Remember before the internet when people held food opinions but could only really voice them to one or two people? That was a golden age when politeness generally meant a little kvetching before everyone moved on. Now, it’s a Twitter battle every time someone posts a picture of the pizza they’re eating. If you can’t pillory your friends publicly over pineapple, do you even have a friendship? As we enter a food heavy season, the dawn of a new day brings with it a new poll, a new opinion, a new scritchety, scratchety cat fight. It’s exhausting.
Thanksgiving sides are certainly a fecund field in which to grow a grievance. For example, thus far, I have witnessed Slack, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram battles about the correct way to make stuffing. Crap, even calling it stuffing is contentious. But, our hope at Uproxx is that the following stuffing/dressing recipe distributed in conjunction with the launch of the film Lady Bird will be the one to rule them all. Wait. That’s a terrible metaphor. That leads to stuffing Gollum.
Speaking of metaphors, there is a good one here. In the New York Times review of Lady Bird, critic A.O. Scott notes, “What Ms. Gerwig has done — and it’s by no means a small accomplishment — is to infuse one of the most convention-bound, rose-colored genres in American cinema with freshness and surprise.” And, that’s what’s going on with this stuffing recipe. It takes the basics of a Julia Child recipe and adapts them into something universal and still surprisingly delicious.
Gerwig’s dad makes this side each year and the actress, writer, director enthusiastically declares, “It is literally my favorite food on Earth.” She sneaks nibbles all Thanksgiving day while maintaining a deep, abiding hope that there will be enough leftovers to eat throughout the following week. When Gerwig’s mom and dad came to New York for the holiday last year, her East Coast peeps got to try the famed dish, and they demolished it. It’s good shit.
If you want to try it, check the recipe below.
Mr. Gerwig’s Stuffing
Ingredients:
- 5 cups cornbread, crumbled
- 1 pound sausage meat
- 2 cups chopped onions
- 1/2 cups celery ribs, chopped
- 2 cups breadcrumbs, unseasoned, lightly pressed down
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 3 tablespoons dried sage (more if you like)
- 4 ounces melted butter
- Salt
- Pepper
Preparation:
- Prepare cornbread according to mix directions.
- Break up sausage meat. Sauté in a pan or several minutes until gray.
- Scrape into a large mixing bowl, leaving fat in the pan.
- In the pan, sauté onions for 5-6 minutes.
- Add celery, sauté for 2 minutes.
- Add sautéed vegetables to the sausage, along with the cornbread and bread crumbs.
- Combine sage and eggs and pour into mixture.
- Fold in the melted butter.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Place mixture in baking pan, cover with foil and bake at 350ºF for 20-30 minutes, maybe even less. Do not overbake; otherwise, the stuffing will dry out.
Now, I would argue cannabutter is a great substitution, but that’s because I have a ton of it in my fridge and it calls to me to add it to everything. In hindsight, adding it to Mexican hot chocolate was a poor plan. But, you know, stuffing opinions amirite? Share yours in the comments.
