Run out of time or need to get rid of a stale bread pile? Check out this Stuffing with Sausage Recipe to make the world smile!

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Possibly, we live in the most exciting era of human history. Our intellect long made us possible to become the dominant species on Earth but our technological advances, during the past hundred years, gave us opportunities no other generations had before.

While previous generations all had to be conscious about the environment, they lived in, we could afford to close ourselves into our own self-made world without many interactions from nature’s inconveniences.

According to estimates 40% of the US food supply is wasted which translates to $1600 worth of produce per family a year.

Unsurprisingly though, the most that can be done for the world, although insignificant it seems, but it is in our own hands.

Sausage and stuffing would be the ultimate leftover dish if we made them right. At its core sausages were invented to use any leftover from the butchering of the animal.

Trimmings that fall off the prime cuts, skin, fat, or various pieces of meat that was more hassle to prepare than energy individually provided, were all went into sausage making. Traditionally, sausages were made using the intestine of the animal that needed some throughout cleaning before being used as casings.

Removing what occupies the intestine, prior the butchering isn’t the most desirable job at a butchery, but its an indispensable part of making sausages, so someone has to do it.

Once the casings are ready, all the sausages need is some spices to liven up the meat.

Interestingly, many cultures skip the meat entirely, using offal or just the blood of the animal with rice. Probably the most famous one is morcilla aka blood sausage which is a very popular product across the Spanish speaking part of the world, but other cultures have their peculiar way of using up all the edible part of a fallen beast too.

Bread isn’t unheard of filling into casings with some sort of animal produce either, but we more likely encounter stale bread as stuffing.

Traditional stuffing was created as a way to use stale bread up, but since we can afford to throw bread away at its best before date, get stuffing stale or dried bread for us in shops became a norm too.

Sure if we make bread in our own kitchen or have to courage to use bread past its best before date, we can have our very own stuffing, simply by cutting up the leftover bread and let it go stale or optionally dry out completely.

Funnily, stuffing with sausage, similarly to gravy and biscuit, albeit uses sausage as its ingredients, it has very little to do with sausages form factor as the whole sausage is broken up into ground meat, ultimately defying its whole purpose in life.

So, if we want to give our sausages a more respectful end and save the food industry or even better, ourselves, the hassle of making sausage just use ground meat with some spices and herbs of choice to make the world a bit less exciting but more livable place.

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Ingredients

2 cups / 500g Bread (cubed) (stale will hold its shape better during the preparation process)
2 tablespoons / 30g Cooking oil or butter
2½ cups / 400g Onion (diced)
2 cups / 200g Celery (diced)
1 teaspoon / 5g Salt to taste
1 lb / 500g Sausage or ground meat
Optional seasoning for ground meat
- 1 teaspoon / 0.5g Sage
- 1 teaspoon / 3g Black pepper
- 1 teaspoon / 5g Salt
- 1 teaspoon / 1.5g Basil
- 1 teaspoon / 0.8g Oregano
- 1 teaspoon / 2g Paprika
3 tablespoons / 12g Parsley (freshly chopped)
1 teaspoon / 0.5 Sage (dried)
1 tablespoon / 3.5g Rosemary (freshly chopped)
1 tablespoon / 2g Thyme (freshly chopped)
3 cups / 750g Water (only if bread is dried or stale)
2 medium / 100g Eggs

How to make Stuffing with sausage

We can use either stale or completely dried out bread. Dried bread is much harder to cut up so if we have bread for the sole purpose of making stuffing then cutting it up in advance will save us some effort and time. Best part of the stuffing is the crunchy crust so choose bread with plenty of crust to start with, like French baguette, bread rolls or similar stuff.
Heat oil in a skillet and sauté (stir-fry) diced onion, celery and salt until glassy / translucent look, about 5 minutes.
Lower the heat to medium low then slowly caramelize the onion and celery until it is browned, about 15 – 20 minutes.
Add the sausages, break them apart or simply use ground meat with additional spices and herbs to taste. Stir-fry until the meat is browned then add freshly chopped parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme. Take it off heat and let it cool somewhat.
Beat eggs and water together.
Mix egg and the browned ground meat together in a bowl.
Mix the egg/meat mixture with the bread.
Place the stuffing into an oven proof dish.
Roast for about 20 – 35 minutes in a 425°F/220°C oven. If we have a broiler, it can be even faster but it needs some experimenting with the rack position and heat as the top can scorch quite easily.