Cornbread Dressing and Gravy



The Finished Product!

1 batch homemade cornbread (10 inch skillet size)

Additional bread, about 2 cups, whatever was in the refrigerator:  part of a baguette, 1 slice wheat sandwich bread, a couple of pieces of anadama bread

5 stalks celery, chopped coarsely

 Bread, Celery, Onions, Mushrooms, and Sage

1 medium onion, chopped finely

4 ounces fresh mushrooms, chopped coarsely

Fresh sage, 2 or 3 tablespoons, snipped

Splash of olive oil

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

About 3 cups chicken broth

2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F; spray 2 quart casserole dish with nonstick pan spray.  Crumble bread into a large bowl, set aside.  Sauté celery, onion, mushrooms, and fresh sage in olive oil.  Add to bread and sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper.  Add broth until the consistency is moist but not runny.  Taste the dressing to adjust seasonings before adding raw eggs because food safety concerns.  Last, add beaten eggs.  Bake about 45 minutes until dressing is brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean; it should reach an internal temperature of 165°F.  Refrigerate leftovers promptly; reheat leftovers to 165°F.

Gravy:

4 tablespoons butter

½ cup flour

1 cup broth

3 cups milk

Salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter in saucepan; stir in flour until well blended.  The mixture will be crumbly.  Add broth and milk, and stir constantly over medium heat until thickened.   Season to taste.  This is a variation of basic medium white sauce:  2 tablespoons flour and 2 tablespoons fat per 1 cup of liquid.  I used only 1 tablespoon fat for 2 tablespoons flour and 1 cup liquid. 





Good Eating!

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Larger Batch – 2013

12 cups cornbread (some bread machine oatmeal bread included)

8 cups chopped vegetables:

·         8 oz. mushrooms

·         1 large red onion

·         6 stalks celery

½ cup minced fresh sage

2 tablespoons dried sage

3 eggs

4-1/2 cups broth

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

Assemble according to above directions.  Bake in greased 16 cup casserole dish at 350°F for approximately 1-1/2 hours or until the mixture reaches 165°F and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

 

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Dressing (as in turkey and dressing) is one of my favorite foods.  My earliest memories of Thanksgiving and Christmas meals include loving dressing and merely liking the turkey and cranberry sauce.  Every family has their own criteria for what makes a good bowl of dressing, and recipes are passed down from generation to generation.  I was an adult before I knew that not everyone’s dressing was like the kind I grew up with:  cornbread based, no meat, no “weird” ingredients.  There are as many ways to make dressing as there are cooks, with variations related to the kind of bread to use; whether or not to include sausage, giblets, or other meat; what types of vegetables and/or fruit to include; and what types of seasonings to use. 

My mother let me start making dressing as soon as I exhibited an interest, probably when I was in college.  She stood by to give tips, but there was no written recipe.  The dressing I make now has is pretty much like my mother taught me, with a few modifications, such as adding mushrooms, sauteeing the vegetables in olive oil, and using fresh sage.  Stuffing the turkey wasn’t part of our family tradition.  A chicken had to be cooked in advance to get some good broth for the dressing.  The turkey was cooked in an electric roaster, and the carcass was boiled later to get some more broth for the freezer. 

I still love dressing, my own and everyone else’s that can be found at church dinners, family gatherings, etc.  Some dear friends introduced me to the deliciousness of mushrooms in dressing (this might be a weird ingredient).  Adding extra vegetables increases fiber content, and using homemade broth allows me better control of salt and fat.  Giblets are truly weird, and they do not belong in my dressing or gravy.  This is the formula for this year’s too-late-for-Thanksgiving, too-early-for-Christmas dressing.  The cornbread was made with salt; the dressing was salty enough for my taste without adding any additional salt to the mixture.  The broth was from the freezer; it was left from a boiled chicken, and it was defatted before freezing.  Dried sage could be used; it so happened that fresh sage was growing in the yard this year.