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Probably every family has a beloved turkey stuffing - and from what I have read, some of those recipes go to the grave with their creators. I am rescuing our family's dressing recipe from that fate. I don't know if anyone outside of my family will ever make this. Readers will see that I have shared some notes re the research that went into recreating this.

Christmas 2016 was the first time I attempted this family classic / tradition. It was always much enjoyed, but for a time it had disappeared from the menu, and was very much missed. It used to be my favourite post-xmas snack - I liked nibbling on it more than leftover turkey. It was made first by my grandmother, then my mother. Once family meals moved to my house, my mother would prepare the stuffing on Xmas Eve, which I would pick up and use next morning to stuff the turkey. Over time, she began to cook it and we warmed it up as a side dish. Then it stopped appearing on the table when it became too complicated for her to make. I really missed it and when Son #1 urged me to give it a try, I finally rose to the challenge. This recipe was not written down anywhere. My mother gave me a rough outline of how she made this, but when pressed for details, she sometimes replied, "I don't remember." So research began with my old cookbooks and then moved to the Internet, looking at English language and Hungarian sites. A liver dressing does not seem to be common in North America. Even on Hungarian sites it often includes mushrooms - and my family never added that. Now that I have made this several times, I am ready to share the recipe.

Getting Ready:

  • I found it can be challenging to find chicken liver, so don't leave that until the very last minute; liver can be frozen.

  • DO wait until (almost) the last minute to buy the bread.

  • I like to let the prepped dressing sit, refrigerated, for a day before baking to let the flavours develop

  • I bake this in a buttered loaf pan.

  • Cut up the bread the day before mixing the dressing, or early morning and make later in the day. (See details below.)

  • Prep ahead - prep and measure the spices and parsley, chop the onions and celery, prep the liver. If you do all this the day before, things go quickly on "mixing" day.

  • Work flow: 1) bread is ripped up, dried a bit and then mixed with milk 2) the onion/celery is cooled after cooking and then mixed with beaten eggs and added to the bread 3) the cooked liver and chicken stock is then added

  • Timing: Three choices 1) Day before (or morning of) prep bread and make this later in the day; refrigerate overnight and bake the next day; or 2) (my pref) prep bread 3 days before; mix stuffing 2 days before; bake stuffing 1 day before, then refrigerate; on serving day, slice and warm. Tip: covering the slices stuffing with lettuce leaves allows it to warm up and stay moist - obviously, remove the wilted leaves before serving. 3) I have now begun to follow steps in #2 except that I make it well ahead of time. After baking, I let the stuffing cool completely, then slice and arrange in a dish, then cover it with plastic wrap and foil and freeze it. Thaw and heat - perfect!

1 loaf bread (see Notes)

1/2 cup milk (maybe a bit more?)

Please - take time to review the lengthy Notes below about bread. Buy the bread the day before mixing the stuffing. With the goal of salvaging as much of the loaf as possible, cut off the hard crunchy bits of the crust. It's not a problem if bits of the crust remain. Tear or cut bread into small bits - between 1/4 - 1/2" - smaller is better than larger! Sometimes, I leave it to dry overnight, covered with a tea towel. This year I prepped the bread early in the morning and spread it out on a tray, covered with a tea towel. It had dried just the right amount by late afternoon the same day I mixed the dressing.

See Notes. Just before following the steps below, drizzle the bread bits with as little milk as necessary to slightly moisten it ( 1/2-1 cup milk - as needed) and squeeze bread to remove excess milk if you overdo it. Use a fork to fluff up the bread, making it ready for remaining ingredients. In other words, the bread should not be a solid lump. it may seem odd to sort of dry the bread and then add milk, but milk + bread = a panade = tenderness. (Confession - I once made it and totally forgot the milk step - hmmm still worked out fine, but I was just trying to do what my mother advised…)

4 TB butter
2 medium onion – chopped fine (about a cup)
1/2 cup celery – ideally leafy centre / hearts, chopped

In a frying pan over medium heat, cook the onions and celery in melted butter., until they become soft and the onions become translucent. Take care that the onions do not brown or become caramelized.

Remove onions and celery from pan and set aside – use the same pan to brown the liver. If you read ahead you'll be adding this to the bread right after the eggs, so take care this is not so hot that it cooks the eggs.

2 TB butter
½ lb (at least 227 g) chicken livers

1/2 cup chicken stock

Do not use less liver. Sometimes the weight on packaged liver includes the weight of liquids. Plus, depending upon the amount of fibres you need to remove, you could end up with less than the 1/2 lb. Better to buy a bit more liver. Pat the liver dry, remove any fibres, and chop a bit.

Melt the butter in the fry pan used in the previous step. Cook the liver on medium heat until it begins to brown, and continue breaking it up a bit while it cooks (using whatever method works for you - I use a potato masher). Cook until medium rare - not overcooked. Remove from heat and add chicken stock. Stir and set aside.

3 eggs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp nutmeg (optional)
1/2 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped fine
1/4 cup parsley, chopped

Beat the eggs with a fork or whisk.

Add all the spices and the parsley to the eggs - this helps ensure that they are evenly distributed in the dressing.

  • To the prepared bread, add the egg/spice mixture and the cooled onion/celery mixture and mix until you can see that every bit of bread has been "kissed" by the flavours. This might take several minutes.

  • Add the liver/stock mixture

  • Mix very well, giving the bread time to absorb everything. If it seems necessary, you can add some more stock or one more beaten egg.

  • Place mixture into buttered loaf pan. This could be baked and served right away.

  • I usually bake it the day after the mixing. Refrigerating this overnight seems to give the flavours time to develop. (For me, the "next day" is the day before Xmas - thus minimizing Xmas day demands on the oven).

  • Bake it at 375 F, covered with foil for 30 minutes; then 15-30 minutes with the foil off. If the stuffing came right out from the fridge, this may take another 5-10 minutes. Though technically almost all of this is cooked before hitting the oven, some sites suggest aiming for an internal temp of 150 F. Go briefly under the broiler if more colour is desired.

  • On Xmas day I slice this up, cover it with lettuce leaves (to keep it moist) and warm it up in the oven. Naturally, the lettuce leaves wilt, but they leave the dressing wonderfully moist.

Notes and Tips...

  • Bread: how much? - the Italian loaf I usually buy is labelled 620 g. I have tried removing all the crust or none at all, and have settled on removing most of the crust - especially the hard, crunchy bits. That means you'll be using less than 620 g of bread - sorry I didn't weigh the post-crust portion, but all should work out in the end as long as you have no less than 450 g of bread.

  • Bread: what kind? - I am sure my grandmother / mother used either Italian or French bread - I used Italian. I have seen similar family recipes online using other kinds of bread. Lately I have found a great rye sour dough - may try that one day. Hungarian recipes refer to using "zsemle" - these are large rolls/buns, almost like kaiser rolls, and they tend to use about 4.

  • Bread: Crust or no crust? Since I have made double portions of this over two years, I am now suggesting that most of the crust be removed - especially the hard, crunchy bits.

  • Bread: day old - my mother said she/they used day old, as is the case with some (but not all) similar online recipes.

  • Bread: To soak or not to soak - whew! Lots of research on this. My mother can't remember. I have seen some recipes that simply use fresh bread, outweighed by many sites that warn against this. Fresh bread, they say, will lead to a gummy mess. The bread has to be dried or "staled", and yet should be a bit wet before being added to the mixture. That hurts the brain, right? This resulted in lots of reading and consults with bloggers who like food science. Soaking bread in (usually) milk is called a "panade". I have used a panade in a meatball recipe - but somehow it made more sense when the meat was the star attraction, since a panade sets up some chemistry that keeps the meat tender and moist. In a dressing, the bread is a main ingredient, but apparently the panade technique helps ensure that the dressing does not turn out dry.

  • Seasoning - almost every Hungarian site referred to adding "seasonings" which I found out might refer to "poultry seasoning" - which could be different there vs. here. The family recipe includes most of that, except for sage, marjoram and nutmeg. I think I'll stick to our recipe - though may add nutmeg once.

  • Some of my research is reflected in this post - "7 Mistakes to Avoid When Making Stuffing".

  • About my research - only one of my Hungarian cookbook's (by Karoly Gundel) referred to a dressing with liver - it also contained mushrooms and bacon (and hard boiled eggs!) A search for Jewish liver stuffing offered up some ideas - there is some overlap between Hungarian and Jewish cuisine.

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