Grandma Nita's Cornbread Stuffing With Sausage and Giblet Gravy
This is my grandmother's traditional Thanksgiving dressing (cornbread stuffing with sausage) and gravy. The family story goes that her in-laws came for dinner, and her father in-law pulled her husband away and asked if they were really that bad off, since there was no meat in the dressing, and since that day, there has always been meat in the dressing.
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INGREDIENTS
NutritionFor cornbread
- 1 1⁄2cups cornmeal
- 1⁄2cup flour
- 1teaspoon salt
- 1teaspoon baking soda
- 1
- 2cups buttermilk
- 2 -3tablespoons drippings (bacon)
For dressing
- 1⁄2loaf Italian bread (not baguette)
- 1turkey giblets
- 1teaspoon salt
- 1teaspoon black pepper
- 1small bunch celery leaves
- 1
- 1⁄4
- 1
- 1tablespoon parsley
- 1
- 1lb pork sausage
- 3
- 1⁄2stalk celery
- 4cups water
- 1⁄2
- 1⁄2
- 1⁄2
- 1
- 1(7 ounce) can mushrooms
For Gravy
- 4
- 1cup water
- 1
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DIRECTIONS
- Mix cornmeal, flour, salt, soda, 1 egg, buttermilk, drippings.
- Place in a large cast-iron skillet and bake 25 minutes at 450F or until golden and a toothpick comes out dry.
- While bread is baking, dry out 1/2 loaf of plain bread by baking it in the same oven for a couple minutes.
- When both breads are cool enough to handle, crumble the cornbread and and pull the Italian bread apart in small chunks.
- In a sauce pan, add giblets, salt, pepper, leaves of celery, 1 chopped onion, 1/2 carrot, chopped, bay leaf, and parsley. Place a whole egg in the water as well. Boil for 1/2 hour.
- In a large frying pan, combine pork sausage, 3 chopped onions, and 1/2 stalk celery. Fry until sausage is done and add to the crumbled bread in a large bowl.
- Mix the bread and sausage mixture, and one can of mushrooms with juice, adding about a quarter cup to half cup of the broth from the giblets for moisture.
- Optional: Add an egg to make the stuffing hold together better.
- Add salt, pepper and sage to taste.
- For the gravy, finely dice the boiled egg and the gizzard of the turkey. Grate the liver. Combine with juice from boiling giblets. Turn burner on high and bring to a boil.
- Optional: Add one can of mushrooms.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- For one quart of of gravy, mix four heaping tablespoons of corn starch into a bowl of 1 cup water and mix.
- When the sauce has reached the boil, stir in the starch mixture.
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