Stuffed on Stuffing

By Deborah Allard Dion

Stuffing might just be the stuff that elevates Thanksgiving dinner to holiday status.

Without stuffing, all we’ve really got is turkey and mashed potatoes with a few sad peas or green beans – a meal hardly worth celebrating. It’s the dressing on the plate that’s more than merely a “fixin’” and certainly the glue (though hopefully not gluey; we’ll leave you to tackle that title when you make your gravy) that binds the meal into a feast.

Be it a stuffing passed down through the generations or taken from the pages of a glossy magazine, it’s a side dish to be savored and shared.

A few friends, through the beauty of social media, were inclined to give up their stuffing recipes in plenty of time for you to let them shine on your own holiday table.

Mary Delaney Murphy shared her grandmother’s Irish stuffing, which she described as “very simple and tasty.” Based on mashed potatoes, with flavorings, onions, and celery, it is baked inside the turkey where it can pick up the juices. It was served up with lots of her “Grammy’s gravy,” too, made with “giblets from inside the turkey.”

Louise Menard shared her grandmother’s recipe for French stuffing.

She happily got her hands on it from her cousin, who collected family recipes into a booklet and gifted them to relatives for the next generation of cooks.

“The book has recipes from both sides of my cousin’s family,” Menard said.

“This is a special recipe from my grandmother straight from Canada.”

Her mémère Diana Bouchard brought her recipes with her from French Canada and luckily shared them with her family before she passed away in 2003.

“She lived until the ripe old age of 95,” Menard said.

And, it wouldn’t the South Coast without a couple of recipes for Portuguese stuffing.

Patti Linhares shared her mom’s recipe for Portuguese stuffing, one of the many dishes Linhares remembers her late mom Mary Correira preparing in the family kitchen. Correira lived to be 92 years old and worked as a bookkeeper until not long before her passing in 2018.

Terry Galib submitted her recipe for Portuguese stuffing, which is surely a meat lovers’ crowd-pleaser as it incorporates both chouriço and sausage.

“It is my own,” Galib said. “I have been making this for a few years.”

French stuffing

Submitted by Louise Menard from her mémère Diana Bouchard

2 pounds ground pork

1 onion, chopped

2 cups water

1 tsp. Bell’s seasoning n ½ cup bread crumbs

2 chicken bouillon cubes

Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 350°F degrees. In a saucepan, place the water, pork, onion, and salt and pepper. Break up the pork and brown. Turn down heat and simmer for an hour, stirring occasionally. Add the two bouillon cubes and stir until dissolved. You may add more water if needed. Add the Bell’s seasoning and bread crumbs. You may need to add additional bread crumbs depending on how much liquid is left. Place stuffing in a baking pan and bake for a half-hour or until the top is browned. If cooking a chicken or turkey, put a little of the drippings onto the stuffing for flavor.

Portuguese stuffing

Submitted by Terry Galib

4 loaves stuffing bread (available around the holidays) n 2 pounds chouriço

1 pound breakfast sausage

1 large can chicken broth (or enough to soak bread) n 1 large onion, chopped n Several stalks of celery (as much as you like) chopped

Bell’s Seasoning, to taste

Sauté onion and celery and set aside. Brown chouriço and sausage and set aside. Cut bread into small pieces and soak in chicken broth. Squeeze the bread so it’s not too wet, just moist. Add the cooked sausage and chouriço, onion and celery, and mix. Add the Bell’s Seasoning. Place mixture, roughly 1½ to 2 inches high, in a 10x12 baking pan. (There may be more stuffing than can fit in one pan. It can be frozen for another day if desired.) Put some pats of butter on top. Bake at 350°F degrees until browned.

Irish stuffing

Submitted by Mary Delaney Murphy from her late grandmother Mary (Sheehan) Delaney

Potatoes (decide on the amount based on the number of people and size of turkey)

Butter

Cream or milk

Onion, chopped

Celery, chopped

Poultry seasoning, to taste

Salt and pepper to taste

Boil and mash potatoes with butter, milk or cream. Add celery, onion, salt, pepper and poultry seasoning to taste. Mix all and place in turkey. As the turkey bakes, the dressing will pick-up the baking and juices of the turkey.

Portuguese stuffing

Submitted by Patti Linhares from her late mother Mary S. Correira

12 torpedo rolls

1½ to 2 pounds ground chouriço

2 Tbs. crushed red wet pepper

2 Tbs. minced garlic

2 Tbs. olive oil

2 Tbs. marinade (Michael’s Portuguese chouriço marinade)

2 packs of Sazon seasoning

1 egg, beaten well

1 32-ounce container chicken broth

1 large chicken bouillon

1 onion, chopped

1 cup bread crumbs (if needed)

3 Tbs. parsley flakes

Black pepper, to taste

Sauté chouriço, pepper sauce, garlic, onion, marinade, sazon, black pepper, and oil until cooked well. A day before making dressing, chop rolls into small pieces. Place bread back into its bag and cut holes in bag to let air in and dry bread. In a large saucepan heat broth (not too hot). Add bouillon and let dissolve completely. Add bread and mix well. Add beaten egg, mix well. Add chouriço mixture, and mix well. Pour into 9x12 pan and bake at 350°F degrees for 30 minutes until the top is crusty. (Tastes best when made the day before it is to be eaten). This recipe can also be used to make stuffed quahogs.