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Dry Philadelphia Stuffing

A dry stuffing made from crumbled stale bread, herbs, butter, and seasonings, used to fill a bird before roasting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Summer savory and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 237 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Dry Philadelphia Stuffing

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the stuffing

  1. In a large bowl, combine the crumbled bread, salt, pepper, summer savory, parsley, and sage.

  2. Rub the butter into the bread mixture until well combined.

Prepare the bird

  1. Season the cavity of the bird with salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning or sage.

  2. Stuff the bird with the bread mixture and sew it up.

  3. Tuck the legs close to the body and draw the wings back to shape the breast.

  4. Rub salt over the bird and brush with olive oil or melted butter.

  5. Dredge the bird with flour and place it breast down in a roasting pan.

  6. Add a little hot water to the pan and roast in a 350°F (175°C) oven, basting frequently.

  7. If the oven is too hot, protect the bird with buttered paper.

  8. Roast for 10 minutes per pound after the first 20 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Summer savory + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together237 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Summer savory + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together241 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Parsley + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Stale bread
Forms the bulk of the stuffing and soaks up butter and juices for a moist, tender filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, coating the bread crumbs and helping the stuffing brown and taste rich.
Flour
Dredged on the bird's skin, it helps the skin brown and crisp in the oven.
Sage
Contributes a savory, aromatic herbal flavour that suits the bread and poultry.

The step that matters

Roast for 10 minutes per pound after the first 20 minutes. Stuffing inside the bird slows heat reaching the centre, so the bird and stuffing must reach safe temperatures together. Basting and a moderate oven help keep the meat moist while the cavity cooks through.

Swap the summer savory

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, pepper, parsley, sage, butter, olive, flour):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Summer savorythe original
  4. Rosemaryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, pepper, parsley, sage, butter, olive, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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