out nicely?
>
> Grease your pan, put in the dressing, pat it down a bit. When
> reheating, use 350 F. for about 20 minutes for cold, 30 minutes
> or more for frozen. If you want it crunchy on top, take the
> cover off for the last 5 minutes.

I goofed -- these times are right for reheating cooked stuffing, but
not for pre-cooked. In that case I'd add an extra 10 minutes to both
times. Sorry for the error!

--
Jani in WA

tert in seattle wrote:

> [email protected] writes:
> >The procedure of stuffing or dressing a turkey, there's always extra
> >filling leftover that won't fit in the turkey. I guess that is one
> >good reason to get a big turkey, is so one has a large cavity to fill
> >with lots of delicious dressing.
>
> >But, my turkey was only 10 lbs. and had a small little area to hold
> >dressing.
>
> >I thought I had prepared a small amount of dressing to fit but I had
> >tons leftover. So, with the extra, I put it all in a casserole dish,
> >placed the turkey neck and a little turkey skin on top, and baked it
> >for about a half an hour. To serve, I thought to mix the dressing from
> >the casserole with the dressing from the cavity of the turkey, but
> >then decided against it because they were both so different.
>
> >Any tricks for making dressing in a casserole to come out nicely?
>
> >Karen
>
> use a lot of butter


....fcukin' ****...


--
Best
Greg

On Nov 23, 1:05 pm, Karen <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Nov 23, 10:35 am, tert in seattle <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > use a lot of butter-
>
> You know, sometimes this butter thing gets over done. Butter is great
> and all that but if you're not used to a lot of butter, it can get too
> much too fast. Butter in the potatoes, a little in the gravy, and here
> there and everywhere, just adds up to too much butter. I like butter
> as well as the next guy, but I didn't want six people who normally eat
> very low-fat meals, getting stomach aches because of my dinner.

HERETIC! BLASPHEMER! You must have a demon.
>
> Karen

--Bryan

On Fri, 23 Nov 2007 16:42:57 -0800 (PST), "Bobo Bonobo(R)"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>On Nov 23, 1:05 pm, Karen <[email protected]> wrote:
>> On Nov 23, 10:35 am, tert in seattle <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> > use a lot of butter-
>>
>> You know, sometimes this butter thing gets over done. Butter is great
>> and all that but if you're not used to a lot of butter, it can get too
>> much too fast. Butter in the potatoes, a little in the gravy, and here
>> there and everywhere, just adds up to too much butter. I like butter
>> as well as the next guy, but I didn't want six people who normally eat
>> very low-fat meals, getting stomach aches because of my dinner.
>
>HERETIC! BLASPHEMER! You must have a demon.
>>
They don't really get stomach aches.... let's just say their digestive
system is well greased. You get the picture.

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