On Fri, 26 Oct 2007 15:53:44 -0600, Christine Dabney
> wrote:

>On Fri, 26 Oct 2007 14:17:21 -0400, "cybercat" >
>wrote:
>
>
>>>
>>
>>Then I can help! Do you have a covered glass casserole dish, kind of deep,
>>like maybe corning ware? Just butter it well and toss your ingredients
>>lightly in a mixing bowl (you know, a lot of handling can make dressing
>>heavy/soggy) and preheat oven to 325F, for maybe 1/2 hour? You can peek and
>>when you see the sides and top browning just a bit, it's perfect. The butter
>>browns it. This is making me hungry.
>>
>
>Maybe I can finally learn from you folks how to fix stuffing/dressing
>outside the turkey. I keep on trying it, every year, and it fails
>dismally.
>
>However, my stuffing is not much more than breadcrumbs, seasonings,
>onion and celery. I save chicken fat all year for this, to saute the
>onions and celery. I don't add any broth or eggs to it. Inside the
>bird, it turns out moist and wonderful. In a casserole, well...it's
>pretty dismal. I have tried a lot of what folks have suggested, and
>I must not have the stuffing in a casserole gene. But maybe there is
>hope..maybe you all can teach me a few tricks.
>
>Christine


Use a sort of savory bread pudding for stuffing...I posted it here 2
years ago....
I have no recipe, but I will describe what I do below. This is a rich
dressing, almost a savory bread pudding that is cooked in the bird.

Trim most crust from a large challah. If you can find loaf shaped
challah, rather than a twist, that is even better, but don't drive
yourself nuts removing every drop of crust. Tear off small
apple-sized chunks and run them quickly under cold water, moistening
the bread, but being sure to squeeze any excess out. Tear up the
chunks into small pieces and place in large bowl.

Gently saute one large Spanish or Bermuda onion until translucent. If
you like a lot of onion, by all means, add more. Add to bread. Lightly
beat 4 - 6 (start with 4) eggs with 1/2 cup Wishbone Italian
Dressing. Add to bread & onion mixture.

Wash your hands, take your rings off and get your hands into that
bowl, mixing all the ingredients well. The consistency should be eggy,
but not liquidy. Add more beaten eggs, if needed. Salt and pepper to
taste.

Stuff into the bird, as well as into the neck cavity under the skin
flap. Pin the neck skin to the underside of the turkey. I do not
truss the turkey legs, but leave them open. For me, this allows the
stuffing and dark meat to cook, without making the breast meat
overdone.

For a really large turkey, I have used 2-3 challahs, depending on loaf
size. Any extra, I cook separately and it puffs up like bread
pudding..

This was my grandmother's and mother's way of making stuffing and I
have never used exact measurements, as I leaned by sight and feel as I
grew up. I hope it can be "translated" this way. I do believe in the
early years, my grandmother used schmaltz instead of Wishbone!