Sausagemeat and chestnut is the rich one — the stuffing for people who consider stuffing a course rather than a garnish. It is also the most forgiving recipe on this list, because sausagemeat brings its own fat and seasoning to cover for you.
Ingredients (serves 8, generously)
- 450g good sausagemeat, or the same weight of sausages squeezed from their skins
- 180g cooked chestnuts (the vacuum-packed ones are fine and nobody will know), roughly chopped
- 1 onion, finely chopped and softened in butter
- 100g fresh breadcrumbs
- Leaves from 3–4 sprigs of thyme, plus a little chopped sage
- Zest of half a lemon
- 1 egg, beaten, plus salt and black pepper
Method
- Mix everything in a large bowl with your hands — the only tool that actually does this job properly.
- Fry a teaspoon of the mixture and taste it. This is the step everyone skips and the step that saves you: adjust the seasoning now, not at the table.
- Press into a buttered dish or roll into golf-ball-sized rounds. Bake at 190°C / 170°C fan — 30–35 minutes for a dish, about 25 for balls — until cooked through with no pink remaining (74°C in the centre if you own a thermometer).
Make it a day ahead and keep it covered in the fridge, uncooked; it improves overnight and frees the oven schedule on the day, which is worth more than any single recipe.
Why you need the bad jumper for this one
Because this is the traditionalist’s stuffing, and it deserves the traditionalist’s outfit. If you are the sort of household that insists on proper chestnuts and a tasting-fry, you are the sort of household that owns real knitwear — worn with the sleeves pushed up, which every proper knit survives and every thin printed sweatshirt does not. Two suitably serious jumpers below, and the rest of the Men’s Christmas Jumpers collection where they came from.
