They are all made with simple ingredients — mainly fresh or unprocessed — and prove that the desire for deliciously savory foods have changed little over the past hundred years.
1. Traditional oyster stuffing recipe
To make oyster stuffing, season two cupfuls fresh breadcrumbs with salt and pepper, add one-third cupful melted butter and one cupful oysters, cleaned and drained from their liquor. Alternative method: Fill the birds with oysters dipped in cracker crumbs, then in melted butter and again in crumbs, allowing about three oysters to a bird.
2. Southern peanut stuffing recipe
To make peanut stuffing, remove skin covering and finely chop sufficient roasted or salted peanuts to measure half a cupful, add one cupful cracker-crumbs, salt, pepper and cayenne to season, two tablespoonfuls melted butter and one-half cupful rich cream. A few drops of onion juice may be added, if desired.
3. Potato stuffing
Mix 2 cups hot mashed potatoes, 2 cups cracker crumbs, 1/3 cup each melted butter and sausage fat and 1/2 cup giblets cooked and chopped fine. Moisten with hot water, season with salt, pepper and poultry dressing.
4. Bread stuffing
Remove crust from one loaf baker’s bread and break into pieces. There should be 3-1/2 cups. Pour over 1 cup boiling water. Let stand 20 minutes and then squeeze out as much water as possible. To bread add 1 tablespoon poultry dressing, 1-1/2 teaspoons salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, 1/2 cup melted butter and 3/4 cup finely chopped celery if desired.
5. New England stuffing
“Remove the hard outside crusts from a small’stale loaf of baker’s bread,” says Fannie Merritt Farmer in Woman’s Home Companion for November [1910]. “Cut in slices and toast until delicately browned, then put in chopping bowl and chop while adding hot water to moisten. Add one-third of a cupful of finely chopped fat salt pork, one egg well beaten. Salt, pepper and sage to taste.
6. Fall River stuffing
Put giblets in saucepan and cover with one quart of cold water. Place on range and heat gradually until boiling-point is reached: then let simmer until giblets are tender. The liver will cook in less time than heart and gizzard, and should be removed as soon as done.
Split and spread sixteen common crackers with butter, allowing one-half tablespoonful to each half-cracker. Pour over crackers two and three-fourths cupfuls of stock in which giblets were cooked. As soon as crackers have absorbed the stock, add giblets finely chopped and season with salt and pepper, and summer savory, sage or marjoram may be added as desired.
7. Classic bread and celery stuffing
Remove hard outside crusts from a stale loaf of baker’s bread and break in pieces. There should be three and one-half cupfuls. Pour over bread one cupful of boiling water and let stand twenty minutes, then squeeze out all the water that is possible.
To bread, add one tablespoonful of poultry seasoning, one and one-half teaspoonfuls of salt and one-fourth of a teaspoonful of pepper, then add three-fourths of a cupful of finely cut celery, and one-half cupful of melted butter.
8. Old-fashioned cracker stuffing
Mix 3 cups cracker crumbs with 1 small cup butter. Moisten with 1-1/4 cups boiling water. Season with salt, pepper and poultry dressing.
9. Potato-sausage stuffing
One toothsome substitute which is well-liked is made of a mixture of mashed potatoes and sausage meat. For a ten-pound turkey are required three pints of hot mashed potatoes seasoned with finely minced parsley, celery, onion and pepper; one pint of sausage meat seasoned with sage and two eggs, which should be beaten thoroughly and mixed with the other ingredients. The turkey may then be filled and roasted.
An attractive way of serving it is to have ready large boiled onions with a shallow well in the top filled with cooked sausage, which may be placed around the turkey on the platter. Just before sending to the table, a little brandy is poured over each one and ignited, making a most festal dish.
10. Walnut stuffing recipe
To one quart of fresh breadcrumbs add one cup of English walnuts which have been cut into small pieces, one tablespoonful of salt and one-quarter teaspoonful of pepper. Melt two-thirds of a cup of butter in two-thirds of a cup of hot milk and combine with the crumbs. Mix thoroughly and fill the turkey at once, allowing room for the stuffing to swell.
11. Turkish stuffing
For this is required one cup of rice, one dozen French chestnuts, quarter pound currants, one-half cup butter, two ounces of almonds, and a quarter of a teaspoonful each of salt paprika and ground cinnamon. Wash the rice and cook until half done in boiling salted water; drain and add the other ingredients. The chestnuts, of course, will have been cooked and cut in small pieces, and the almonds blanched and chopped.
12. Nut and potato stuffing for goose
Mix together the following: Two cups of hot mashed potato, one teaspoonful of onion juice, one-half cup sliced walnut meats, one-quarter teaspoonful each of paprika and salt, four tablespoonfuls thick cream, one tablespoonful of butter and the yolk of two eggs. A teaspoonful of sweet herbs may be added if desired.
13. Old-fashioned chestnut stuffing recipe
Boil and mash one quart of chestnuts. Add a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, one-half teaspoonful each of chopped onion, salt and pepper, and one tablespoonful of butter. Bind with an egg.
14. Vintage onion stuffing recipes
Three large onions, two tablespoons dried sage, two ounces of butter, four ounces of breadcrumbs, one egg, salt and pepper to taste. Peel the onions, cook for 10 minutes, then drain and chop fine. Mix onions and breadcrumbs, butter and sage; season with the salt and pepper, and moisten with the well-beaten egg.
15. Old-fashioned turkey dressing (1955)
Cook bread crumbs in shortening, and use freshest, full-flavored herbs and seasonings.
For a 12-lb. bird, prepare 12 cups (3 qts.) dry bread crumbs or cubes. Melt 1 cup shortening (use half butter for flavor) in large skillet. Add 1 cup minced onion; cook until yellow. Add crumbs gradually. stirring to prevent over-browning. Turn into deep bowl.
Mix 1-1/2 cups chopped celery stalks and leaves. 1/2 tsp. McCormick or Schilling Ground Sage (or Thyme), 1/2 tsp. Black Pepper, 3 tablespoons Poultry Seasoning, 1-1/2 tablespoons salt, 1/4 cup hot water.
