Stop Making Dry Dressing! The Old Alabama Cornbread Dressing Trick My Grandmama Swore By

Stop Making Dry Dressing! The Old Alabama Cornbread Dressing Trick My Grandmama Swore By Three weeks before Thanksgiving of 1979, my mother-in-law had a stroke, and the family decided I would make her cornbread dressing for twenty-three people. Miss Ruby could not say a word to tell me what I was doing wrong. So she taught me with her left hand. Here is her whole recipe, free, so you can print it and keep it in your own book. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ MISS RUBY'S CORNBREAD DRESSING Serves 12 to 14 · one 9x13 dish INGREDIENTS • 1 large skillet of plain cornbread (no sugar), baked 2 days ahead (about 8 cups crumbled) • 4 day-old biscuits, or 4 slices dry white bread, torn up • 1 stick (½ cup) butter, plus more for the dish and the top • 2 cups chopped onion • 1½ cups chopped celery • 2 tbsp rubbed dried sage (or a small handful of fresh sage, chopped fine) • 1 tsp poultry seasoning • 1 tsp black pepper • Salt to taste • 5 to 6 cups warm homemade turkey broth (see below) • 3 eggs, beaten • 2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped (Miss Ruby's Georgia way, optional) FOR THE BROTH • Turkey neck and giblets, 1 onion, the leafy tops of the celery, 1 bay leaf and water. Simmer 2 hours, strain, and season until it tastes good enough to drink. Save the cooked giblets for the gravy. HOW TO MAKE IT 1. Two days ahead, bake the cornbread. Crumble it onto a sheet pan in thumbnail-size pieces and leave it out overnight, uncovered, until dry and crunchy. In a hurry? Dry it in a low oven for 1 hour. 2. Mix the dry cornbread with the torn biscuits in a big bowl, about 3 parts cornbread to 1 part biscuit. 3. Melt the stick of butter in a skillet. Cook the onion and celery slowly until soft and clear, not browned. Add to the bowl. 4. Crush the sage between your palms over the bowl. Add the poultry seasoning and pepper. 5. Pour in the warm broth and stir gently. Keep pouring until it looks too wet, like wet oatmeal. Then add a little more. 6. Let it soak 15 minutes, stirring once halfway. 7. Taste it now and fix the salt and sage. 8. Stir in the beaten eggs and the chopped hard-boiled eggs. 9. Butter a 9x13 dish. Spoon the dressing in loosely. Do not press it down. Dot the top with small pieces of butter. 10. Bake uncovered at 350°F for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the top is golden and crisp, the edges pull away from the dish and the middle springs back when pressed. 11. Keep a small pot of warm broth on the stove. If the top dries out while it waits, spoon a little over it. 12. Serve with giblet gravy: chop the cooked giblets and stir them into your turkey gravy. MAKE AHEAD: Mix everything, eggs and all, cover and refrigerate overnight. Take it out 30 minutes before baking and add about 15 minutes to the baking time. LEFTOVERS: Reheat covered with foil at 325°F with a splash of broth on top. TO FREEZE: Cut baked dressing into squares, wrap tight, and freeze up to 2 months. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ CHAPTERS 0:00 Three weeks before Thanksgiving 1:30 The big secret 1:59 #25–23 Stale cornbread and biscuits 2:48 The first taste 3:21 #22–20 Broth, butter, onions and celery 4:13 The bread box 4:36 #19–17 Sage, seasoning and warm broth 5:24 Wednesday: the tapping 6:09 #16–14 Soaking, tasting and the eggs 6:48 The first yes 7:08 #13–11 Loose, buttered and wide 7:51 Thanksgiving morning 8:17 #10–8 Oven, doneness and making ahead 9:01 #7 Dressing or stuffing? 9:39 #6–4 Gravy, leftovers and freezing 10:15 Twenty-three people at the table 11:04 #3–2 The chopped egg and warm broth 11:27 #1 Make it too wet 11:54 What Miss Ruby left me Now tell me in the comments: dressing or stuffing? And who made the dressing in your family? Tell me her name. Keep the skillet hot, baby. Mama Odessa is a storytelling character. The recipes come from real Southern home-cooking tradition, and some visuals in this video are AI-generated. #cornbreaddressing #thanksgivingrecipes #soulfood #southerncooking #grandmasrecipes