Oyster Dressing à la JR
THE dressing/stuffing made by Dad (JR) since about 1950 for stuffing the turkey and a side dish on Thanksgiving. Accompanied by cranberry sauce...the thing I looked forward to the most.
THE dressing/stuffing made by Dad (JR) since about 1950 for stuffing the turkey and a side dish on Thanksgiving. Accompanied by cranberry sauce...the thing I looked forward to the most.
- Carbohydrate 346.134341701775 g
- Cholesterol 430.624000130691 mg
- Fat 129.814914070056 g
- Fiber 13.7494895661558 g
- Protein 134.596654858723 g
- Saturated Fat 64.258649623348 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (1831g)
- Sodium 4565.26614188776 mg
- Sugar 332.384852135619 g
- Trans Fat 9.42454318612397 g
- Calories 3092 calories
Step-by-step
- Season bread cubes with sage; add milk and enough chicken broth to soften bread (if necessary, add more milk).
- Soften celery in butter.
- Add onion and saute until soft.
- Add salt, pepper and oysters and saute until edges of oysters curl.
- Add to bread cube mixture and mix well.
Dry bread cubes absorb roughly three times their weight in liquid before turning to mush, which makes stale sandwich loaves superior to fresh artisan boules for this application. Spreading the bread across three rimmed baking sheets overnight promotes even dehydration without requiring an oven cycle. Three pints of shucked oysters provide enough saline liquor to season the entire batch naturally when combined with standard poultry broth.
Oyster dressing has deep roots in nineteenth-century American holiday cooking, bridging coastal shucking traditions with inland baking customs. Cooks originally relied on hard pilot crackers or dried leftover biscuits before commercial sandwich bread became standard. This recipe preserves that heritage by pairing briny bivalves with earthy rubbed sage and a heavy base of butter.
Sautéing the chopped celery and onion in fat until translucent breaks down their tough cell walls and concentrates their natural sugars. Cook the oysters in that same pan only until their edges curl inward, a visual cue that prevents the delicate proteins from turning rubbery. Fold the warm aromatics and seafood into the seasoned bread cubes gently to maintain distinct pockets of texture.
Store leftover dressing in an airtight glass container in the refrigerator for up to three days. Reheat individual portions in a 350-degree oven for twenty minutes with a splash of chicken broth to restore moisture without making the crust soggy.
