The Bookless Club: What are your stuffing secrets and traditions?

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If food poisoning plays favourites, then potato salad dominates summer and stuffing rules the winter holidays. It’s funny, given the general efforts we make not to kill ourselves, that two of our seasonal favourites can run amok with our health so very easily. Given that summer is now in the rear-view mirror, let’s talk about the thing that threatens the big feast ahead. The thing that makes the holiday bird, holiday. That thing is stuffing. Some call it dressing, chefs often refer to it as forcemeat, but it’s always the same thing — the concoction you load into the cavity of the main event, the turkey.

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The first reference to stuffing dates way back, all the way to the fourth century in the western world’s oldest surviving cookbook. The Roman cookbook, “Apicius, De Re Coquinaria” — literally, “On the Subject of Cooking” — is a culinary wonder as well as a glimpse into the distant past. Its author, Marcus Gavius Apicius, qualifies as the original celebrity chef and the recognized gourmand of his times. If you’re looking to reimagine Christmas dinner, have a gander at De Re Coquinaria. How does boiled ostrich sound? Or would you prefer fried peacock? This ancient cookbook includes directions on how to truss a flamingo and even how to use the tongue from that pink bird. Amongst all of those instructions you’ll find recipes for stuffed chicken, hare, pig, and even a dormouse. Apicius provides no tips for turkey roasting as that bird wouldn’t be introduced to Europe for centuries yet.

Then, as now, stuffing recipes rely upon a starch and a variety of vegetables, herbs and spices. De Re Coquiaria’s stuffing relied upon spelt, a type of grain. Giblets are usually reserved for a stuffing, but other meats are also used, pork, in particular. The introduction of fruit — apples, apricots, raisins — to stuffing is something that the U.K. is credited with. Chestnuts, to my surprise, qualify as a fruit.

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The trouble with stuffing is that, as much as you may love it, bacteria loves stuffing more. Specifically, the salmonella and e.Coli bacteria. For these pathogens, stuffing is kind of their day at the fair. The conditions inside a slow-cooking bird are ideal for bacteria to thrive.

The trick has always been getting the stuffing appropriately cooked without overcooking the bird. The bigger the bird, the more difficult this is. All cooks want to serve a moist and tender bird, but that usually means that the stuffing won’t be cooked all the way through. The safety zone for your turkey is an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit … and that includes the centre of the stuffing. Herein lies the dilemma. So, what’s it going to be? Tender white meat … or a touch of salmonella?

Pretty much all health officials and safety-minded chefs recommend making your stuffing outside the bird. They claim that the heavenly moistness and poultry flavour so associated with stuffing can be duplicated by drizzling the juices from the bird over the casserole-bound stuffing mixture.

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The other thing about stuffing is that we’re supposed to use it up, el pronto. Its very nature makes it a vector for bacterial growth. Some people layer slabs of it onto their turkey sandwiches. Others claim it makes a wonderful breakfast hash served with fried eggs. Another ingenious use of stuffing is to get out the waffle iron and churn out some deliciously savoury waffles.

From brioche, sourdough, cornbread, to good old Wonder Bread, soon enough we’ll all be sorting out our own approaches to this dangerous little side dish. Bring on the cranberries.

Jane Macdougall is a freelance writer and former National Post columnist who lives in Vancouver. She writes The Bookless Club every Saturday online and in The Vancouver Sun. For more of what Jane’s up to, check out her website, janemacdougall.com

This week’s question for readers:

Question: Fruit, nuts, Grand Marnier, Cinnamon Bread? What are your stuffing secrets and traditions?

Send your answers by email text, not an attachment, in 100 words or less, along with your full name to Jane at thebooklessclub@gmail.com. We will print some next week in this space.

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Previous question for readers:

Question: Do you, or did you, do puzzles? When, and with whom?

• We are not jigsaw puzzle people, but this fall things have been different. We have moved temporarily to Montréal to take care of my mother-in-law who lives with mid-stage Alzheimer’s disease. She is a jigsaw puzzle savant. While we have been here we have completed a half-dozen puzzles and have thoroughly enjoyed the pleasure of working together on them. It is our oasis of calm every day, and we delight in seeing her rejoice over every piece that clicks into place. High fives all round and a loud “Yes”. Couldn’t be better.

Darlene Proulx

• I love puzzles. I did them with my two children, then my two grandchildren. There’s a puzzle that I kept by using puzzle glue. It’s missing a piece. I think the piece got thrown out with the plastic bag accidentally. I hung the completed puzzle on my bedroom wall to remind myself that it’s okay to not be perfect.

Anna Lam

• Wasgij (note, jigsaw spelled backwards) puzzles are different in that the picture on the box is not of the finished puzzle. The box picture is full of action, where “something” is about to happen, and is the precursor to the finished puzzle, which shows the aftermath. Each puzzle includes five clue pieces, indicating where those pieces go. We do one each Christmas when we stay with Nanaimo friends, and it usually takes us up to four days to complete, each of us working at it a little bit each day. Challenging, but fun.

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Hilary Johnston

• I once attempted and eventually completed a 3,000-piece jigsaw puzzle. It was no easy feat with two children, limited space and a cat. Also, I’m colourblind. I naïvely took on this “recreational” pursuit hoping it would help calm my mind and I could escape the responsibilities of life in the few spare moments that I had. It was fun for a while, but slowly it morphed into chaos with pieces seemingly everywhere. In the end I had the satisfaction of seeing the fruits of my considerable labour slowly coming together, but I’ll stick with 500 pieces in the future, thank you.

Avrum Miller

• Yes — from about Grade 5 (1953) when my mother had to help my dad in our flower shop and I was sick. Loved them then, and still do. My two favourites are both Robert Bateman — the fox, and his picture of puffins. Both were 1,000 pieces and now hang on my walls.

JoAnn Fox

• I complete several 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzles a year. Always 1,000 pieces — anything larger takes too long, smaller is no challenge. I have a whiteboard that fits on the dining table and just nicely holds a puzzle shape and a few random pieces waiting for placement. I was given a set of stacking shallow trays for sorting pieces into. Always complete the frame first, then it’s vignettes or obvious groupings. Great for brain, eye and hand coordination, and much satisfaction as the last piece is placed. I puzzle alone with an occasional piece or two found by visiting family members.

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Sheila Charneski

• You hit a great idea with the jigsaw puzzles. Growing up as a child in Nova Scotia, we had a big puzzle every Christmas morning. It had to be completed in a day because it was on the kitchen table, which was needed for dinner, of course. I’m now a senior citizen and every Christmas we have to do a puzzle at my house. I must say it doesn’t get completed in a day.

Carole Efting

• Yes, I’ve done jigsaw puzzles all my life, starting with those geographical ones and moving on to those of paintings, like Van Gogh’s Starry Night. Whenever my sister comes to visit, I put a puzzle out for us to do. Friends in England whom we visit about every two years always have a jigsaw puzzle on the go, and one young teenager likes to organize us — edges first, then grouping of colours. Perhaps you saw the Luann cartoon segments about jigsaw puzzles in The Vancouver Sun in which Bernice wants to organize everything and won’t let other puzzlers just relax?

Nancy Carlman

• I remember as a teenager lying on the living room floor with my mother and two sisters, talking and laughing, as we worked on a round puzzle. More recently, the COVID shutdown provided us with the perfect opportunity to set up a huge table in the middle of the house where we successfully completed a 3,141-piece, 3D puzzle of New York City with the twin towers. The only problem with puzzling is that nothing else gets done. One day, we will get to our 5,000-piece Ravensburger puzzle, but we still have so much to do, we better not start it for a while.

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Anna Vanderlende

• As a child, I did puzzles, but I don’t recall any details. Then, 50 years later, came the COVID puzzle boom. Now my partner and I do a few together every year. We have a portable puzzle solver table and an easel to mount it over the fireplace, complete with gallery lighting. It will be time to start the next puzzle when we’ve seen enough of our latest creation.

Peter Brouwer

• As one who has done many, many puzzles from 500 to 2,000 pieces, I can tell you they are one of the greatest natural stress relievers that can be had. They also are great memory souvenirs that can be done again and again. Don’t forget Cobble Hill puzzles.

Terry Rich

• Yes, my husband and I are puzzlers. During the pandemic, we discovered other friends who also enjoy this pastime. An exchange system started up. The jigsaws may be of a scenic, animal or artistic nature, ranging from 500 to 2,000 pieces. Eventually, they get donated to a seniors’ centre. On one memorable occasion, the illustration on the box differed from the puzzle inside. That one required a major effort to complete. One jigsaw never got finished — it illustrated a handful of colourful paper clips that had been randomly scattered. Not for us. We just want to have fun.

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Lindsay Salt

• For many years, our family started a Christmas puzzle Dec. 1 with the goal to have it done by the 24th. The bigger the better. At least 1,000 to 2,000 pieces. It was great fun. Kids have moved away, but I found a 500 piece I’m going to start Dec. 1 this year. I forgot how much fun is.

Sharlene MacMillan

• Puzzling has become a tradition for me and my husband. Winter has officially started when we get out our first puzzle, set aside the border pieces and then sort the rest into somewhat colour-coded areas. Then it’s time to turn on some music — most often jazz — pour a whiskey and soda, and puzzle season begins. It’s become one of our favourite times of the year.

Vranic

• I visit a resort on Orcas Island just south of the border twice a year. I have been going there for many years, and the Washington State Ferry system has an interesting feature. Compared to B.C. Ferries, their vessels are very plain, but on each ferry there are a few tables with jigsaw puzzles. We often fill in a few sections of the puzzle, and sometimes meet other passengers doing the same thing.

Angus McIntyre

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• We only do puzzles after Christmas as it takes our minds off the miserable dark days and weather and it’s a time to slow down after the busy season. One bright, lively puzzle will do the trick. We really only started this habit during COVID to help pass the time

Karen Magee

• When I was an adolescent, my father and I would enjoy spending time doing jigsaw puzzles. I look back on that time spent as a wonderful opportunity for conversation ranging from light to more heartfelt. Now a grandmother, I rekindled my pleasure of doing puzzles along with my teenage granddaughter. We spend hours listening to music, laughing, having those same heartfelt conversations, not solving world problems, but resolving issues in our own little worlds — just as valuable in my mind. We still find joy in spending a rainy Sunday together, puzzling, exclaiming “boom” at every found piece.

Penelope Dawes

• When I was a kid, there were a lot of break-ins in our neighbourhood one Christmas. My parents thought we should do puzzles as they had decided we needed to stick close to home. Today, my mom and I work on puzzles to make sure all the pieces are there, and then they get sent to Third World countries, packed into containers along with relief items.

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Gail Reddicopp

• During COVID a friend gave me a jigsaw puzzle. Not having done one since my childhood 70 years ago, I was eager to try again. More puzzles followed in quick succession and I quickly became addicted. Life was put on hold. Then one day, my dear friend Sue said, “Have I got a puzzle for you,” and she handed me a 3,000-piece puzzle. Undaunted, I unpacked the box, the pieces totally covering my dining table. It did not take me long, however, to realize that I had bitten off more than I could chew.

Dorothy Copp

• I have always loved jigsaws and as a child in the 1950s did lots. My favourite was a circular one with pictures of six of Shakespeare’s plays with the playwright in the centre. My friends and I would sit on the floor to do it. I still enjoy doing 500 and 1,000 piece puzzles.

Gillian Cramer

• Jigsaw puzzles were an important part of our childhood. My father loved to do puzzles, and always recorded how long each puzzle took — the “solve-time” was recorded on the inside of the puzzle box lid. Dad considered looking at the picture while putting together the puzzle was cheating. Every so often, he would do a puzzle picture-side-down, just for a challenge. Most of us kids also enjoyed jigsaws, and the habit has continued for some.

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Margaret Underhill

• I heartily agree that puzzles can be calming and de-stressing and have found an even more relaxing way to do them. Online puzzles offer many added benefits as they are unaffected by low light, don’t require table space, and eliminate the danger of any lost pieces. Jigsawexplorer.com is completely free, offers two new puzzles daily plus access to a huge archive as well as, a weekly mystery puzzle that allows you to set the number of pieces according to your mood or skill level. It’s a win-win for puzzle lovers.

Wendy Dubois

• As a child, health kept me at home and in bed a lot. My grandmother, who lived with us, introduced me to jigsaw puzzles on a special bed tray. We both enjoyed this time, which often ended in a race to get the next piece in and was a great way to spend time together. I still love doing these puzzles, now with my own grandchildren and a close friend, and we were delighted to hear about the World Jigsaw Puzzle Federation. In fact, we are actually thinking of going next year.

Elizabeth Thunstrom

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