Once again this year, we will cook an empty bird. In some ways, it seems like a waste of space, and cooking space is at a premium this time of year. It almost seems a shame that something could be cooking inside the turkey. But we don’t do stuffing. We do dressing.
It could be the same thing. We could make twice as much, fill the inside of the turkey and cook some dressing on the side. But even for me, who loves the stuff, that seems a bit excessive.
Some members of the family have what seem like perfectly good reasons for going with dressing over stuffing. You know, what if it doesn’t quite cook enough? Or what if someone leaves it sitting out a bit too long and salmonella sprouts in it?
I don’t think there has ever been any such thing as an undercooked turkey in our house and if anything sits on the counter for too long it would probably become part of the dogs magic act and disappear, but I suppose they could be legitimate reasons. But we are a dressing family, so we do dressing.
The recipe for the dressing comes from my great-grandfather. Although we only follow part of it. The full version of his dressing, which was probably stuffing, involves things like chestnuts and sausage meat. I keep threatening that one of these days I’m going to do the full recipe, but that involves time and time is in short supply on Christmas. And chestnuts are not always easy to find, although you do see them pop up from time to time. And if I had chestnuts, I would just have to roast them on an open fire, because that’s what you do with them, isn’t it?. So there probably wouldn’t be any left for dressing anyway.
And our dressing uses summer savory. My wife came from a family that used sage. I think I managed to get the savory because of the angel that sits on our tree. We were always a star family, but my wife wanted and angel. So she got her angel and I got my savory. Compromise is essential.
But I like the dressing, so it works for me.
