This mix is exactly what it says it is, a seasoning designed to help complement and enhance your own personal stuffing recipe.

Add the contents of the sachet to your core stuffing ingredients such as sausage meat, breadcrumbs, onions and perhaps a few chopped chestnuts and the rich herbs and fruit within this blend will add a rich and pungent tone to your Christmas dinner staple.

If you don't have a recipe, well we are glad to oblige here too.​

​

For this lovely rich stuffing you will need the following ingredients:

2 onions, very finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, clopped
25g butter

1 tablespoon rapeseed oil
2 x 400g packs meaty, quality sausages, removed from their skins
A sachet of Suffolk Spice Company Christmas Stuffing Seasoning.
150g Granary breadcrumbs

180g cooked whole chestnuts. Lightly chopped.

Optional additions:

Bacon, Chorizo, an egg to bind.

​

This is a recipe that you cannot rush but, it can be made early and even benefits from having a few hours to rest and let the flavours develop.

 

Quality of ingredients is key. Do not use cheap sausages or bread, why would you? 

 

Start with the onions and garlic. A good test of your knife skills here. Chop your alliums very small. Remember, the onion and garlic are not going to be lost in a rich sauce here, they are going to be front and centre in your stuffing so the last thing you want to see is big old chunks of onion. Finesse is key here.

However, if you are not confident chopping fine, then use a food processor, that is after all what they are designed for and you have enough to be getting on with to not stress over chunky onions!

​

Warm your butter and oil in a frying pan and add the onions. Cook gently so that you soften without colouring them. A good trick is to add a splash of water at this stage and cover with a lid for a couple of minutes. Add the garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes. be careful not to colour the mixture. Now remove the onion and garlic mixture from its cooking  pan and let it cool completely in a bowl. You must stop the cooking process and it is vital to let the mixture cool fully before you move onto the next step. The reason we do this is because if you add hot onions to cold sausage meat all that will happen is that the heat will melt the fat in the sausage meat, releasing it in the pan and not in the bird. This will result in dry stuffing. Not good! Be patient. I actually cook the onion mix the day before and stick it in the fridge overnight. This means that the following day, your stuffing is simply an assembly job, not a cooking task. However, you don't need to be that organised. 

Next, remove the meat from the sausage skins into a large mixing bowl and add everything else to it mixing well as you go. Add your cooled onion mix and combine well. At this stage you may need to add the egg to help bind the mixture. This depends very much on how you intend to use your stuffing. If it is to be used to fill the cavity of your bird, it may not need the egg. However if you are going for the stuffing ball option or a loaf tin presentation, the egg would be useful. The stuffed bird will stay moist and the flavours with develop as the stuffing is cooked. Stuffing balls can be cooked with the other trimmings. Timings depend on the size of your balls or the thickness of your loaf! However, if you cook them with the potatoes, when they are done, then the chances are your stuffing will be too. If in doubt, take one out and break it open to check. Once cooked they will keep until everything else is ready. 

​

The bacon and chorizo. 

If you are looking to intensify the meaty flavour of your stuffing or add a hit of heat then the addition of finely chopped bacon or chorizo when you cook your onions will bring another dimension to the already classic dish. As I always say about my spices, play, find your own personal tastes. 

​

This seasoning also works so well when making sausage rolls and can even be added to shepherds pie.

​

Enjoy.

  

 

Ingredients: Thyme, Marjoram, Sage, Rosemary, Lemon Zest, Apple, Black Pepper, Bay leaves, Parsley and Celery Seed

​