Sausage & Bread Stuffing

Sorry, we ate it all.

A Thanksgiving staple in the Webster house.

4 pound version:
4 c bread cubes (dried the day before)
1/3 c butter
1/2 c minced onion
1/2 c chopped celery
1 tsp salt
1/6 tsp pepper
1 tsp each sage and thyme
breakfast sausage
1 egg

12 pound version:
12 c bread cubes (dried the day before)
1 c butter
1.5 c minced onion
1.5 c chopped celery
1 tbls salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tbls each sage and thyme
breakfast sausage
1 egg (Must be wrong number for this amount.  I haven't ever made this quantity, but I'd increase the eggs proportionately.)

Brown onions and celery in the butter.  Add sausage and brown.  Mix egg with 1/4 cup water.  Mix everything well.  Bake.

Okay, I have a bunch of notes to this:

• I typically make the smaller batch using a package of purchased, seasoned bread cubes.
• Because I used seasoned cubes, I would not add extra salt.  (Maybe add pepper, and definitely added more sage and thyme, but Grandma also had a note to add poultry seasoning to taste and I don't bother.)
• I don't know what the deal is with the 1/4 cup of water, but that seems very inadequate to me.  I just dump in a can of chicken broth, mixed with the egg.  It may be relevant that I never actually use stuffing to stuff the turkey though.  It seems like way too much trouble to get in and out so I just bake it as a side dish.
• I don't know how much sausage Grandma used, but I use one pound of either breakfast sausage, or sometimes you can get sausage seasoned for stuffing.  Either is good.
• I probably also use more celery than recommended.