Settling the Stuffing vs. Dressing Debate (2024)

FAQs

Which is correct stuffing or dressing? ›

"Stuffing is cooked in the cavity of the turkey, so the juices soak into the ingredients, making it more flavorful. Dressing gets cooked on its own and needs extra liquid to make it flavorful." So stuffing is cooked inside the bird. Dressing is cooked outside the bird, usually in a casserole dish.

Some people insist that it should be called dressing when it hasn't actually been stuffed inside a bird. But many people insist on one term or the other regardless of how it's prepared or what's in it. The term dressing is most commonly used in the South, but it's popular in pockets throughout the US.

The points of comparison used to compare dressing and stuffing include: preparation, taste, amount, and safety. When comparing preparation, dressing and stuffing are made differently. Dressing is cooked in a separate dish and does not contain any meat, while stuffing is cooked inside the turkey.

Dressing is a Southern term for stuffing however it is not used to stuff a turkey. Unlike stuffing, dressing is made with cornbread and baked in a casserole dish. Stuffing is usually made with white bread or a baguette.

One funny thing about “stuffing” is that, in Texas, some people say “stuffing” and some people say “dressing.” Traditionally, it was called stuffing, because you stuffed the turkey with it. Other families don't like to stuff the turkey at all – and prepare it in a pan, calling it dressing.

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

Those in the south use the term dressing interchangeably; whereas those in the northern states generally refer to the dish as stuffing.

Of note though, the Yankees did the stuffing the southerners the dressing. In theory stuffing was the breading cooked inside the turkey as it baked, and dressing was the breading cooked outside the turkey as it baked. These days, they are the same thing and the name is based on the regional an American is from.

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.

Despite cooking techniques, the name game usually splits along regional lines, with cooks from the Northeast and Pacific Northwest sticking to stuffing, while the South and Midwest prefer the more proper dressing (and, to make matters even more confusing, our Pennsylvania friends use the term "filling"—not to be ...

What is the difference between stuffing and dressing black folks? ›

Stuffing is when a turkey, hen, or chicken is actually stuffed with a bread mixture. So technically, any bread or cornbread side dish that is baked outside of a turkey is dressing. Most Southerners and Black folks will skip stuffing the turkey and opt for cornbread dressing.

Some people stuff their. Others are dead set against stuffing the bird and opt for baking their stuffing in a baking dish, which means it's called dressing. Some do a combination of both. Some dressing is basic: a combination of dried bread, aromatics, and dried herbs.

Also up on the high dislike list were green bean casserole (28%), the turkey itself (nearly 28%), and stuffing/dressing (nearly 27%).

As the name suggests, stuffing is "stuffed" into the cavity of the fowl and roasted inside of it, while dressing is baked separately in a casserole dish and used to "dress" slices of the turkey.

Stove Top first began marketing its instant mix 40 years ago, and now sells roughly 60 million boxes for Thanksgiving alone. For those vexed by the difference between stuffing and dressing: stuffing technically refers to anything cooked in the cavity of an animal, whereas dressing is cooked on the side.

Dressing is made with cornbread, and is baked in a pan instead of inside the bird. I view Stove Top stuffing as a totally distinct entity from this most beloved of holiday dishes. It is not the stuff of celebrations, but it is a perfectly suitable side dish the rest of the year.

It would be hard to think of a more straightforward name for a foodstuff than "stuffing." Though we don't recommend actually cooking it inside your Thanksgiving turkey, that's how it was done until fairly recently: like the padding in a couch, stuffing is stuffing because you stuff it in something.

It was traditionally stuffed inside a bird to cook. These days, many Americans do not do that anymore at it can often absorb salmonella. Dressing is often the word used, especially if it is not put into the bird but baked separately and then moistened with the gravy, but many still call that 'stuffing'.