The Great Stuffing Debate
November 18, 2010
From stuffing to dressing, cornbread to oyster, this is the one part of the Thanksgiving meal (besides the turkey) that families are adamant about sticking to their favorite recipe.
To Stuff or Not to Stuff
That is the question! Stuffing is referred to as the mixture that is prepared and then cooked inside of the bird. The term dressing is used when baking the mixture in a dish outside of the bird. According to allrecipes.com’s Thanksgiving Trends survey, 41% prefer dressing, 27% prefer stuffing and 32% don’t care as long as it ends up on the Thanksgiving dinner table (I fall into this group!)
If you choose to stuff your Thanksgiving turkey, the experts at Butterball have prepared tried-and-true guidelines for stuffing your turkey. For a quick stuffing demo check out the video below.
What’s in Your Stuffing?
One thing is for sure, stuffing recipes vary across the country – depending on the ingredients traditionally available in each region. Below is a sampling of popular stuffing ingredients.
North – hearty white bread, celery, sage, poultry seasoning
South – depending on what part of the south it is either cornbread or rice based with Cajun or Creole influences
Southwest – poblano peppers, cornbread, chorizo
New England – Oysters, bacon, chestnuts
West – Sourdough, wild mushrooms, almonds
What region are you from, and what is your favorite Stuffing recipe?
Filed under: Cooking Tips, Holidays, Kitchen Tips, Uncategorized
4 Comments Leave a Comment
1.
ThinAndHealthy | November 19, 2010 at 9:20 am
I prefer stuffing! simply because I love the idea that it is unique to the Thanksgiving experience. When else do we stuff food inside a turkey and cook it? (You all might do this at other times of the year, but for us Thanksgiving is my only chance to enjoy the whole tradition.) The juices from the turkey seep into the stuffing while it cooks making it moist and flavorful.
Although this year we are making the 16 pounder in my hubbies new toy- the rotisserie. That may definitley affect my plans for *stuffing* – and means we’ll need to enjoy *dressing* instead….
2.
admin | November 19, 2010 at 3:49 pm
Hello Thin and Healthy – let us know how the Rotisserie turkey turns out! What ingredients will be going into your dressing?
–TSG
3.
ThinAndHealthy | December 10, 2010 at 12:27 pm
The rotisserie turkey was amazing!!! And indeed we stuffed the bird! Though some of our precious stuffing fell out during the rotisserie experience, it was well worth it. My husband says the reason the turkey was so juicy (including the white meat, which to me is usually dry), is because it is continuously self-basting- the entire time it’s cooking! I couldn’t keep up with that if it were roasting in the oven! SO – 5 stars (out of 5
for the rotisserie way. As to the ingrdients – well, though we live in Texas, there was no special regional secrets added. Like armadillo sausage or Okra bits. We used a package mix BUT with prepared celery & onion & chicken stock.
We made stuffing AND dressing from this and let me tell you – I thought the dressing was good til I tasted the stuffing. Oh the extra magic of cooking it inside the bird, where the juices flow!
4. Warming Up with Chili | T&hellip | February 10, 2011 at 9:39 pm
[...] another comfort food that warms you from within like chili. Similar to what I found while writing The Great Stuffing Debate, people are passionate about their chili. From beef to vegetarian, beans or no beans, there is a [...]
Leave a Comment
XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
TrackBack URL | RSS feed for comments on this post.