Vintage Thanksgiving/Holiday Stuffing (With Giblets)
Mysterious Origins
I never understood where it came from.
My maternal grandfather was Croatian, from Sinj, on the Dalmatian coast. I’ve written plenty about him, recently in the Inquisitive Eater here. He was, at least on many levels, not typically American, even though he came to New York in the 1930’s and remained throughout his life, passing away in Florida in 1987 at the age of 86.
He was the last person in our Croatian American family that I ever expected to hold one of the dearest family recipes–not a Croatian one, but a recipe for Thanksgiving stuffing that my mother believes he plucked from the New York Times in 1950 or so. She tells me that he found many of his American recipes there.
The thing about this stuffing was that it was old school. It did not have sage. It did not have big, chunky breadcrumbs. It did have meat–ground beef, along with the immensely flavorful and sometimes controversial giblets to be found in the deepest caverns of the big bird.
Have Some Guts (Giblets), Will You?
Giblets are controversial things to some–giblets being the turkey neck meat, the heart, the stomach, the liver. They seem dirty, or at least, unhygienic, greasy little surprises retrieved only after sticking your hand in that turkey.
On their own, giblets taste like body and earth, autumn and dense culinary decay. The heart and most of the stomach are usable, the meat cut from the turkey neck too, and half to a majority of the liver. My mother claimed the liver could be a little too heavy when used in its entirety.
Once cooked in the stock, and minced, the giblets add the deepest and delicious flavour to this no-nonsense stuffing.
Get Stuffed This Holiday Season
As adulthood grew into fruition, I learned of many types of holiday stuffing. They interested me then, and still interest me now. Ones with sausage and leek, vegetarian ones with mushroom and big chunky breadcrumbs, and many more. I will try them one day. However, I just cannot bring myself to utilize these new stuffing formations on Thanksgiving. Nothing for me replaces the smooth, velvety, and enriched giblet & beef stuffing that my longshoreman grandfather found in the Times that autumn of 1950.
Since Christmas is a Croatian smorgasboard for my family, Thanksgiving is the only stuffing holiday we have. I know many people make turkey and stuffing on Christmas Day, New Years Day, and other holidays.
If you have a strong, adventurous stomach, a culinary heart for all things traditional being new again, and a taste for the deepest flavor possible to accompany and often outshine the holiday turkey, give this recipe a try.
The method for the stuffing is a companion piece to however you like to prepare your turkey and is not as complicated as its ingredients sound.
- Preparation of the turkey stock is massively simple: About 8 cups of water set to boil after adding in 2-3 carrots/celery, and onion chopped into quarters, a handful of parsley, salt, pepper, and our little innards from inside the turkey, just as you found them.
- Make sure to throw in the entire turkey neck too, along with the wingtips, if easy to remove. Once boiling, let that simmer for about 2 hours max, adding water if it evaporates too quickly. Strain and refrigerate if making stuffing the next day.
This stock is not only the basis for the gravy, but the glue that holds the stuffing together.
The rest, after the giblets are ready, is easy. See below for a vintage holiday stuffing recipe–sincerely, my grandfather Stipe–Steve once he planted his Croatian footsteps in New York City.
Old Fashioned Giblet Stuffing
Ingredients
- Homemade Turkey Stock (see above in italics)
- Giblets from Turkey, cooked in stock (meat from turkey neck, heart, stomach, partial liver, wing tips if possible), combined in food processor or chopped finely.
- 1/2 lb ground beef (sirloin is great)
- 1 and 1/4 sticks unsalted butter
- 2-3 medium onions, diced
- Handful of parsley
- 1 lb breadcrumbs (plain, and the finer the better. Bakery breadcrumbs are a great source)
- 2 eggs, combined
- Salt & Pepper
Instructions
- Have the turkey stock at room temperature at the ready. Melt butter to a pan on medium heat. Add onions (medium) and a dash of salt. Brown for about 10 minutes on lower heat. It will seem like a lot of butter, but it will do wonders for the flavor.
- Once the onions are soft, add in the giblets and the beef. Increase back to medium and combine for 10-15 minutes, seasoning with salt and pepper (and thyme or sage if you like).
- Remove the pan from the heat and add in the eggs, parsley, and then a portion of bread crumbs,until the mix is not watery.
- Start adding in the stock a couple spoonfuls at a time until moist. I play with the portions at this point and add in more breadcrumbs and stock, alternately, until the look and feel is right. The stuffing should appear slightly dense (it is not a fluffy stuffing), moist, but not soggy.
- Smooth the stuffing into a casserole dish and cover with foil. You can stuff in your turkey, but I find that the stuffing gets too dry as we wait for the turkey to cook. If your turkey is set for approximately 350 degrees, the stuffing should take about 1 hour. Feel free to remove the foil for the last 10 minutes or so, and raise up to a higher rack.
Notes
- Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes and enjoy–with your holiday turkey, with gravy, as a complete leftover meal of many varieties…
- Warmed with a fried egg on top,
- Fashioned into a Thanksgiving leftover “ball” using turkey, stuffing, green beans, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry, anything you’ve got, before rolling into more bread crumbs and pan-frying in olive oil,
- Or simply eat a square of cold stuffing with a fork while spending the day in bed watching movies.
- Welcome to the holiday world that was, and the world that can be delicious any time you have the courage to recognize the magical secret ingredient of GIBLETS!