Buzz
Whether you refer to it as stuffing or dressing, this bread soaked in broth is a staple of Thanksgiving dinners. While stuffing the turkey itself is not recommended, most agree that stuffing is typically made from white bread—such as sandwich bread or sourdough—and should be dried (not left stale).
Regardless of the type of bread you use, it must be prepared to absorb the flavorful liquids, meaning the bread must lose its moisture. While many recipes suggest letting the bread go stale, drying it thoroughly yields a superior stuffing texture (and it also shortens the preparation time).
What distinguishes drying from staling?
Drying involves the simple process of extracting as much moisture as possible from your bread, typically using a low-temperature oven. This results in crispy, cracker-like cubes. Staling, however, is a bit different: The moisture not only evaporates but also moves from the starch granules into the bread’s airy spaces and crust. The starches then realign and recrystallize without the moisture, which makes the bread dry but not crisp. Rather than producing crispy cubes, staling leads to leathery, chewy chunks that can't soak up broth as well—which isn't ideal for my favorite bread-based side dish.
How to Dry Your Bread for Stuffing
Drying is much quicker than staling (which can take several days), so you don’t have to stress over 'forgetting to stale the bread.' Instead, you can focus on 'forgetting to take the turkey out of the freezer.'
Begin by cutting your bread into bite-sized cubes, then dry them in a 275℉ oven for 45 minutes, stirring with a spatula every 10-15 minutes to ensure even drying. According to Serious Eats, this method allows 'about two and a half pounds of bread' to absorb 'a whopping four cups of rich and savory chicken or turkey broth.' The goal is to create bread cubes that can absorb a lot of broth, so I’d call this 'a good method'—definitely what I’ll be doing from now on.
