For the make ahead turkey giblet gravy, see the recipe here.
The sage sausage
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground pork or beef or other ground meat(s)
- ½ teaspoon ground coriander seeds
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1-3 teaspoons dried, rubbed sage
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
Directions
- If drying fresh sage, put sage leaves on a cooking sheet lined with parchment paper for 1-2 hours at 150-180 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Mix the meat and spices, possibly by hand, until well combined.
- Refrigerate overnight or cook immediately.
Sage sausage stuffing
Ingredients
- 8 cups sourdough bread cubes, dime to quarter sized pieces, which is a little under a pound and half. (Rye or whole wheat also make for good stuffing).
- 1 lb. sage sausage
- 1 cup bok choy (or other vegetable of one’s choosing, such as celery)
- 2 chopped medium onions
- 1-2 cups minced parsley
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees if any of the stuffing is to be baked.
- In a large skillet (12 inches), cook the sausage, separating it into quarter-sized pieces. Once it is almost done cooking, remove the sausage into a bowl.
- Brown the onions and bok choy (or other vegetables as desired).
- Add the sausage back into the skillet, as well as the cubed bread. Mix and continue to cook over medium-high to medium heat, until the bread begins to heat through.
- Stuff the turkey with the stuffing or put the stuffing into baking dishes.
- If baking the stuffing alone, bake at 350 Fahrenheit for 40 minutes with a tinfoil covering.
- Remove the tinfoil covering and continue to bake for 20 minutes.
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- Sage getting prepped for oven drying.
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- Laying un-dried sage on parchment paper on baking sheet.
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- Dried sage.
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- All the ingredients that go into the sausage on top of the ground meat. It now must be mixed.
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- Onion, before it has been chopped.
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- Chopped onion in skillet to brown.
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- Pre-chopping parsley.
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- Chopped parsley.
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- Bread before it has been cubed.
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- Cutting the bread to cube it.
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- Cubed bread.
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- Stuffing before it goes into a pan to be baked, after it has been combined with the bread, onions, sausage, parsley.
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- Stuffing before it has been covered in tinfoil and baked. Glass is better than metal because it will not, so easily, burn the underside.
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- Stuffing before being placed in the oven. Although cast iron is great for baking, it tends to burn the bottom of the stuffing. Glass is preferred.
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- Stuffing covered in tin foil before being baked in the oven. The tin foil is taken off during the last few minutes of baking so the top will crisp.
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- Stuffing after being baked. The tin foil covering was taken off during the last few minutes so the top would brown.