How to Make Southern Cornbread Dressing

There must surely be as many ways to make "cornbread dressing" as there are cooks. It seems to be a tradition within each family as to the ingredients and the methods of cooking. Even my near relatives choose to have their cornbread dressing "crunchy" while my family had always enjoyed "soft" cornbread dressing. However it is made in the individual homes, no self respecting Southern woman would allow a Thanksgiving dinner to happen without a huge pan of cornbread dressing! Here is a tried and true recipe for it, as handed down through my family. They would come from several states for this so it surely must be a favorite. This will serve 6 to 8 easily since we always had a lot of other dishes as well. If I had more people coming I just added another pone of cornbread and increased the other ingredients slightly to adjust.

Ingredients

Cornbread - 2 pones - no sugar (cooked the day before since we did not have double ovens)
White bread - 8 slices broken into small pieces
Celery - 6 stalks chopped fine (be sure to remove strings)
Onion - One large chopped fine
Eggs - 8 (medium size)
Turkey broth or chicken broth (about 8 cups)
Sage (rubbed) start with 1/3 of .5 Oz bottle
Black pepper (start with 1 tsp.)
Salt (to taste)
Oven at 350 degrees

The broth

A lot of southern people cook their turkey "dry" while basting during cooking time. My family has always cooked the turkey in a turkey pan filled 1/2 full of water. Yes, we actually "boil" the turkey. It never takes more than 3 to 4 hours at 350 degrees. Then, when it comes time to make the cornbread dressing and the giblet gravy there is plenty of broth available. We always considered it a waste of time and money to cook an additional chicken just to get the necessary broth. Canned broth was NEVER considered! Once the turkey is cooked, remove the broth and set aside.

Combine (about 30 minutes before turkey is done)

Combine celery and onion in saucepan. Barely cover with water and boil until soft, let cool to room temperature. In a large mixing pan, combine crumbled cornbread, white bread, celery & onion (with liquid), and eggs. Stir until eggs are distributed into dry bread. Add enough broth until mixture is just barely "soupy". I use a potato masher to mix the ingredients. Then start adding sage, black pepper and salt to taste. Add very slowly each spice until you can just taste each one. Remember, the spices will become more pronounced once cooked. This is when you do a lot of tasting! This is the best part. You have to be careful or when dinner is ready, you will not be hungry. If you have other cooks around, be sure to let them taste the mixture so that everyone will agree on how "wonderful" it tastes. They will assure you that it is the best dressing they have ever had!

Spoon mixture back into the pan around the turkey and fill the turkey cavity with cornbread dressing. Return to the oven and cook for about 30 minutes. Leave lid on or remove depending on how brown you desire the turkey to be done. The cornbread dressing is done when you can insert a knife and it will come out clean. Do not overcook the dressing. You never want it to be dry!

Serving

Since we always had a lot people for Thanksgiving dinner and too many to sit down at our table, we served "buffet style". The turkey and cornbread dressing was added to the line still in the pan. No one had a problem with spooning the dressing out of the pan. On very special occasions we have removed the turkey and dressing to individual serving platters but this allowed the dressing and meat to dry out quicker and I prefer to leave it in the pan. By the way, "dinner" is at 12 noon and supper is the evening meal.

The cleanup

Once everyone has had their fill of food, usually after supper, the turkey and cornbread dressing are removed from the pan to individual storage containers for the refrigerator. I do not keep the leftover cornbread dressing longer than 3 days.

"Cookin's like religion is....some's 'lected an' some ain't,
An rules don't no more mek a cook dan sermons mak a Saint."