Potato Stuffing with Butter

If you can only make room for one side at Thanksgiving, make it this one. Potato stuffing folds buttery, toasted bread, soft onion, celery and sage into fluffy mash, then bakes it until the top is golden and the edges are crisp. It is mash and stuffing in one dish, and it is cooked entirely in butter. No seed oils, no boxed mix.

Why butter?

Stuffing lives or dies by its fat, and butter does three jobs here that oil cannot. It softens and sweetens the onion and celery, it toasts the bread cubes so they keep some bite inside the mash, and the last few knobs dotted on top brown into a proper crust. Butter tastes of something; a neutral vegetable oil does not, which is exactly why we do not use it.

Serves: 8 · Prep: 25 minutes · Cook: 1 hour 5 minutes, plus 10 minutes resting

Ingredients

• 1.2kg floury potatoes (Maris Piper or russet), peeled and cut into large chunks
• 100g unsalted butter, plus a little extra for the dish
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 3 celery sticks, finely chopped
• 200g day-old white bread (about 6 thick slices), cut into 2cm cubes
• 240ml whole milk, warmed
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 3 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh sage, or 1 tsp dried
• 1 tsp fine sea salt, plus more for the cooking water
• ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Heat the oven to 190°C (170°C fan, 375°F, gas 5) and butter a 23 x 33cm (9 x 13-inch) baking dish.
2. Put the potatoes in a large pan of well-salted cold water, bring to the boil and simmer for 15–20 minutes, until a knife slides in with no resistance. Drain, then leave them in the colander for 2 minutes to steam dry.
3. While the potatoes cook, melt 60g of the butter in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the onion and celery and cook gently for 8–10 minutes, until soft and just turning golden at the edges.
4. Add the bread cubes and sage to the pan and toss for 3–4 minutes, until the bread has soaked up the butter and toasted lightly in places. Take the pan off the heat.
5. Mash the potatoes with the warm milk until smooth. Leave the mash to cool for 5 minutes so it does not scramble the eggs, then fold in the bread mixture, eggs, parsley, salt and pepper. Taste and add more salt if it needs it.
6. Spread the mixture in the buttered dish without packing it down; a rough top gives you more crisp bits. Dot the remaining 40g butter over the surface in small pieces.
7. Bake for 40–45 minutes, until deep golden on top and crisp at the edges, and the centre reaches 74°C (165°F) on a thermometer. Rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Tips

• Use bread that is a day or two old. Fresh bread turns to paste in the mash; stale bread holds its shape.
• Do not pack it into the dish. A loose, craggy surface gives you the crisp, buttery peaks everyone fights over.
• Because there are eggs in it, check the centre with a thermometer. The USDA safe temperature chart gives 74°C (165°F) for casseroles and stuffing.
• Building the whole meal? It sits happily next to our tallow roast turkey and turkey gravy with a tallow roux, and the full seed-oil-free Thanksgiving menu has the rest.

Curious how stuffing ended up on the American table? The Food Timeline is a good place to start digging.

FAQ

Why butter rather than oil?

Because the butter is the flavour. It browns the onion and celery, toasts the bread and gives the top its crisp, golden crust, and a stuffing made with vegetable oil simply tastes of less. If you have turkey or bacon fat to hand, you can swap in a spoonful for some of the butter in the frying pan.

What is potato stuffing?

It is a baked stuffing that mixes mashed potato with buttery bread cubes, onion, celery and herbs. In Pennsylvania Dutch cooking it is known as potato filling and it is a regular on the Thanksgiving table. Think of it as the best of the mash and the stuffing in one dish.

Can I make it ahead?

Yes. Assemble it in the dish up to a day ahead, cover and refrigerate. Dot with the butter just before baking and add 10–15 minutes to the baking time, checking that the centre still reaches 74°C (165°F).

Can I cook it inside the turkey?

We bake it in a dish. Stuffing cooked inside the bird must also reach 74°C (165°F) in the centre to be safe, and by the time it does, the breast meat is usually overcooked. A dish also gives you far more crisp edges.

Which potatoes work best?

Floury potatoes such as Maris Piper, King Edward or russet. They mash light and fluffy and soak up the butter. Waxy potatoes turn gluey when mashed.

Is it vegetarian?

Yes, as written. There is no stock or meat in it, so it suits vegetarians at the table. Swap in poultry fat only if that does not matter to your guests.

More ideas: butter mashed potatoes · crispy tallow roast potatoes · pecan pie with butter and a lard crust.

Try next: green bean casserole with crispy ghee shallots, made from scratch with no tins.

Cooking for Thanksgiving? This recipe is part of our seed-oil-free Thanksgiving menu, with every dish and a day-by-day cook-ahead plan.