reid@decwrl (Brian Reid) (11/21/86)
BREAD-STUFF-1(S) USENET Cookbook BREAD-STUFF-1(S)
MARGARET RUDKIN'S BREAD STUFFING
BREAD-STUFF-1 - A stuffing recipe from the founder of Pep-
peridge Farm
Margaret Rudkin founded the Pepperidge Farm bakery as a
health-food venture in 1937 because one of her children was
allergic to white bread. Her family lived on a farm in Con-
necticut that had a lot of pretty sourgum trees that the
locals called "pepperidge trees," hence the name. Rudkin's
pediatrician asked to buy loaves of her whole-grain bread
for other children with white-flour allergies, and so the
business was started. If you look in cookbooks published in
that era, they mostly say that it is impossible to make
bread from whole grains because the flour was too coarse and
the bread would not hold together. In its time, this was a
very risky venture.
In 1963, Margaret Rudkin published a cookbook with all of
her family recipes. It's called The Margaret Rudkin Pep-
peridge Farm Cookbook, (Atheneum Press). It is a rare book,
and has been out of print for 20 years. In 1965 Grosset and
Dunlap republished it with much wider distribution, but that
book is also out of print.
In general I have found that the recipes in this book are
nearly identical to the products sold by the Pepperidge Farm
bakery, and it's a lot of fun to make your own. Here is her
recipe for Thanksgiving turkey stuffing.
INGREDIENTS (Serves 8)
1 lb bread
1 white onion, chopped fine
1 tsp salt
fresh-ground pepper
1/2 tsp sage
1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 lb butter, melted
PROCEDURE
(1) On the weekend before Thanksgiving, set aside some
homemeade bread, to dry out. Leave it unwrapped so
that it will dry thoroughly.
(2) Thanksgiving morning, cut the bread into thick
slices and remove the crust from each slice. Dip
each slice into cold water, and wring out care-
fully. After squeezing each slice dry, crumble it
into a large bowl by rubbing between your hands.
(3) Add salt, pepper, sage, thyme, and chopped onion
to the bowl, and stir gently. Pour on the melted
butter, and toss like a salad.
NOTES
Rudkin's notes say "taste and sniff as you go, because you
might like more sage or thyme."
RATING
Difficulty: easy. Time: 4 days drying bread, 10 minutes
preparation. Precision: no need to measure.
CONTRIBUTOR
Brian Reid
DEC Western Research Laboratory, Palo Alto, California, USA
reid@decwrl.DEC.COM -or- {ihnp4,ucbvax,decvax,sun,pyramid}!decwrl!reid