Best. Stuffing. Ever.

Part of my plan for this space is to share a must-try recipe for the culinarily inclined every so often. It's no secret that I love to cook, and though I have an affinity for dessert, I am an equal opportunity Epicurean.

A good friend asked me for this recipe, just in time for the Foodie's Delight of a holiday coming up. I'll try to make it in the next couple of days and update this post with a picture, since my prescribed times and amounts for this one are sort of subjective. It would be nice if I had an image of the finished product. This is such an old recipe, and one that I learned around age seven, so when I sat down to think concretely about what I actually add or for how long something is cooked, I had a hard time figuring it out. That's what makes this stuffing fun, though, it is pretty homestyle in that it is something that doesn't require precise measurement; you just have to eyeball it, and taste frequently. That helps too.

What makes it so fabulous, you are probably wondering. For starters, this recipe got passed down by word of mouth through the women in my family, literally over generations. I am sometimes awed by the fact that I am making a dish that my great-grandmother, whom I never knew, found herself making over a hundred years ago in a kitchen in Redhook. Otherwise, I have to note how few stuffing recipes there are that are showstoppers without overpowering the turkey. Call me old-fashioned but I was never one for sausage or alternative meats in my stuffing, and I think fruit belongs in the pies coming up after dinner.

Without further ado I give you the recipe for simply the Best Stuffing Ever.

2 - Two lb. loaves of white bread, Arnold Brick Oven Style works best
1 lb. butter (yes, four sticks!)
1 bunch celery, washed , chopped
1 large can walnuts, chopped
Poultry Seasoning
Chicken Boullion cubes

The night before you cook the stuffing, break up bread into very small pieces, and place them in a large kettle. Do not cube them with a knife, as this tends to give the dish the appearance of a bowl of soggy croutons. It is tedious, but a couple pieces at a time, pared down manually is the way Gramma used to do it, and who am I to buck tradition? Actually my attempts to fast-track around this part of the recipe actually made a subpar stuffing. Honest.

Shake poultry seasoning liberally over bread pieces, and mix, old-world style with your hands to evenly coat everything as much as possible. Add walnuts (traditional recipe and highly recommended), or for the anti-nut, don't. Set the kettle aside with a thin, clean cotton towel, or some cheesecloth over it. You don't want to seal that stuff with anything that moisture can't pass through; otherwise, again, in the end, soggy stuffing. No good.

So here's the fun part. This is where the kitchen starts smelling like Turkey Day, and it's not even Thursday yet! Put all that butter into a fairly large saucepan, and kick the heat up to about medium or so. Into that melting butter, throw the celery, and stir until everything is coated and on its way to a nice simmer. Cover, and reduce heat slightly. Cook the celery until it is reduced and soft, about 20-25 minutes. Good way to tell is spear a piece with a fork; better way to tell is try a piece. It's so wrong, but tastes so ... oh.

When that's done, you want to spoon it over the bread, stirring often with a large spoon. The idea is coat the bread as much and as evenly as possible. When that's done, it is highly unlikely that the stuffing will be moist enough to bake, so you want to make some dilute boullion (so the salty, chock-full-of-preservative flavor doesn't overpower an otherwise subtle dish), and again spoon over slowly, moistening bread chunks without causing them to meld together. Ultimately this is the secret of the stuffing's presentation. It is flaky and chunky, not a mushy conglomerate lump of bread, which is imperative to the dish's success.

When you are satisfied that everything is properly seasoned, cover tightly, clear a space in the fridge for the kettle, (or if it doesn't fit, a room that remains cool, i.e. a basement or vestibule, just make sure it is properly sealed!), and allow to sit overnight. The next afternoon, kick the oven up to about 350, and bake stuffing in covered casserole dishes, for a good hour on the middle rack. Check the top of the stuffing from time to time -- ultimately your cooking time depends on how dark and crispy you like the finished product.

You could also in theory use this to stuff the bird, however I recommend for best taste and consistency that it cooks on its own. I recommend filling the turkey's cavity with things like whole buttered onions, carrots, celery, Campari tomatoes and fresh herbs; this not only lends a good amount of flavorful liquid to the turkey's baste, the veggies taste ridiculously good when its done.

There isn't much else to say except perhaps, enjoy.