An AOH Food Exclusive!

The stuffing made by AOH Staff for Canadian Thanksgiving, October 9, 2006.  
It kicked ass.

This is best made the night before, refrigerated, and reheated for about 
20-25 minutes before serving the turkey.  You can stuff the bird with 
some of the stuffing if you like but this recipe makes far more than you 
will need for that purpose and is meant more as a side dish.

Ingredients:

1 loaf white bread
1/2 loaf rye bread
1 large onion
1 head garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sage
1 tbsp whole caraway seed
1 lb sausage meat
4 stalks celery
6 tbsp butter
Olive or vegetable oil
2 cups white wine

(1) Roast the garlic

To roast the garlic, cut the head in half across the middle (so that 
it has a "bottom" and "top" half), moisten the exposed cloves with oil 
(and sprinkle on a little salt and pepper), wrap each half in tin foil 
so that the exposed cloves are facing down, and put in the oven at 350F 
for 1 hour.  Allow to cool.

(2) Shred the Bread

Cube the bread with a knife or tear by hand (get helpers!) into pieces 
no larger than about an inch on a side.

(3) Sautee the vegetables

Mince the onion and cut the celery into thin slices.  Sautee the onions 
in 2 tbsp of butter for a few minutes until they are nearly cooked, then 
add the celery and sautee another minute or two until cooked.  Remove 
from the skillet and set aside in a bowl.

(4) Brown the meat

While the skillet is still hot, brown the sausage meat until completely 
cooked and crumbling into small pieces.

(5) Smash the garlic

When the garlic is cool enough to handle, remove the cloves from the 
skin (this should be easy as the cloves shrink while roasting but the 
skin does not) and use a mortar and pestle (or the back of a tablespoon 
and a cereal bowl) to smash the garlic into paste.  It should already 
be very, very soft after roasting.  Mix the smashed roasted garlic in 
with the onions and celery.

(6) The main event!

Remove the skillet from heat and replace it with a large pot.  It has to 
be big enough to hold the loaf and a half of bread plus the other 
ingredients and some mixing room.  Melt the remaining butter in the pot, 
then add the bread.  Stir and toss the bread until all of the butter has 
been absorbed and the bread is starting to toast just a little.  Add the 
sausage meat, onions, celery, garlic, sage, caraway, salt and pepper - 
on top!  Mix these in.  Make sure the distribution is even.  You now have 
a very dry stuffing - moisten it by adding wine a quarter cup at a time 
while stirring the stuffing constantly, until the bread is consistently 
moist (but not soggy - that'd be too much wine!)  Taste the stuffing - 
see if it is to your taste, and if not, mix in sage, caraway, salt, or 
pepper to taste.

Although the stuffing is now ready to serve, it is best if made a day in 
advance and allowed to sit in the fridge overnight.  The next day, the 
fats from the butter and the sausage meat will have solidified again, 
causing the stuffing to form a single lump which you'll need to break up 
with a fork before reheating.

VARIATION: In previous years we have made the same stuffing but with half 
a pound of sausage and half a pound of finely chopped, cooked-to-a-crisp bacon!  
Yummmm!  You can also substitute rosemary for the caraway if you don't like
caraway.