I recently saw a recipe for Mushroom Stuffing in a hundred-year-old cookbook, and decided to give it a try. I used it to stuff a chicken.
Verdict: The Mushroom Stuffing was easy to make and tasted delightful. The seasoning was just right and the mushrooms were a nice change from the usual stuffing that contains celery.
Two teaspoons of salt seemed like a lot, so I reduced it to 3/4 teaspoon which worked fine. I didn’t follow the order listed in the recipe for mixing the ingredients. I combined the butter, salt, and herbs first; then added the mushrooms, and finally stirred in the bread crumbs.
Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
Mushroom Stuffing
Note: This recipe makes enough stuffing to stuff a 2-3 pound chicken. Double recipe for a 5 – 6 pound chicken; quadruple for a 10-12 pound turkey.
3 cups bread crumbs (tear bread into 1-inch pieces)
6 tablespoons butter, melted
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground thyme
1 teaspoon parsley flakes
1/2 cup mushrooms, chopped
In a large bowl combine butter, salt, thyme, and parsley flakes; stir in chopped mushrooms. Add bread crumbs; stir gently until thoroughly combined. Scoop stuffing into chicken or turkey body and neck cavities. Cook poultry thoroughly. Remove stuffing from poultry, and place in a bowl. Fluff with a spoon or fork, and then serve.
It does sound really tasty! I was interested by ‘butter or butter substitute’ which I suspect might have been lard. My mom said during WWII, they sold a lard or shortening with little capsules of yellow dye to make it look like butter!
I knew people back in the day, survived on very little and made use of straw and other things as fillers. It was very hard times, but they did survive.
They definitely had all the tricks!
It had to have been really difficult. People are tough, but it must have been very challenging to get through those hard times.
I’ve also heard about how people had to stir in yellow coloring to make margarine (which was often called oleomargarine) look like butter years ago.
I suppose it makes sense you could put anything in stuffing that you wanted to. Somehow, stuffing (or dressing, which we always had) doesn’t sound right without sage!
The thyme in this recipe was nice. My “go-to” stuffing recipe calls for both thyme and sage, and I didn’t really miss the sage when I made the Mushroom Stuffing.
There is so much regional variation in what stuffing is called. When I was a child in Pennsylvania my family always called it “filling.”
I am sure that my husband and I would love that.
It’s tasty.
I’m not a fan of celery so this looks perfect!!
I think that you’d like this stuffing.
It was a hit!!
Thanks for letting me know. It’s wonderful to hear that it was a hit. Happy Thanksgiving!
I made this for Thanksgiving and it was delicious!