My Mom’s Go-To Thanksgiving Recipe Comes From a Vintage 1960s Cookbook

Growing up in my house, my dad did most of the cooking. He would whip up soups, stir-fries, and my favorite linguine with clams, and we would all tuck in. My mom would handle the baking, mixing up cornbread to have on the side or gingerbread for dessert. But one meal my mom took the reins of—without question—was Thanksgiving dinner. To this day, she still has a specific menu and method and rarely strays. For that reason, it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without her stuffing.

Now that I have a family of my own, we’re not always together for the holiday for her to run the kitchen. So when it’s my turn to host, I tend to switch things up, though the classic stuffing recipe I grew up savoring is the single dish that is non-negotiable.

It comes, as most things from my childhood did, from the 1960s “Betty Crocker’s Cookbook,” which is still (mostly) intact and sitting on our cookbook shelf, held together with duct tape and memories.   

My Mom’s Favorite Betty Crocker Bread Stuffing Recipe

It wouldn’t be Turkey Day without Betty Crocker’s Bread Stuffing, plain and simple. While my mom always used the physical book to direct her process, luckily for me, the same recipe is everywhere on the internet—including on our own site under the name Homemade Bread Stuffing.

As written, it starts by sautéing 1 1/2 cups of chopped celery and 3/4 cup of onion in 1 cup of butter until soft. Next, the mixture gets tossed with 9 cups of bread cubes, plus a few teaspoons of salt, sage, thyme, and poultry seasoning. We bake it outside the turkey (so it’s technically “dressing”) in a covered casserole dish at 350 degrees F for about an hour, uncovering toward the end so it gets extra golden brown and crispy on top. 

Throughout the years, we’ve modified our stuffing slightly. I always double the recipe but stick pretty close to it. My mom noted her changes in pencil in the cookbook itself. She bumps up the quantities a bit for each but cuts back on the butter and salt. Her bread of choice is white sandwich bread that she cubes herself in the morning and lets sit out for a couple of hours before assembling. I take a shortcut and opt for store-bought stuffing cubes, which usually consist of a mix of different kinds of bread for added oomph. We both add turkey drippings and a cup or so of stock for extra moisture, however, as the bread tends to dry out during cooking. 

What Makes This Bread Stuffing Recipe So Good

To put it simply, it’s all about the butter and the aromatics. Since there are so few ingredients, you’re really able to taste each one. The richness of the butter, the earthiness of the herbs (especially the sage and thyme), the freshness of the celery and onion, all come together in a perfect, bready bite that is the essence of Thanksgiving. The taste is pure nostalgia. 

Allrecipes home cooks feel similarly, leaving rave reviews on the recipe page. Member mancancook is with us: “This is a yearly request in my household. Best stuffing ever. Followed recipe to the T.” For others, it’s a family tradition as well. Digitalsignalx notes, “This is an easy and delicious stuffing recipe that’s very close to the one my mom has used for decades, and her mother before her.” Drprentice adds, “This was AMAZING! I followed the recipe exactly, and it turned out better than my mom’s stuffing, which is fantastic!”

Community member Mama Bear is clearly reading from our same book, too (likely also duct-taped): “This is almost identical to the one I’ve used for years in my old Betty Crocker cookbook. Key is that the cookbook assumes that you stuff the bird with it and the stuffing soaks up the juices from the bird. If you cook outside the bird, it needs moisture. I spatchcock my turkey the day before and make a stock with the backbone, the neck and the wingtips. This gives me lots of flavored stock for the dressing. Add the stock to the other ingredients in the bowl to give it added moisture. I use the cheapest sandwich loaf of bread I can find. One loaf is about 9 cups of bread crumbs. I toast the bread, break slices into croutons, and if I have time, let them sit out to dry out.” A home cook after our own hearts.

This Thanksgiving, I’m hosting, and my mom will be hundreds of miles away, but we’ll be together in one dish—simple, comforting, and exactly what the day is all about.