You should call the function, passing your element in as its object:
function doStuff() {
alert( $(this).html() );
}
doStuff.call( $("#foo")[0] );
Due to the way we built and call doStuff, we can still use it as a callback on .each:
$(".bar").each( doStuff );
Fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/jonathansampson/WuyJc/