My Mother-in-Law’s Legendary Stuffing Is Worth Fighting For

Leading up to the first Thanksgiving I spent with my now-husband at his childhood home, he only talked about one thing — his mom’s legendary stuffing. The stuffing dates back to his grandfather, who would make it every year before his mom took over the duty. He waxed poetic about how it was always the first thing to go among the many dishes and that the entire family looked forward to it the most. 

Marrying into the family meant marrying this stuffing. Seeing as how I grew up on Stovetop stuffing, I had no qualms about that. However, since I develop recipes for a living, I also couldn’t help but make a couple of tiny tweaks to the recipe my mother-in-law scribbled down for me in anticipation of hosting my first Thanksgiving a couple of years ago. Of course, the goal wasn’t to dress it up, but to fine tune it in my own way. 

So, I replaced the packaged bread cubes with cubes from a fresh loaf of bread that I let dry out overnight. For seasoning, I reached into my pantry for the only poultry seasoning that matters given my New England roots: Bell’s. This salt-free blend of dried rosemary, oregano, sage, ginger, marjoram, thyme, and pepper was invented in Boston over 150 years ago and is sold in a decidedly retro cardboard box with the image of a turkey stamped on it. While any poultry seasoning can be used, if you can find Bell’s, I do think it tastes more of the holiday than any others I’ve tried.