Soul Food · side

Cornbread Dressing with Sage and Giblet Gravy

Cornbread Dressing with Sage and Giblet Gravy reads umami 5.2, richness 4.7 and salinity 4.0 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Soul Food side, about 1 hr 32 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

• Umami & Savory — 5.7 / 10
• Sweet & Fruity — 3.2 / 10
• Sour & Bright — 0.6 / 10
• Bitter & Earthy — 1.8 / 10
• Rich & Fat — 4.9 / 10
• Aromatic & Spice — 4.2 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Umami 5.2 · Richness 4.7 · Salinity 4.0 · Allium 3.7 · Sweetness 3.2 · Herbaceous 2.8 · Warm Spice 1.8 · Earthy 1.7 · Bitterness 1.0 · Heat 1.0 · Floral 1.0 · Sourness 0.6 · Nutty 0.5

What's in it (15)

• skillet of cornbread — 900 g
• bread — 120 g
• unsalted butter — 110 g
• yellow onions — 450 g
• celery — 200 g
• ground sage — 7 g
• thyme — 4 g
• turkey broth — 1400 g
• eggs — 165 g
• salt — 7 g
• black pepper — 10 g
• giblets — 250 g
• eggs — 165 g
• all-purpose flour — 23 g
• flat-leaf parsley — 20 g

Time & effort: about 1 hr 32 min (1 hr 31 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 180.6 kcal, 13 g protein, 8.7 g fat, 17.2 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains dairy · Contains egg — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (7 steps)

1. Two things to settle before you begin. It is dressing, not stuffing — it is baked in its own pan, never inside the bird. And it is cornbread dressing, which means it should be soft enough to spoon and mound wetly, not cut into squares. A dry dressing is a failed dressing.
2. Bake the cornbread a day ahead in a cast-iron skillet and leave it uncovered overnight so it dries out; wet fresh cornbread turns to paste. Crumble it into a very large bowl with the torn white bread, which is there for structure, and rub the two together with your hands until the crumbs are even.
3. Melt the butter in a wide pan over medium and cook the onions and celery slowly, 15 minutes, until they are completely soft and translucent with no bite left and just beginning to take colour at the edges. Stir in the sage and thyme and cook 1 minute more so they bloom in the fat.
4. Scrape the vegetables and all the butter into the crumbs. Pour in 1 litre (4 cups) of the stock a little at a time, turning it with a spoon, until the mixture is loose and sloppy — wetter than you think is right. Stir in the beaten raw eggs, salt and pepper.
5. Spread it in a buttered 23 by 33 cm baking dish and bake at 175 C (350 F) for 45 minutes, until the top is browned and the centre is set but still gives under a spoon.
6. For the gravy, whisk the flour into 2 tablespoons of the pan fat or butter in a saucepan over medium and cook 3 minutes until it smells nutty and turns the colour of sand. Whisk in the remaining 400 ml stock a splash at a time and simmer 8 minutes until it coats a spoon. Stir in the chopped giblet and neck meat and the hard-boiled eggs, warm 3 minutes, and finish with the parsley. Spoon it over the dressing.
7. Substitutions: chicken stock can stand in for the turkey stock.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

• Grochówka — Polish
• Erbsensuppe (Split Pea Soup) — German
• Baeckeoffe — French · Alsace
• Axoa de Veau — Basque · Iparralde (France)
• Lamb Kofta Meatballs in Tomato Sauce — Middle Eastern

Keep reading: what umami, richness, salinity mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.