Cornbread dressing is a favorite, as well as chestnut stuffing, and locavore versions using fresh chanterelles, often available here in the Northwest around Thanksgiving. However, the one recipe that encounters resistance in my mind is oyster dressing. When I was five and my family was living in Iowa, my great grandfather died around Thanksgiving. His second wife, who was a school cook, contributed oyster dressing to the memorial service potluck. I was only five, but I will never forget the result --- two days of ministering to my parents, who were flat on their backs while retching, paralyzed by food poisoning. I cared for my siblings with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the duration, while providing barf bags for my pitiful parents. As a result, I am averse to any recipe that even mentions oysters as an dressing alternative. I did not personally partake of the oyster dressing at the memorial potluck, which is partially how they figured out what precipitated the food poisoning outbreak. The lesson here --- be sure of your oven temperatures and do not hold a dish too long if you are not certain it has been maintained at the proper temperature.
Call it stuffing (cooked in the bird) or dressing (baked alongside it), this flavorful melange of bread, herbs, and aromatics is basically synonymous with Thanksgiving. Whether you prefer traditional combinations like cornbread, oyster, and sausage or lean towards more exotic flavors like a Oaxacan-style sweet and spicy blend of bread and fruit, you're sure to find a favorite among these 11 diverse recipes.
Credit: André Baranowski
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Oyster StuffingWe've always been partial to traditional New England-style stuffing, particularly when it's made with bread, smoky cured pork, and oysters.See the recipe for Oyster Stuffing » |
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