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Stuffing for Fowls

A bread-crumb stuffing seasoned with onion, butter and egg, used for filling chicken or turkey.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Elizabeth Lyles Wilson (1860–1924) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Stuffing for Fowls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the bread

  1. Soak 1 pint stale bread in 1½ pints of cold water.

  2. Squeeze out water from crumbs and put in onion and butter.

Cook the onion

  1. Cook 1 onion (chopped) in one tablespoon butter.

  2. Cook a few minutes and when taken from fire add one egg beaten slightly.

Season and moisten

  1. Season ground stale bread crumbs with chopped or grated onion, salt and pepper.

  2. Add a little melted butter to moisten, or fat from the liquor in which they are cooked.

  3. Oysters may be added to make oyster dressing.

  4. Moisten meal with chicken fat from liquor.

  5. Cook onion in tablespoon butter, and fry meal cakes in this.

  6. Stuff chicken and turkey with corn that has been boiled, cut from cob, seasoned highly with butter, pepper and salt.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

679Calories
21 gProtein
18 gFat
106 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Mary Elizabeth Lyles Wilson (1860–1924). 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. See the original page.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Bread + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Stale bread
Forms the body of the stuffing and absorbs liquid to become soft and cohesive.
Egg
Binds the crumbs together so the stuffing holds its shape when cooked.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps moisten the crumbs and lightly brown the onion.
Onion
Adds aromatic flavour that seasons the bread through the stuffing.

The step that matters

Squeeze out water from crumbs. Bread soaked in water becomes very wet; excess liquid makes the stuffing soggy and weakens its structure, so the crumbs should be pressed dry before adding onion and butter.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, egg):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, egg. 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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