Use Oven Dried, Not Stale, Bread for Better Stuffing
What I’m about to say may be shocking, but this year you should make your Thanksgiving filling with oven dried bread, not stale bread.
Before you start playing the evil bongos keyboard, let me explain. There are many benefits to using dried bread. First, it’s faster. Staling takes several days and oven drying takes less than an hour. And according to Serious Eats, the following texture factors should be considered:
Drying bread consists in extracting moisture through evaporation – the structure of the crumb remains intact, but due to the loss of moisture, it becomes harder and crisper. On the other hand, staleness promotes the migration of moisture from the swollen starch granules into the air pockets inside the bread. These starch molecules are then recrystallized, giving a texture that does not crack, but rather tough. Worse, this moisture often remains inside the structure of the bread, as the bread is both moist and stale at the same time. Result? Leather, chewy bread.
Dry, non-chewy bread will also better absorb all of those delicious flavors from your broth, resulting in a more flavorful filling, tender on the outside and crunchy on the outside, so it’s a win in every way. (Of course, none of this applies to you if you are making the filling with cornbread , which you should be doing anyway.)
Forget Stale Bread: How To Oven Dry Bread For A Faster, Flavored Thanksgiving Filling | Serious food