The two seem to be used interchangeably at Thanksgiving time, and I have heard arguments that there are and are not differences between the two. All I know is that I want nothing to do with my mom’s oyster dressing (sorry, mom) but love love love cornbread stuffing. So what do you call that traditional Thanksgiving side dish?
16
Nov
2010
What I typically eat is cooked inside the bird, so I call it stuffing. If it’s cooked outside the bird, I call it dressing. I thought this was the common/accepted school of thought regarding the two words?
To me they’re not the same thing: Stuffing is cooked inside the bird; dressing is baked in a casserole. Stuffing is superior b/c it benefits from the moisture of being cooked inside. It can be the exact same thing, but I use different names depending on where its cooked.
I was under the same impression as Kim & Nichole. I’m always afraid of stuffing, though, because by the time it comes up to a safe temperature, the bird itself is usually overcooked and dry. And I had enough tough, dry turkey by the time I was 9 to melodramatically vow never to subject myself to it again 😉
Ditto the others, technically stuffing is inside the bird and dressing is outside.
However, I always call it stuffing even though we no longer cook it in the bird.
Dressing goes on a salad.
“Stuffing” has come into use comparatively recently. Through Victorian times, no decent woman would “stuff” anything or use that type of imagery. Most really, really old cookbooks use “dressing.”
The use of “dressing” endures in regions where traditional recipes are most common, like my native Louisiana, the source of my family’s oyster dressing which Claudia loathes. Her father’s North Louisiana family makes oyster dressing with cornbread, not the French bread of South Louisiana. Most people in LA call it dressing whether it’s cooked inside or outside of the bird.
Somewhere along the line, Claudia rejected both of those and started making cornbread stuffing. Sadly, no oysters. She’s a native Washingtonian. What can I say?
It’s not Thanksgiving without oyster dressing.
I’m with Jon, dressing is for salads.
My (Boston Irish) Grandmother’s recipe calls
for sausage, so I have been making it for the last
16 years with the sage country sausage from Mr. Canales. It is the best!
As others have said, it’s stuffing when cooked in the bird and dressing when not.
I think it’s regional. I’m from the Northeast and everyone calls it stuffing, regardless of whether it was cooked inside the bird or not. I’d never heard of it refered to as dressing until I moved down here, where Southernisms are fairly common.