Cheap bastards tried to kill me - anybody got this recipe?

December 26, 2008 6:37 PM

Imitation recipe for Pepperidge Farms Herb Stuffing?

I just discovered, through an incident ultimately involving use of Allegra, half a Benadryl, and my unfortunately expired inhaler, that Pepperidge Farms has started putting soy flour in their Herb Stuffing. This herb stuffing has been the base for my dressing* for oh, my entire life, and the dressing is my favorite part of Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. Anybody have a good imitation that does not contain soy flour?



*for you flatlanders, dressing is made with stuffing to start, but other things are done to it and it is never put in a bird and is served as a side dish.

posted by dilettante to food & drink (8 comments total)

Ok, I am stunned...I tried to find a brand that doesn't have soy and they all seem to, even the "unseasoned" ones. Wow. I think that means you'll have to start from scratch.

The bagged stuffing is basically dry bread cubes plus seasoning. If you take french bread or some other kind of large bread, and cut it into cubes, you can either let it dry out overnight or you can dry it in a warm oven for a little while. The herb seasoning is basically the same set of herbs you can find in a jar of poultry seasoning, namely sage and thyme, plus probably a bunch of salt. If your dressing recipe already calls for poultry seasoning, you might be able to just increase it a little bit.
posted by cabingirl at 7:18 PM on December 26, 2008

Ok, I am stunned...I tried to find a brand that doesn't have soy and they all seem to

Yeah. Soy oil and soy lecithin only rarely bother people, so those aren't an issue. It's the protein, and soy flour has that. Soy fiber probably does, too. As the cost of wheat flour has gone up, bakeries have started adding in soy flour. They may also want the bread to look like it has more protein than it does, I dunno. I can still get by without baking my own bread, but it's a pretty limited selection (and, as this incident reminds me, I should to remember to always read the label, because companies change recipes.

The concern for the recipe is the seasoning, and maybe the mix of breads - it doesn't seem like it's just plain white bread in the Pepperidge Farms stuff, maybe a little rye or pumpernickel as well? And then the herbs themselves, of course. I'll check out poultry seasoning, thanks.
posted by dilettante at 7:33 PM on December 26, 2008

Do you have bread bakery near you? The sort of place that sells freshly-made boules and baguettes? They'll usually sell you a mixture of roughly-cubed stale breads in giant bags for cheap. You may have to ask.

Mmmmm. You'll never go back to Pepperidge Farm. I know whereof I speak.
posted by desuetude at 8:09 PM on December 26, 2008

Just cube up some stale bread. Add seasoning (pepper, salt, sage, parsley, etc.--whatever else that you like). Takes a bit more time, but it is much better.
posted by anansi at 8:49 PM on December 26, 2008

I have a bread machine and make my own stuffing. 1/3 white flour, 1/3 whole wheat, 1/3 rye flour, and your favorite herbs (can be copied from your favorite Pepperidge Farm bag). After it's baked and cooled, I cut it into cubes and twice toast it on a pan. Voila.
posted by semmi at 9:29 PM on December 26, 2008

Arrowhead Mills organic stuffing has no soy. We used some other stuffing from Whole Foods that was cornbread that also had no soy, but I don't recall the name. I think if you avoid the general grocery store stuff and look for organic you'll have better luck. (They probably won't taste exactly the same because Pepperidge Farms also adds other useless stuff like corn syrup.)
FWIW, the basic spices for stuffing are sage, thyme, rosemary, onion, salt, pepper. Pretty much every commercial mix uses a variation of those ingredents.
posted by oneirodynia at 10:39 PM on December 26, 2008

Wow, I feel for you. I love stuffing.

Here are a few links - I haven't tried any of them, but they might give you some pointers:

Original Recipe: Pepperidge Farm Sage & Onion Stuffing (also here with less commentary)

Vegetarian Stuffing

Glancing over these, it seems like the key ingredients are onion, celery, and sage (plus bread, of course).

If you end up experimenting, I hope you'll come back and post your own recipe here.
posted by kristi at 12:38 PM on December 27, 2008

Late to the party, but my time-tested homemade stuffing has always consisted of tearing a loaf (or two, depending upon how many people you're feeding) of white bread into small pieces. Chop up celery and scallions (can't give you exact amounts; I always go by "oh, that looks like enough" when I toss the veggies into the bread pieces. But as a rule of thumb, I'd say at least one standard "bunch" of scallions and five celery stalks chopped into fine pieces.) Add to the mix two cups of chicken boullion and two raw eggs. Mix until everything is moist and mushy. Now season with black pepper, onion powder and poultry seasonsing (me, I add a touch of garlic powder, but not everyone likes that extra tanginess.) Mix thoroughly.
posted by Oriole Adams at 2:27 PM on December 27, 2008