It's getting harder and harder to find. I have been helping my Mama make it at Thanksgiving and Christmas the last two years, and I think I have it just about down. You must make real cornbread from scratch, with eggs. You need lots of chopped onions. You have to boil a hen for broth, and you need plenty of canned broth on hand, just in case Mama thinks it needs more. Rule of thumb on the chopped onions is to chop up what you think is enough, then chop that many more. It needs some chopped celery, but that isn't nearly as critical as the onions. You crumble the cornbread and put it in a big pot. Add broth. Dump in some onions and celery. Stir. Add plenty of black pepper. Add more broth. Stir some more. Add some sage. Crumble up several homemade biscuits made the day before and add to the mix. Add more onions. More sage. Now, crack and beat about a half-dozen eggs. Hint: eggs are a very important component of most any Southern dish, almost as important as bacon grease. In this case, the eggs make the dressing rise and keeps it from being flat and hard as a brick, like some dressing I have seen Yankees make. Cornbread dressing is supposed to be dipped, with a spoon, not sliced and served with a spatula.
While all this is going on, the turkey, usually a pretty large one, has been baking in the oven. It produces copious drippings, very rich and flavorful. One must, without burning oneself, procure most of these drippings from the roasting pan. The drippings, as many as can possibly be siphoned from the pan, are added to the now savory smelling (and tasting) mixture.
Now a discussion on whether or not the dressing mix is moist enough ensues. Usually, at least one more can of chicken stock is added, and probably a few more onions. Last fine-tunings of salt and pepper are made, and maybe another couple of eggs. The mixture is poured into two large baking pans, about four inches or so deep. I believe the proper temperature is around 400 degrees. It must cook for about 45 minutes to an hour. It might be necessary to turn the heat to "broil" the last few minutes to properly brown the top. The dressing is done when one can grasp the edge of the roaster with a proper hot pad, and shake semi-vigorously. When the dressing ceases to do an imitation of a particularly scintillating episode of
Charley's Angels, it is done. Pictures to follow. Giblet gravy tutorial in the works.
