The trouble with stuffing is that, as much as you may love it, bacteria loves stuffing more. Specifically, the salmonella and e.Coli bacteria.

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If food poisoning plays favourites, then potato salad dominates summer and stuffing rules the winter holidays. It’s funny, given the general efforts we make not to kill ourselves, that two of our seasonal favourites can run amok with our health so very easily. Given that summer is now in the rear-view mirror, let’s talk about the thing that threatens the big feast ahead. The thing that makes the holiday bird, holiday. That thing is stuffing. Some call it dressing, chefs often refer to it as forcemeat, but it’s always the same thing — the concoction you load into the cavity of the main event, the turkey.

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The first reference to stuffing dates way back, all the way to the fourth century in the western world’s oldest surviving cookbook. The Roman cookbook, “Apicius, De Re Coquinaria” — literally, “On the Subject of Cooking” — is a culinary wonder as well as a glimpse into the distant past. Its author, Marcus Gavius Apicius, qualifies as the original celebrity chef and the recognized gourmand of his times. If you’re looking to reimagine Christmas dinner, have a gander at De Re Coquinaria. How does boiled ostrich sound? Or would you prefer fried peacock? This ancient cookbook includes directions on how to truss a flamingo and even how to use the tongue from that pink bird. Amongst all of those instructions you’ll find recipes for stuffed chicken, hare, pig, and even a dormouse. Apicius provides no tips for turkey roasting as that bird wouldn’t be introduced to Europe for centuries yet.

Then, as now, stuffing recipes rely upon a starch and a variety of vegetables, herbs and spices. De Re Coquiaria’s stuffing relied upon spelt, a type of grain. Giblets are usually reserved for a stuffing, but other meats are also used, pork, in particular. The introduction of fruit — apples, apricots, raisins — to stuffing is something that the U.K. is credited with. Chestnuts, to my surprise, qualify as a fruit.

The trouble with stuffing is that, as much as you may love it, bacteria loves stuffing more. Specifically, the salmonella and e.Coli bacteria. For these pathogens, stuffing is kind of their day at the fair. The conditions inside a slow-cooking bird are ideal for bacteria to thrive.

The trick has always been getting the stuffing appropriately cooked without overcooking the bird. The bigger the bird, the more difficult this is. All cooks want to serve a moist and tender bird, but that usually means that the stuffing won’t be cooked all the way through. The safety zone for your turkey is an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit … and that includes the centre of the stuffing. Herein lies the dilemma. So, what’s it going to be? Tender white meat … or a touch of salmonella?

Pretty much all health officials and safety-minded chefs recommend making your stuffing outside the bird. They claim that the heavenly moistness and poultry flavour so associated with stuffing can be duplicated by drizzling the juices from the bird over the casserole-bound stuffing mixture.

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The other thing about stuffing is that we’re supposed to use it up, el pronto. Its very nature makes it a........

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