This Is The Only Stuffing Recipe You'll Ever Need (2024)

FAQs

Is stuffing better with or without eggs? ›

You'll never make stuffing with dried herbs again! Vegetable broth – To moisten the bread. Eggs – They add richness and moisture, helping to create the stuffing's irresistible gooey center.

The term dressing, per the History Channel, originated around the 1850s, when the Victorians deemed stuffing too crude for the dish to be named. This happened around the same time that the term “dark meat” began to refer to chicken legs and thighs.

Some people make the distinction that dressing is the proper name for the dish when it has been prepared outside of the bird—that is, when it has not been stuffed and cooked inside.

Names for stuffing include "farce" (~1390), "stuffing" (1538), "forcemeat" (1688), and relatively more recently in the United States; "dressing" (1850).

Typically, baking the stuffing inside the bird helps keep the mixture moist. “I prefer stuffing (in the bird) to dressing (outside of the bird) because all those delicious drippings that come off the turkey gets absorbed right into the stuffing,” Bamford says.

Any attempts to make stuffing with soft, fresh baked bread will result in a bread soup with a soggy texture. Follow this tip: Stale, dried-out bread makes the best stuffing.

Dressing is more commonly used to refer to the dish in the South, while stuffing is the more frequently used term in the North, Southern Living reported.

But for the Thanksgiving side dish in the South, the term dressing was adopted in place of stuffing, which was viewed as a crude term, during the Victorian era. Although dressing and stuffing are interchangeable terms, the signature ingredient of this Thanksgiving side dish in the South is cornbread.

Go south of the Mason-Dixon Line and in the Midwest and many call it dressing, regardless of if it is prepared in the bird or alongside in a casserole dish. Likewise, northern or northeastern states and the west coast typically lean toward stuffing.

The word “stuffing” dates back to 14th Century English, when it was used synonymously with the more uncomfortable sounding forcemeat. Soon after, Anglos borrowed the slicker French word, farce (from the Latin verb facire or “to stuff”).

Do southerners say dressing or stuffing? ›

As you'd expect, dressing is more common in the south. But surprisingly, according to Butterball.com, only eight southern states use the word “dressing" more than “stuffing:" In Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky, “dressing" is preferred 62 percent to 38 percent.

There are quite a lot of stuffing possibilities but the main two types of soft stuffing materials I like to use are polyester fibrefil and wool roving. In my sewing workshops for kids I use a polyester fibrefil stuffing as it's reasonably priced, does a great job and is also machine washable.

Easy stuffing

Starting with dried sourdough bread, celery, onion, parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, chicken broth and eggs. A whole stick of butter goes in the pan adding onions, herbs and garlic (sausage is optional). Eggs combine everything together before going in the oven on a baking dish.

When made from scratch and seasoned right, it is rich, moist and savory, shot through with different textures and flavors that give cooks plenty of room to play. That basic amalgamation of starch, fat and aromatics is indisputably delicious.

There is no particular reason why stuffing is eaten at Christmas, other than it is a traditional accompaniment to turkey, the most popular Christmas meat.

Turkey stuffing was popularized in the early days of Thanksgiving, as it is written in many 16th-century Boston area documents. Stuffing most often uses dried bread, herbs, and vegetables that are reconstituted with liquid, stuffed into the turkey cavity, and baked until it is firm and finished cooking.

Nutrition Notes

Stuffing is essentially bread, salt, and butter, so it probably comes as no surprise that it isn't the healthiest food served on Thanksgiving.

Yes! You can absolutely make stuffing ahead of time. It's a great way to get a jumpstart on Thanksgiving cooking and it frees up much-needed oven space.