My great-grandma Edith Burns has a soul food recipe for dressing that is simply untouchable. And unlike many of her recipes that I wouldn’t even attempt, it’s actually one non-cooks can master with a few attempts.
I started it in the evening and finished it the next morning.
Enjoy this simply divine treasure from my family to yours.
Ingredients for food dressing
(Serves 6-8)
- 1 stick of butter
- 1 pound of smoked turkey tails
- 4-5 stalks of celery chopped finely
- 1 bell pepper chopped finely
- 1 white onion chopped finely
- Sage (sprinkle to taste)
- Salt and pepper (sprinkle to taste)
- 1 bag of Pepperidge Farm Sage & Onion Cubed Stuffing
- 1 small skillet of hot water cornbread requiring milk, vegetable oil and 1 egg (follow directions on the cornmeal bag)
- 1 egg
- 32 oz of turkey broth (or chicken broth)
- Our family’s special brew
- Helpful tools: a potato masher and chopper
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Directions for making dressing:
Finely chop your onion, celery and green pepper.
You’ll use half of your chopped veggies in our family’s special brew and sautee the other half.
Making the special brew:
Boil 1 pack of smoked turkey tails in enough water to cover them halfway and mix in half the chopped veggies. Boil the mixture for 45 minutes to one hour.
Sauteeing:
Separately, use a skillet to melt the butter and add in the other half of your chopped celery, onion and green pepper. Sautee for about 20 minutes or until tender. Sprinkle in salt and pepper to taste.
While that’s sauteing, prepare your cornbread (as the bag of cornmeal directs).
Combining the steps
Put the croutons in the baking dish with the turkey broth and start mashing them with the masher. Combine sauteed vegetables, and ladle in a couple of scoops of the special brew. Keep mashing. Crumble the cornbread and start mashing it in with the potato masher. Lightly sprinkle in the sage, and taste. Add more or less depending on the taste, and do the same with the special brew.
Add more juice for a looser consistency and less for thicker dressing. At this point, you could refrigerate the dressing overnight or wait until morning. Just save your special brew, so you can fix any consistency issues in the morning.
Beat 1 egg into the dressing (to fluff) just before baking it for 20 minutes. Then enjoy!
This looks good. I’ve never tried anything like it before. Thanks for sharing. I will add it to my recipe book for next year.