Classic Sage and Sausage Stuffing (Dressing) Recipe (2024)

Why It Works

  • Using finer-holed white bread instead of a more open-structured artisanal loaf means better flavor absorption and retention.
  • Bread that's been dried out in a low oven is more absorbent than stale bread.
  • A mixture of sage, sausage, onion, garlic, and celery lends this stuffing classic flavor.

I'm not going to come down on either side of the whole stuffing-versus-dressing debate, except to say that three reputable sources give three different answers:

Classic Sage and Sausage Stuffing (Dressing) Recipe (1)

  • The Oxford English Dictionary says that stuffing is stuffed in a bird or joint, while dressing is a more general term for seasoning that goes with food or sauce.
  • The Joy of Cooking at Amazon contends that they are one and the same, except that one is in the bird and one is out.
  • The Food Lover's Companion at Amazon, on the other hand, says the two terms can be used interchangeably.

With that out of the way, I expect to hear no more on that semantic discussion this holiday season, and certainly not in the comments of this post.

So, moving on: stuffing.

While it can be made with any number of bases, the most popular type (and my favorite) is made with bread, broth, eggs, and butter. Essentially, it's best to think of it as a savory bread pudding.

The key to great bread pudding is to use the bread as a sponge to soak up as much flavorful liquid as possible. At the same time, you don't want it to be spongy.

The final pudding should have a moist, custard-like texture. It should be firm enough to cut with a knife, but soft and tender enough to eat with a spoon, with a bit of space left over to soak up some gravy. Much of this has to do with how you pick and handle your bread.

The Best Bread for Stuffing

First off, you've got to decide what kind of bread you're going to use. Whole grain breads may have more flavor on their own, but they're rougher in texture than white-flour breads. Since the bread in a stuffing is more a vehicle for flavor than a flavor on its own, I prefer to use white breads—they achieve a more custard-like texture.

It's tempting to use a high-quality, crusty, chewy, large-holed, fancy artisanal bread, but the finer hole structure of regular, supermarket-style "Italian" or "French" bread (or just plain old high-quality white sandwich bread) makes for better flavor absorption and retention, and that's what stuffings are all about, right? (Check out the results of ourstuffing bread taste testfor more details.)

After you've got your bread and cubed it, the next stage is drying it out.

Drying Versus Staling

Drying involves the evaporation of moisture from within a piece of bread. The structure of the bread remains more or less the same, though it becomes less pliable because of the moisture loss. Bread that is dry but not stale will be crisp like a cracker, and crumble into a fine powder.

Staling is the process by which moisture migrates out of swollen starch granules and into the spaces in the bread. The moisture-deprived starch molecules then recrystallize, forming tough structures within the bread. The moisture may remain trapped within the structure of the bread, giving you a loaf that's simultaneously moist and stale. It'll taste leathery and chewy, but not cracker-y or dry.

Staling occurs most readily at refrigerator temperatures, so it's best to store bread either on the counter or in the freezer—well wrapped, to prevent drying. (For a more in-depth discussion of these phenomena, plus the results of our testing, read Daniel's article on the effects of refrigeration on bread.)

Knowing this, we realized that despite all the recipes that call for stale bread for stuffing, what we're really after here is dry bread—bread that has had plenty of moisture driven out of it, giving it more room to absorb flavorful stock. Staling takes time. Luckily for us, drying is fast.

I dry my bread by toasting it in a low (275°F/135°C) oven for about 45 minutes, tossing it a couple of times halfway through. By drying the bread like this, you make enough room in two regular-sized loaves (about two and a half pounds of bread) to absorb a full four cups of chicken or turkey broth.

It's so much broth that it almost tastes like you baked the stuffing in the bird, even if you decide to do it in a separate pan. I recommend starting it with foil on top to trap some moisture, before removing the foil and crisping up the top.

The flavorings I go with are classic: butter (and plenty of it), sage sausage (you can get away with just sage for a less meaty version), onions, celery, and garlic. My sister likes to add dried cranberries, and my mother likes to add chestnuts. My sister and my mother, of course, are both wrong.

November 2010

Recipe Details

Classic Sage and Sausage Stuffing (Dressing)

Prep15 mins

Cook2 hrs 15 mins

Active45 mins

Total2 hrs 30 mins

Serves10to 14 servings

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 pounds (1.25kg) high-quality sandwich bread or soft Italian or French bread (about 2 loaves), cut into 3/4-inch dice (about 5 quarts)

  • 8 tablespoons butter (1 stick; 4 ounces; 115g)

  • 1 1/2 pounds (680g) sage sausage, removed from casing

  • 1 large onion, finely chopped (about 12 ounces; 350g)

  • 4 large ribs celery, finely chopped (about 12 ounces; 350g)

  • 2 cloves garlic, minced or grated on a Microplane grater

  • 1/4 cup minced fresh sage leaves (or 2 teaspoons dried sage leaves)

  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, if needed (see note)

  • 1 quart low-sodiumhomemadeor store-bought low-sodium chicken orturkey stock(4 cups; 1L), divided

  • 3 large eggs

  • 1/4 cup minced parsley leaves, divided

Directions

  1. Adjust oven racks to lower-middle and upper-middle positions. Preheat oven to 275°F (135°C). Spread bread evenly over 2 rimmed baking sheets. Stagger trays on oven racks and bake until completely dried, about 50 minutes total, rotating trays and stirring bread cubes several times during baking. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Increase oven temperature to 350°F (180°C).

    Classic Sage and Sausage Stuffing (Dressing) Recipe (2)

  2. In a large Dutch oven, melt butter over medium-high heat until foaming subsides (do not allow butter to brown), about 2 minutes. Add sausage and mash with a stiff whisk or potato masher to break up into fine pieces (largest pieces should be no bigger than 1/4 inch). Cook, stirring frequently, until only a few bits of pink remain, about 8 minutes. Add onion, celery, garlic, and sage and cook, stirring frequently, until vegetables are softened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add half of chicken stock.

    Classic Sage and Sausage Stuffing (Dressing) Recipe (3)

  3. Whisk remaining chicken stock, eggs, and 3 tablespoons parsley in a medium bowl until homogeneous. Stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, slowly pour egg mixture into sausage mixture. Add bread cubes and fold gently until evenly mixed.

    Classic Sage and Sausage Stuffing (Dressing) Recipe (4)

  4. Use part of stuffing to stuff turkey, if desired (see note). To cook remaining stuffing, transfer to a buttered 9- by 13-inch rectangular baking dish (or 10- by 14-inch oval dish), cover tightly with aluminum foil, and bake until an instant-read thermometer reads 150°F (66°C) when inserted into center of dish, about 45 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking until golden brown and crisp on top, 15 to 20 minutes longer. Remove from oven, let cool for 5 minutes, sprinkle with remaining parsley, and serve.

    Classic Sage and Sausage Stuffing (Dressing) Recipe (5)

Special Equipment

Rimmed baking sheets, Dutch oven, 9- by 13-inch baking dish or 10- by 14-inch oval dish, instant-read thermometer

Notes

If desired, dried or fresh fruits and nuts can be folded into the stuffing along with the bread cubes in step 3.

This recipe makes an excellent bird stuffing, producing enough to stuff several small birds or two to three 18- to 22-pound birds. Bake the extra in a buttered baking dish.

If using homemade or low-sodium stock, season to taste with salt and pepper before adding.

Make-Ahead and Storage

The stuffing can be prepared through step 3 and placed in a buttered baking dish a day in advance. Remove from the refrigerator and allow the stuffing to come to room temperature for at least 1 hour before baking the next day.

How to Scale Down This Recipe

This recipe can be scaled down by half. Divide all ingredients by two; use 2 eggs instead of 3; use 1 rimmed baking sheet instead of two to dry the bread; bake stuffing in a 10-inch cast iron or carbon steel skillet instead of a 9- by 13-inch baking dish.

Classic Sage and Sausage Stuffing (Dressing) Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What's the difference between stuffing and dressing? ›

"Stuffing is cooked in the cavity of the turkey, so the juices soak into the ingredients, making it more flavorful. Dressing gets cooked on its own and needs extra liquid to make it flavorful." So stuffing is cooked inside the bird. Dressing is cooked outside the bird, usually in a casserole dish.

What is sage stuffing made of? ›

A mixture of sage, sausage, onion, garlic, and celery lends this stuffing classic flavor.

How to make stuffing Gordon Ramsay? ›

Make the stuffing, melt butter in a large frying pan and gently sauté onion and garlic for five minutes until soft. Stir in the herbs for one minute then add breadcrumbs to absorb butter. Mix in zest, pine nuts and seasoning and cook over medium heat for about seven minutes until crumbs start to brown and crisp.

Is stuffing better with or without eggs? ›

Eggs add richness to the stuffing, and makes it cohere better. I'd use two eggs per pound of bread.

Why is stuffing called dressing in the south? ›

But for the Thanksgiving side dish in the South, the term dressing was adopted in place of stuffing, which was viewed as a crude term, during the Victorian era. Although dressing and stuffing are interchangeable terms, the signature ingredient of this Thanksgiving side dish in the South is cornbread.

Why do old people call stuffing dressing? ›

The term dressing, per the History Channel, originated around the 1850s, when the Victorians deemed stuffing too crude for the dish to be named. This happened around the same time that the term “dark meat” began to refer to chicken legs and thighs.

Do you use rubbed sage or ground sage for dressing? ›

But if the recipe I'm using only calls for a small amount of sage, I'll usually go with the ground stuff, for a small but potent punch of sage flavor. For stuffing and dressing, I prefer rubbed, because it's less likely to dominate the dish and obscure other flavors.

Does Pepperidge Farm stuffing have sage in it? ›

MADE FROM: ENRICHED WHEAT FLOUR (FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR, SALT, SUGAR, YEAST, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: VEGETABLE OILS (CANOLA AND/OR SUNFLOWER AND/OR PALM), DEHYDRATED ONIONS, MOLASSES, SAGE, CALCIUM PROPIONATE TO EXTEND FRESHNESS, ROSEMARY EXTRACT ...

What makes stuffing unhealthy? ›

Typically high in fat, carbs and salt, stuffing can be made fresh or purchased chilled, frozen or dehydrated. Traditionally, a stuffing would use the giblets of the bird with the addition of sausage meat, a source of starch, such as bread, with some aromatics such as onion, herbs and spices.

Do you cook stuffing before you stuff? ›

Fully cook raw meat, poultry, or seafood ingredients before adding to stuffing. Combine the ingredients and place them in your bird immediately before cooking. Don't stuff whole poultry with cooked stuffing. In addition to the turkey, the stuffing's center needs to reach 165 F.

How soggy should stuffing be before baking? ›

The stuffing should be moist but not wet. If there is a puddle of broth at the bottom of the bowl, you've added too much. Add more bread to soak up the excess moisture. If the mix is still dry and crumbly, add more liquid and toss gently until it starts to clump together.

Is it better to make stuffing the night before? ›

Absolutely. Most Thanksgiving stuffing recipes can be made at least partially in advance since: A) They're easily assembled a day or two ahead of Thanksgiving Day; and B) They're often baked using a two-step process (once covered with foil to cook through, then uncovered to achieve a crispy top).

What happens if you don't cook stuffing? ›

It Could Give You Salmonella Poisoning

If that stuffing doesn't reach 165 degrees F, the bacteria won't be killed off, meaning you're passing it on to your guests.

Is it better to stuff the turkey or make the stuffing on the side? ›

Should I stuff my turkey? Stuffing cooked inside the turkey cavities is delicious, but it does slow down the cooking time and could be a potential health hazard if done incorrectly. For perfect no-worry results, opt for "dressing" instead – stuffing cooked alongside the bird instead of inside.

Is stove top stuffing or dressing? ›

Dressing is made with cornbread, and is baked in a pan instead of inside the bird. I view Stove Top stuffing as a totally distinct entity from this most beloved of holiday dishes. It is not the stuff of celebrations, but it is a perfectly suitable side dish the rest of the year.

What's the difference between stuffing and filling? ›

Although most people in America debate on whether the dish should be called stuffing or dressing the people of Pennsylvania call it filling. Essentially filling is the same as stuffing or dressing. The name suggests that it will fill something like stuffing does.

What is dressing made of? ›

Some dressing is basic: a combination of dried bread, aromatics, and dried herbs. Other loaded versions can contain oysters, mushrooms, and even dried fruit and nuts.

What is stuffing actually called? ›

Stuffing, filling, or dressing is an edible mixture, often composed of herbs and a starch such as bread, used to fill a cavity in the preparation of another food item. Many foods may be stuffed, including poultry, seafood, and vegetables.

References

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