While many of us now cook our stuffing outside of the bird, this stuffing is really designed to be baked inside. It’s a recipe from Normandy where apples enter into every food combination imaginable. Here, dense rye bread is combined with apple slices and apple brandy, Calvados, to generate a heady mixture. You want your stuffing to flavor your bird? Well, here’s how to do it with sweet apple loveliness.
Calvados Rye Stuffing
For Turkey, Chicken, Capon or Cornish Hens
Yield: about 12cups, enough to generously fill a 12-14 pound turkey
Ingredients:
- ¼ pound [1 stick] butter melted
- 4-6 celery ribs, finely chopped (1 cup)
- 1 large onion, finely chopped (1 cup)
- 6 Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored, and chopped (about 8 cups)
- 18 slices dark or light seedless rye bread, dried and broken into postage stamp-sized pieces, about 18 cups
- 2 teaspoons dried sage leaves, crumbled
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ⅔ cup light cream or half-and-half
- ⅓ to ½ cup Calvados or other apple brandy
Preparation:
Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Pour off ¼ cup and set aside.
Add the celery, onion, and apples to the butter remaining in the skillet and cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until tender-crisp. Combine the skillet mixture, bread, sage, salt, and pepper in a large bowl and toss gently until well mixed. Drizzle the cream over the ingredients and toss again.
Add the reserved ¼ cup of melted butter and ⅓ cup of the Calvados. Toss gently until well blended. If the mixture seems dry, add more Calvados or warm water, a little at a time, until the mixture is moist and holds together when lightly pressed between the palms of your hands.
Stuff your turkey, roast, remove, and relish.
Source: The Thanksgiving Cookbook by Holly Garrison