Dressing for the Soul, or the recipe that is really great to read and all, but you kind of have to be there

I admit I lost count.  Or, rather, I can’t remember when we started.  I just know that it’s Thanksgiving and that means today, the day before Thanksgiving, I have to make dressing.  I know I can give credit to my mother for deciding this was the thing we would do together – with Gram.  I suspect early on I was recruited because I could easily be assigned the task of making bread crumbs (the truly unique story of this recipe that you shall learn shortly) so Gram and my mom could sit upstairs in the kitchen and chat over bacon grease and chopped onion.

It is probably my most recent and thereby vivid memory of cooking with Gram.  I remember not leaving work early enough and getting to Jefferson well after the appointed time of my arrival.  I remember my coat smelling of that bacon several days after.  I remember being sent (on that insane grocery shopping day either before Thanksgiving or Christmas) to get some more onions and then not ten minutes later back again for the Bell’s seasoning that was no place to be found on the shelves… and then just as I was about to give up found a whole big display of it.

I remember having this every Thanksgiving and Christmas in the blue and white crock pot.  It isn’t stuffing.  It’s dressing.  And it’s got meat… so this dish is not for the non-meat eaters… not even, really, for the meat less eaters like myself.  But it is a family tradition.  And it is so good.

Fact is, this is not Gram’s recipe.  This is another Nana Rose tradition.  I don’t know where she found it, but it’s pretty classic French Canadian.  Boiled ground meat and seasoning?  You got it.

It’s actually a pretty easy recipe.  And I suppose you can read this and copy it.  But, trust me, it ain’t gonna taste the same.  Why?

    1.Chances are, you don’t have a nifty turn of the century meat grinder, bread crumb maker.

    2.You don’t have THAT roasting pan for the bread crumbs to land in.

    3.You don’t have THAT cast iron skillet, flavored with years of bacon fat and fried meat dinners she prepared for my grandfather.

    4.You don’t have THAT crock pot.

But, still, you can probably come up with an alternative.  And if you make it an excuse for family socializing… maybe you can get some of the flavor.

Gram’s Original Recipe:
 7-10 onions, cut up and fried in bacon fat until tender
2lbs. hamburger, handful of salt sparingly
1 ¾  quarts of water approx. until cooked – boil down to less liquid
Roasting pan of bread crumbs (for bread use Claire Baker rye bread loaf– watch amount, add gradually)
3 to 4 Tbsp sage – add gradually

But, let me elaborate a little…

The Claire Baker rye bread loaf is no longer available.  So we get the Swedish Rye from Darby’s Bakery in West Boylston.  (How very classic Worcester, using Swedish bread to make a French Canadian recipe.)  Now this bread you need to DRY.  And I mean dry to the point you can use it as sandpaper.  Because from it you make bread crumbs.  Now… that can be achieved any old way.  A food processor would be easy.  A plastic bag and a rolling pin not too much more difficult.  But to make it the Rose Alba way, you get a meat grinder (which has a separate piece for bread crumbs), hook it up on the basement counter, and grind those pieces of bread to dust. But… if that bread isn’t dry enough (as was the case today) the holes gum up and the thing doesn’t work. 

I must admit, this is the most absurd part of this.  And yet so delightfully unique.  How THRILLED was I when one summer I was giving one of my tours at Beauport and saw this same contraption set up on the table, hands off and surrounded by plastic food.  When I make this dressing, I actually get to touch one with my bare hands and put the organic matter of food in it.  Preservation schmezervation.

The grinder in pieces

 Making the crumbs

Anyway, back to this process…

Meanwhile, while one is grinding up breadcrumbs… someone else can be chopping up onions.  We chopped them today – but Gram cut them lengthwise.  …. Huge sigh… I don’t think it was last year… but the year before… and one of those times when Boston traffic interfered with my timely arrival.  Gram asked me to cut up the onions before grinding the bread because her grip wasn't what it used to be.  It was then when I realized how important it was to be there  - even when the traffic was so so so so annoying.  Traffic goes away.  Gram was there with me, filling the air with stories or listening to me tell of whatever seeming importance filled my brain.

And you know… this dressing is great and all.  That museum piece is certainly a fun twist.  But the best part of making this dressing was the incidental conversations.  Her comments about Rose and her making pies for Grampy Frank.  Or her frequent comment about a trip to NH when she came back engaged and an aunt raised an eyebrow asking why they were getting married so suddenly.  Or what one cousin was up to in Colorado or another cousin on the west coast.  Or trying to explain to her why I decided to write a vampire novel… the sun would go down early.  The ingredients were all resting in the crock pot… but those conversations stretched the afternoon into evening.

But about that crock pot.

This, too, can happen while someone is chopping up onions and someone else is grinding breadcrumbs, and someone is telling you about her trip to New Hampshire.  Put the two pounds of beef in a large pot and boil in 1 ¾ quarts of water… which for those of us not measuring in Old English is about 7 cups.  Simmer until meat is brown and liquid is less.  And this, honestly, is an eyeball trick.  This is great instruction, isn’t it?  But it has to be a small enough amount to absorb all those bread crumbs without still being soupy.

While that meat is boiling and someone is still very likely grinding up crumbs, fry up 3-4 pieces of bacon in a cast iron skillet.  Take out the bacon.  Leave the grease.  Cook those onions until they are clear and brownish.  

When the water is boiled down, add the bread crumbs.

Then add the onions.

Then add the Bell’s.  The recipe calls for 3 Tbsp.  But, you know, if you feel the need to taste it after 2 Tbsp… why not?  Even better if everyone has an opportunity to offer an opinion and in fact confirm that it needs another Tbsp.

Lay a turkey thigh or drumstick on the bottom of the crock pot.  Fill the crock pot with the meat, crumb, onion, seasoning mixture.  Cook on low overnight and fill your house with that smell.  Bring to the smorgasbord of a typical Brennan holiday feast… where even if all you can sample is one little spoon so you can sample every other dish… and enjoy.

If you don’t have a Gram to tell you stories, it’s really great to have a cousin, her son, and an aunt to keep you company.  Because the best ingredient, of course, is family.

 Love you, Gram.