Stuffing meat, especially poultry, is practiced throughout the world. Of
course South Louisiana takes the well known practice and puts that ole'
Cajun Punch to it. Vegetables are also stuffed along with seafood such
as flounder and crab. We naturally stuff all this stuffed stuff in our
mouths and when we're finished we're.... you guessed it, stuffed!
In general stuffing is looked at in two manners. One is a sort of
dressing that is put into a larger piece of meat such as stuffing a
turkey. The other is taking a mixture of the base meat such as crab and
making a dressing like mixture to put into the original mold (like crab
shell tops) and serving it like that. The same holds true for vegetables
such as eggplant and mirleton.
Both methods are the same with the exception that the molded stuffings
are usually baked in the oven with a little bread crumbs. The other
stuffing method (in the meat) is just put into cavities, either natural
or made by you, and cooked all together.
I must warn you (if you don't already know) that cooking stuffed things,
such as a stuffed turkey, demands greater cooking times than those
generally accepted unstuffed. Popular here now is a turducken. This is
the ultimate stuffed dish besides stuffed eggplant and crab. It's
dressing stuffed in a duck that is stuffed in a chicken that is stuffed
in a turkey. All the birds have been de-boned. This is one big mass of
meat and is one big bunch of GOOD!
There is another method of stuffing used with thin layers of meat such
as round steak, turkey breast and venison backstrap. The method consists
of laying the meat out, putting a thin layer of stuffing on it and
rolling it into a tube shape. With tough cuts of beef the tube is
generally "barded". Barding is wrapping the meat with bacon (the popular
way) and tying it with cooking twine. This allows the fat to moisturize
and tenderize the naturally tough meat.
Stuffed flounder is usually done with crab meat and the recipe section
will have that and other stuffed stuff!
Enjoy...