Anne Morgan Unlike most stuffings, Delia Smith’s chestnut and apple stuffing has no breadcrumbs, no herbs and no frying at all. A tin of chestnuts is mashed almost to a paste, then mixed raw with 700g of pork sausagemeat, chopped cooking apples, a medium onion and a beaten egg. One batch fills a 5.4 to 6.3kg turkey, enough for about 8.
It’s in her Complete Cookery Course of 1983, and the 1992 edition prints exactly the same list. Peeling chestnuts at Christmas is, in her words, “a beastly job at the best of times”, so she’s happy with a tin, whole or puréed, as long as it’s unsweetened.
That makes it a very different dish from her 18th century chestnut stuffing in Delia’s Happy Christmas (2009), where bacon, the turkey liver and onion are fried in butter and the chestnuts stay in pieces. This one is smoother and fruitier, with the egg always in.
The roast turkey in her 1992 Cookery Course offers just two stuffings, this one or pork, sage and onion. Sausagemeat is the base of both, because she counts on it to keep a lean bird juicy from the inside.
Delia Smith’s Chestnut and Apple Stuffing
Course: Side DishCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy8
servings15
minutes330
kcalMoist and porky, with soft pieces of apple and a gentle sharpness all the way through.
Ingredients
- For the stuffing:
450g (1lb) tin of natural unsweetened chestnuts, whole or puréed
700g (1½lb) pork sausagemeat
450g (1lb) cooking apples, peeled, cored and finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 egg, beaten
salt and freshly milled black pepper
Directions
- Mash: Drain the chestnuts into a large bowl and work them with a fork until they’re nearly smooth.
- Combine: Add the sausagemeat, apples and onion with a good seasoning of salt and pepper, and mix until everything is evenly spread through.
- Bind: Pour in the beaten egg last and work it in, so the mixture holds together in one mass.
- Stuff: On the morning you roast, ease the stuffing under the neck skin towards the breast, leaving it room to swell. Whatever won’t fit goes into the body cavity.
Notes
- A potato masher gets through a whole tin of chestnuts much faster than a fork, which is my own shortcut.
- Wash your hands and the bowl well once you've finished, as the mixture is raw pork and egg.
FAQs
Which of her chestnut stuffings should I make?
Make this one if you want a quick stuffing with nothing to cook first, or one that slices neatly. Choose the 2009 one if you’d rather have a crumbly, herby stuffing and your turkey came with its liver.
The meat is the other big difference. This one uses 700g of sausagemeat against 225g plus 110g of bacon in the other, so I’d call it the heartier of the two.
Can I use vacuum-packed or frozen chestnuts?
Yes, 450g of either will do, though that’s my own swap rather than hers. Thaw frozen ones first, then mash them the same way.
I find they’re a little drier than tinned ones, so they take a bit more mashing before they turn smooth.
Can I use sweetened chestnut purée?
No. Her list asks for natural, unsweetened chestnuts, and the sweetened purée sold as crème de marrons would make the stuffing taste like a pudding.
That’s exactly where her Christmas book uses it, in a chocolate chestnut log, an iced torte and petits monts blancs.
Which apples work best?
Bramleys are the ones I’d use. Her list only says cooking apples, but the apple stuffing for her roast goose, in the same chapter of the Complete Cookery Course, names Bramleys.
They soften well inside the bird, and to my taste their sharpness cuts through all that sausagemeat. I’d peel and chop them just before mixing, as cut Bramleys brown quickly.
Can I make it the night before?
Yes, she suggests making the stuffing the night before, but not putting it into the turkey until the morning, so that air can circulate inside the bird overnight. Keep it covered and somewhere cool.
She also wants it out of the fridge the night before, along with the turkey. Everything going into the oven fridge-cold throws out her turkey cooking times.
Can I bake it separately?
You can, and its firm texture suits a loaf tin. Press it into a greased 900g loaf tin and bake at 180°C, fan 160°C, gas mark 4 for about 1 hour, until a probe in the middle reads 75°C. The tin, heat and time are my suggestion, not hers.
Leave it in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn it out and cut it into thick slices.
