I’ve been tasked with making [cornbread] dressing for Thanksgiving this year, but I plan on making it beforehand (ideally the night before) and transport it to my parent’s house for Thanksgiving. What’s the best way to go about doing this? Is there a good stopping/pausing point before finally cooking the dressing that would allow for safe transportation without taste/texture degradation? Or should I cook it, cool it, and reheat it once I’m there?
How long is the transport time? Long enough to bring up food safety concerns?
If it’s, say a 20-minute drive, I would go through all the prep steps up through baking it halfway. Wrap top securely with alum. foil, wrap a few dishtowels around it to keep it warm, drive to your folks, then finish it in their oven - maybe under the broiler to get the top nice’n’crispy? Their oven will no doubt be full of other things so it might be best to get it partially cooked ahead of time.
It’s about a 45-minute drive, but I plan on going up there in the morning so I’d like to try to do most of the cooking the evening before.
Wish I knew how to make a good cornbread dressing…
Thought I would say your thread title might confuse people north of the Mason-Dixon line. Folks up here always say “stuffing.”
What I’ve done in the past is to not make dressing at all. Make dressing muffins. Make up your dressing mix as usual and then load it into a muffin tin and bake. Cupcake liners help but are annoying enough that I don’t use them. Load them into a towel lined basket. They should be fine for a 45 minute drive and a couple of hours for the meal.
Stuffing is only stuffing if it goes in a bird! Otherwise it’s dressing! But yeah, even I’m guilty of calling dressing stuffing…
I have extensive experience in this area.
Stuffing (and I presume dressing) retains its yumminess for many days. The only downside is that it runs out long before the other leftovers.
Just bake a very moist dressing all the way through and chill it. Then the next day you can reheat it shortly before carving time and add that fresh-baked crispy top in the process. Because dressing is one of those foods that tastes better the next day anyway, you should receive rave reviews.
This method works with other side dishes too. It’s especially handy for those of us who have only one oven. While our roasted bird is resting on the counter, we’ll fill the oven with pre-made dishes of dressing, mashed potatoes and sweet potato casserole. Every dish finishes at the same time and hits the table nice and hot.