Hi friends!
Happy Thanksgiving-week Eve! Yeah, I think that makes sense…
This week, you’re in for a treat. We have the dad-of-all-dads Paul Langhorst doing a newsletter takeover to share his favorite Thanksgiving recipe with you all. His favorite turkey-day dish just so happens to also be MY favorite Thanksgiving dish, making me wonder if there’s an unspoken understanding that there is only one truly superior food on Thanksgiving — and no, it’s not Turkey.
In addition to Paul’s recipe, I thought I’d pass along a few more, in case you’re in full-fledge menu planning mode for next week—
NYT Cooking’s Charred Carrots with Orange and Balsamic
Anything from Alison Roman’s Thanksgiving Special
BA’s Best Green Bean Casserole
Bon Appetit’s Bitter Greens with Cranberry Dressing — I’d obviously leave off the pecans
Sally’s Baking Addiction’s Pumpkin Slab Pie — great for large groups
Food52’s Creme Brulee Pie — a little non traditional, but sometimes it’s nice to switch it up
Anything I shared in Cooking With Maddie last Thanksgiving!
Okay, without further ado… Cooking With Paul. Enjoy!
After hearing about our family Thanksgiving ritual of making and arguing about “The Dressing” or as others call it, stuffing, Maddie asked if I would write this issue of Cooking with Maddie.
My name is Paul Langhorst, and my daughter Anna lives with Maddie and Caitlin in Denver. That’s the connection here if you are wondering how this all came about.
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, it has all the family gathering, food! and partying without all the headaches of buying gifts and the hyped up commercialism. It's just about getting together and sharing a meal. I love to cook and eat, so it's the perfect holiday in my view.
When I was growing up, Thanksgiving gatherings (and all holidays for that matter) rotated between our house and those of my aunts and uncles. The meals were fabulous feasts. We always ate early, like around 12-1 and we stayed a long time and then, later probably around 6 or 7, the leftovers were brought out and we ate again — this time making turkey sandwiches on white bread with heaps of mayo. No Thanksgiving is successful without the second feeding!
Note: Thanksgiving is also the official start of what my wife Rose and I fondly call “The Whiskey Season” which began when we started drinking 7&7’s Thanksgiving Eve as we prepped for the next day. Our Whiskey Season ends on New Year’s Day if you are wondering.
I don’t remember exactly when “The Dressing” became such a central part of our Thanksgivings. When Thanksgiving was held at our house, my dad (George, below making mashed potatoes) helped make the turkey and made his dressing. He didn’t always make the dressing, my mom made it for years, but at some point he took over and made what he called “Grandma’s Dressing.” He would tell us over and over how she would make it in a big cast iron skillet. Grandma was a big German woman, tall and strong, and he said she could lift the skillet with one hand.
Over the years, Grandma’s Dressing became Dad’s Dressing, and now I just call it “The Dressing.” Some people put a lot of weird stuff in their dressing like mushrooms, dried fruit, White Castles, cornbread, oysters, sausage, etc. People and families are very proud of their dressing recipes. Unlike all the other Thanksgiving foods, the dressing stands apart and is often promoted as “the best dressing ever” or “a family secret, passed down for generations.” For some, the unfortunate ones, dressing is made from a bag of seasoned breadcrumbs and hot water. Those unfortunate fools just don’t know what they are missing!
Most people rave about The Dressing, but some, my wife included, do not. She thinks it's too moist, which can be an issue if not controlled during the assembly process. (I actually think she secretly loves the dressing, but just won’t admit it!)
The Dressing is really simple, but the making of it is quite complex as you will read. The bread is the secret— you must use what I call “egg buns.” They are typically sold in the bakery section of a grocery store and are very yellow inside. Look for the bakery’s slider buns— those are the best because you need to quarter them and sliders make for less cutting. I’ve used King's Hawaiian Rolls too, in a pinch, which are close to egg buns, but a little sweeter than what I like. (If you can’t find egg buns, email me and I will ship you Schnucks slider buns for cost plus shipping!)
The rest of the ingredients are simple: chopped celery and onions, chopped fresh parsley, minced turkey dark meat (I use thighs), butter, cinamon, nutmeg, sage and turkey stock. I usually make 5 bags of buns because we like leftovers, but 3 bags of buns is probably the right amount. After the buns are quartered, spread them on trays and let them sit out for 5 days. (I bought a bunch of aluminum trays and use them over and over.) They need to be bone dry. Do not put the buns in the oven to dry. Let them air dry. The night before make turkey stock* by boiling 2 turkey thighs with celery, onions, carrots, and parsley. Skim off as much as the fat as possible, and put the pot in the fridge. The next day, just warm it up. You take handfuls of the quartered buns and dunk them in the stock and squeeze out the excess stock - so the stock temp must just be warm - not hot, or you will burn your hands! I know that is gross, but this is the way my dad did it, and I do it.
*Note: If you don’t want to make your own stock, buy 3 large boxes of low sodium turkey stock and boil the thighs in that (about 40 mins).
The full recipe is below, in letter form. That letter I sent to my brothers and sister years ago so that they would have the recipe.
Dear Brothers and Barb, Written in ~2005, updated Nov 2020
I learned this past week that Barb did not know how to make Dad’s Dressing (a.k.a Grandma’s dressing) so I thought I would set down in writing, my version, which I believe to be the true, unadulterated, untainted, pure version of “The Dressing.”
Here we go. Ingredients:
1 stick Butter – No margarine or “light” crap
2 cups diced yellow onions – goes in the dressing
3 cups diced celery – goes in the dressing
3 cups quartered celery, plus the leafy stalks from the center of the bunch – goes in the stock
2 cups quartered carrots – goes in stock
1 medium yellow onion quartered – goes in the stock
1 cup diced fresh parsley – half goes in the dressing, half in the stock
2 eggs
Cinininimum
Nutmeg
Garlic powder
Sage ground (Dad never put sage in his, but I do)
4-5 bags of egg buns. Note – egg buns (Schnucks bakery slider buns) are the secret ingredient; accept no substitute! Split them, quarter them, and set them out to dry for 4-5 days minimum before use. 4-5 is better.
2 Turkey thighs – goes in the stock
Stock Prep — Best done the night before, refrigerate, skim off fat, then warm the next day (luke warm): First, pour a glass of wine and drink some. If you have our family coming over, drink the whole glass. Then fill a really large pot about ¾ full with water. Add 1 tablespoon salt, ½ tablespoon pepper, ½ tablespoon of garlic powder, 1/4 tablespoon of sage & ciniminimum. Add the turkey thighs, sliced in half. Throw in the 2 cups of carrots, the quartered onion, 3 cups quartered celery plus the leafy tops from the center of the stalk. Add ½ of the chopped parsley. Put on high heat and bring to a boil, then turn down to medium for 1.5 hour
Now, you can sit and do nothing until the stock is done. I suggest drinking another glass of wine at this point. However, if you are doing the stock early in the day, you might want to have a shot of whisky or a Bloody Mary or mimosa at this point. Any alcohol will do and for some reason it does not seem to affect the taste of the dressing.
After the stock is done, pull out the thighs & giblets and put them on a chopping board or in a bowl to cool. Pull out as much of the celery, carrots and onions as you can. The carrots will be delicious and I recommend eating some at this point. The stock needs to be just warm, not hot, because you are going to put your hands in it. When the thighs are cool, take one and finely chop up the meat – about a cup and a half.
First, another glass of wine at this point is most appropriate.
Put a large, high walled pan (a deep roasting pan works best), over medium heat. Throw in the butter, after melted, throw in the 3-cups celery and 2-cups onion and ½ cup parsley. Season with salt, pepper, sage, ciniminimum and nutmeg. More ciniminimum than nutmeg, maybe a half teaspoon of the C and a ¼ of N and Sage. You will add more – a light dusting on each layer of bread.
When the celery is soft, add the 1.5 cups of minced thigh meat.
Drink some wine at this point
Now for the hard part. Make sure the stock is luke warm. Take handfuls of the dried bread (3-4 pieces in each hand) and submerge in the stock. (You are probably sweating and in a near state of panic at this point because you didn’t let the stock cool enough and you probably burned your hands on the first soaking. Best cure for this is a glass of wine and add a little cool water to the stock.) Remove, squeeze out the stock and toss in with the sautéed veggies. The bread should hold its shape when squeeze. Toss the squeezed clumps into the pan until the bottom of the pan is covered with a layer of bread. It’s ok if some of the bread is a little hard. You don’t want mush as it will get wetter as it sits and mixes with the veggies. Add more salt, pepper, C & N, Sage. Mix it all together, just folding it gently it over and over. You don’t want to make it smooth and uniform, a little clumpy is good. Taste it at this point. It should taste like Dad’s dressing at this point. Keep the heat low (or even off at this point cause the sides of the pan will get crusty if the heat is high). Repeat the bread soaking and pan filling, seasoning each layer until all the dried bread is used. Taste, mix and season each layer as you go.
Mix 2 eggs in a bowl. Drizzle half into the pan and mix everything together. Pour in the other half, mix again.
Now, here is where you can either continue to stir it over the heat or cover it and put it in a 325 degree oven for about 20 minutes. The purpose of this phase is to cook the egg and merge all the flavors. Try to make the dressing as close to serving time as possible. Nothing worse than dried up dressing.
If you are out of wine, open another bottle and pour a glass.
Your guests are probably here at this point so the more wine the better.
Well, I think that’s it. That’s how I make mine and I think it tastes just like Dad’s dressing.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Paul
Hi Maddie! St. Louis is such a small town! I went to grade school with Paul, I also met his wife Rose when I worked at Enterprise which is where I met your mom! Happy Thanksgiving!
Best takeover ever Paul! And I’m dying to try your recipe. Of course our family has our own recipe so I’m not sure I’d be allowed.