Cornbread Stuffing (Southern Cornbread Dressing)

Method

1. 1Dry the cornbread, ideally the day before. Heat the oven to 165°C (325°F), cut the cornbread into pieces of about 2 cm and spread them over two baking trays, crumbs included. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, turning the pieces two or three times, until they are dry and lightly browned at the edges; a cooled piece should snap, not squash. Fresh cornbread is full of moisture and falls apart into porridge the moment broth touches it, while dry pieces soak the broth up like a sponge and keep their shape.
2. 2Cook the vegetables. Chop the onion and celery into 5 mm dice and mince the garlic, sage and thyme. Melt 100 g of the butter in a wide frying pan over medium heat, add the onion, celery and half of the salt, and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring now and then, until soft and translucent but not browned. Add the garlic, sage and thyme, stir for 1 minute until fragrant and take the pan off the heat. The vegetables will not soften any further in the oven, so they must be tender now.
3. 3Heat the oven to 175°C (350°F) and grease a 23×33 cm baking dish with a little of the remaining butter. Tip the dried cornbread into your largest bowl and scrape the vegetables over it with every drop of butter from the pan. Fold together with a spatula or your hands, gently, so the pieces stay whole.
4. 4Whisk the eggs with 400 ml of the broth, the rest of the salt and the pepper. The broth must be cold or lukewarm, because hot broth cooks the egg into threads. Pour the liquid evenly over the cornbread, fold a few times and leave for 10 minutes, turning the mixture gently every 2 or 3 minutes. The egg is what holds the stuffing together: it sets in the oven, so you can lift out a spoonful that keeps its shape and not a heap of wet crumbs.
5. 5Now adjust the moisture. Press a piece between your fingers: it should be soft and wet right through, and the mixture should glisten. Add the remaining broth about 50 ml at a time, folding and waiting a minute after each addition, and stop when a little liquid just starts to collect at the bottom of the tilted bowl and is absorbed again within a minute. Most cornbread takes 500 to 550 ml in total, so you may not need all of it. Too little broth gives dry crumbs, too much gives a dense pudding, and that is why the broth goes in gradually.
6. 6Spoon the mixture into the dish and level it without pressing down, since a packed layer bakes heavy. Dot the top with the remaining butter and cover the dish tightly with foil. Put it in the oven straight away and bake for 30 minutes. Under the foil the stuffing steams, heats through and the egg sets before the top has a chance to dry out.
7. 7Take off the foil, raise the oven to 220°C (425°F) and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes, until the top is golden brown and the edges are crisp. A thermometer pushed into the centre must read 74°C (165°F); if it does not, give it 5 more minutes. Let the dish stand for 10 minutes so the stuffing firms up, then serve it from the dish with a large spoon.