Welcome to Kitchen Queries, where the nigella.com team will answer your cooking or food related questions.  We’d love you to submit some of your recipe problems, dilemmas or queries for us to get our teeth into!

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• Preparing Early For Thanksgiving

  I'm hosting Thanksgiving on Saturday (doesn't really work on a Thursday in the UK) and am going to make the chestnut stuffing and the gingerbread stuffing from Feast. How far ahead of time could I make these? Thanks.

  Posted by jecca68. Answered on 21st Nov 2012 at 12.00

  From the nigella team:

  Most stuffings can be prepared a day ahead and stored in the fridge overnight. In the US a stuffing that is cooked in a separate dish is known as a "dressing". Nowadays most people recommend that stuffings are cooked separately from the bird as the extra time it takes to cook the stuffing in the cavity of a turkey can casue the turkey itself to become too dry.

  For both stuffings we would assemble the stuffings following the recipe instructions, put them in their dishes, let them cool then cover tightly with clingfilm (plastic wrap) and refrigerate. We would suggest refrigerating them within an hour of making. On the day we suggest you remove the stuffings from the fridge about 30 minutes before you intend to cook them, to let them loose their fridge chill. Make sure that the stuffings are piping hot all the way through once the cooking time is over. In a full oven the cooking time can sometimes be slightly longer. If the centre of the stuffing is still only lukewarm then return the stuffing to the oven and cook for a further 5 minutes, before checking again. Let the stuffings stand for 10-15 minutes after cooking as they will firm up a little and be easier to serve.

   

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