Staffing is as much a part of the classic Thanksgiving dinner as cranberry sauce and green bean casserole. Warm, aromatic and bread-forward, it's comfort food at its best.
Stuffing mix is readily available at the grocery store, but by forgoing the packaged mix and preparing your own stuffing from scratch, you'll open up a world of delicious possibilities.
Photography by Danielle Sykes; Food styling by Yekaterina Buitsova
Since bread is the key ingredient, how do you decide which is the best bread to use for stuffing? If a recipe simply calls for “1 pound of bread” (with no information about flavor, degree of staleness, or the size and shape of the cut or torn pieces), what then?
Here's how to determine the best bread for stuffing and how to prepare it.
The best bread for stuffing: flavor
If the stuffing recipe you've chosen has a lot of add-ins (nuts, dried fruit, sausage, oysters, mushrooms), it may be best to choose a basic bread that won't compete with other flavors, such as a Plain white Or Mild multigrain loaf.
Photography by Danielle Sykes; Food styling by Yekaterina Buitsova
But if it's a more classic recipe (one that contains butter, onions, celery, herbs, and little else) it's fine to choose a more full-flavored bread, like this Apricot, raisin and pecan bread Or Fruit sourdough sandwich bread. (Sourdough bread can be an excellent choice as long as they are not super sour, which can add a distractingly strong flavor to stuffing.)
The best bread for stuffing: texture
Beyond flavor, you also need to consider the texture of your bread. We tested a variety of breads using ours Apple and sausage stuffing recipeAnd here are our findings:
Artisan-style bread (eg, Baguettes, focaccia) (recommended): Crusty balcony-style breads are often a good choice for stuffing; They tend to be innately flavorful due to longer fermentation, but the flavor is simple enough that they complement any seasoning or add-in.
One thing to watch out for: the “holier” the bread, the more likely it is to become mushy in the stuffing. Bread with a very open texture is simply not substantial enough to provide the necessary balance of liquid to solid, and often has a high crust to crumb ratio. If you're going to use an artisan-style bread, it should be close-textured rather than super-wholey.
Enriched bread (eg, Brioche, Hala): These breads, with their higher fat content, tend to be soft and moist, with textures ranging from close-grained to quite open depending on which recipe you follow. If your loaf is very close-grained, cut it into smaller (3/4″) cubes, and let the stuffing sit for 15-20 minutes before baking, so the bread has more time to absorb the liquid. If its texture is more Open, treat it like sandwich bread (below).
Dense whole grain bread (eg Whole wheat breadWhole grain Seedlings): This bread is typically very close-grained and will absorb the stuffing's liquid quite slowly. It is also usually low in fat and thus tends to be a bit tough. Even if you rest it before baking, the finished stuffing will have a mildly chewy, “meaty” texture.
Sandwich bread (recommended): A typical pan loaf—whether white, whole wheat, or multi-grain—is often recommended for stuffing, and for good reason: it offers a nice balance of soft texture (thanks to some added fat) and strong structure. When combined with the stuffing's liquid it softens without falling apart, with each piece remaining intact.
The best bread for stuffing: cut versus torn?
When you break down a loaf for stuffing, is it better to cut it into cubes or tear it into irregular pieces? And how big should the pieces be?
PJ Hamel
Cutting versus tearing is a matter of personal choice. With their larger surface area, torn pieces of bread can offer added crunch to the top of the stuffing. Appearance-wise, sourdough bread makes a more “freeform,” rustic-looking stuffing.
And whether diced or torn, the larger the piece, the more likely it is to retain some of its original texture – although if the pieces are too large, it can be difficult to eat the stuffing gracefully. We found that bread cut or torn into pieces between 3/4″ and 1 1/2″ is ideal.
The best bread for stuffing: how old should it be?
Many cooks believe that the staler the bread, the better it will absorb the liquid from the stuffing. Not necessarily! For most stuffing recipes, using rock-hard pieces of stale bread results in a chunky, toothsome end product, with some of the bread nicely softened and some too dry to enjoy. Is there an ideal degree of staleness for stuffed bread?
Yes. We tested bread “stalling” using various times and techniques, and here's what we found:
Fresh bread: Bread that is just baked (or baked in a day or so and stored airtight) produces stuffing that is extremely soft and one-dimensional, texture-wise.
Total loaf links uncovered overnight: The bread's crust and outer layer will become stale a little, but the loaf will retain its moist center. It will produce stuffing that is quite soft.
PJ Hamel
Duct or torn bread left uncovered overnight (recommended): Cut or tear bread into pieces, placing the pieces on a wire rack Or Baking sheetAnd let them rest, uncovered, at room temperature overnight produces uniformly stale bread. The pieces will be harder around the edges than in the center, but all of them will be somewhat dried out. In stuffing, the bread will retain its structure and a bit of “bite” from the crust, although it will not be chewy.
Dice or toast dry in a slow (200°F) oven: This is a faster way to achieve much the same result as drying overnight. One small difference is that the bread will be crunchy all the way through, with no difference between crust and interior – which gives a more uniform-textured stuffing.
Dice or torn bread left uncovered for 3-4 days: This bread will be completely stale, hard and dry. In stuffing, individual pieces retain their (unpleasantly) heavy center; And any pieces exposed to direct oven heat on top will be tough and crunchy.
PJ Hamel
However you decide to dry your bread, note that the outside crust will be drier than the interior (and therefore a little cheaper in stuffing). Remove the bread's crust if you want stuffing with a more uniform texture.
And the best bread for stuffing is…
Based on our testing, here are our recommendations:
Choose a medium- to fine-grained, mildly flavored sandwich loaf, viz Classic sandwich bread, Vermont Whole Wheat Oatmeal Honey Bread, Sourdough sandwich breador herb-scented Thanksgiving Stuffing Loaf. Such a simple artisan loaf with a very fine crumb No-knead crusty white breadWould also be a good choice.
Dice the bread into 3/4″ to 1″ cubes, or tear it into 1″ to 1 1/2″ pieces. Place the prepared bread on a baking sheet or cooling rack and let it rest at room temperature, uncovered, overnight. It is then ready to use in your favorite stuffing recipe.
Are you hosting the big gathering this year? Stay ahead of the game with our Thanksgiving survival guide.
cover photo (Apple and sausage stuffing) and food styling by Liz Neely.