Stuffing for a Crowd
My brother called yesterday and asked if my mom could make stuffing for my sister-in-law’s birthday party. Of course she said yes, and then he told her that 100 
people were invited. So we ended up making a lot of stuffing today, but since I never made real stuffing before, it was a learning experience for me.
Based on her expert calculations (which I’m still not sure how they work, but they do), we needed 6 loaves of bread, 1 pound of carrots, 2 very large sweet onions (about 4 cups diced), 2 bunches of celery, 3 pounds of potatoes, a dozen and a half of eggs, 1 can of chicken broth, and a pound of butter, plus all the seasonings. She figured that would make two 17x12x3 pans – big roasting pans – of stuffing and would feed at least 60 people. >>
The first thing she did was basically make mashed potatoes. She cooked potatoes until they were tender and then beat them with butter and milk until they were smooth and a little runnier than regular mashed potatoes. She seasoned them with salt and pepper and then let them cool. I never knew there were potatoes in stuffing, but she said that the potatoes keep the stuffing moist.
Next, she fried the onions with a stick of butter in one pan, and fried the celery in 
another pan with another stick of butter. I asked why she did them separately, but I guess she just didn’t have a pan big enough to fry them together. She said it wouldn’t hurt to fry them in one pan though. I also asked why she was cooking them at all, and she said since the stuffing wasn’t going into a turkey, it wouldn’t be cooking as long, and therefore, the onions and celery needed a little more cooking time.
To mix the stuffing together, my mom added about 3/4 of the bread to a very large mixing bowl and seasoned the bread with salt, pepper, parsley, oregano, and cumin. Of course she doesn’t actually measure anything, but rather gauges 
seasonings until it looks and taste right. I estimated the seasonings in the recipe, but they can be altered according to taste. After seasoning the bread, she began to lightly toss the bread and then added the carrots. She continued to lightly toss the bread while slowing adding the cooked onions and celery with the butter. As the bread took on some moisture and packed down, she added the remaining cubed bread to the bowl. She added the mashed potatoes next, and basically used a folding technique with her hand to mix the stuffing. The key was to combine everything together without smashing the bread. It’s a pretty messy process that just got messier as she added ingredients. Next, she added the eggs and then the butter, all the while mixing the stuffing together by folding it with her hand. She added the chicken broth last, and just enough to reach the consistency she wanted. Again, she doesn’t measure, but I’m guessing she added about 1/2 cup of broth. Once she was happy with the mixture’s feel, she gave it a taste and adjusted the seasonings.
Then she carefully transferred the stuffing into the pans that she sprayed well with cooking spray. She didn’t want to pack the stuffing into the pan, but rather place it lightly so it stayed slightly separated. Once the stuffing was in the pans, she poured the remaining chicken broth over the stuffing to keep it from drying out while it baked. She placed a piece of foil over the pans, but didn’t tighten it at all, and then baked the stuffing for an hour and a half at 375 degrees.
I got to eat a little bit before they picked up it up, and the stuffing came out moist and full of flavor. It was seasoned perfectly and didn’t dry out at all. I was really surprised that she could take a recipe that is meant to be stuffed inside a turkey and make it into a dish that can be baked in a pan and still come out tasting so great. So next time you need to feed a whole lot of people, try making stuffing for a crowd – my mom would be proud!
No comments