Peel, quarter and blitz the onions in a food processor until finely chopped, then tip stuffing calories a large bowl. Tear the stale bread into small chunks and whiz into breadcrumbs. Add these to the bowl, then crush and crumble in the chestnuts.
Place the diced pork into the food processor, pick in the sage leaves, roughly chop and add the bacon, followed by 1 level teaspoon of white pepper and a good pinch of sea salt. Finely grate in a quarter of the nutmeg, the zest of half a lemon and just 2 or 3 gratings of orange or clementine zest. Because the pork is raw, you’re committed to seasoning it well, so add another pinch of salt and pepper, then scrunch it all up until well combined. Take just under half of the stuffing out of the bowl to use for your turkey, then transfer the rest to a lovely earthenware dish. Use your hands to break it up and push it about, then flatten it all down. Pop it in the oven to cook for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until bubbling and crispy. If you’re doing it as part of your Christmas lunch, you want to put it on at the same time as your spuds.
Once done, pour away any excess fat before serving, if you want to. It will be soft, juicy and succulent on the inside, then gnarly, crispy and chewy on the outside. This homemade stuffing is cooked in the oven, not inside the bird, so it gets nice and crispy. The fresh sage gives the dish a yummy, autumnal flavor.
Danilo Alfaro has published more than 800 recipes and tutorials focused on making complicated culinary techniques approachable to home cooks. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice. Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate. Stuffing is mainly bread, so not surprisingly, the better your bread, the better your stuffing will be.
That doesn’t mean it can’t be white bread, but a chewy, crusty loaf will hold up better and have a better texture after it’s cooked. There’s always a debate among stuffing aficionados over whether to include an egg, which helps to bind the stuffing together. Some people don’t care for it at all, while for others it’s two eggs or bust. This recipe includes a single egg, but you can use two or just leave it out, as you prefer.