Dressing/Stuffing, whatever you call it.
 

In remembering Thanksgivings gone by, it always seemed that the dressing was the star of my family's dinner. My mother's favorite was cornbread & sausage, my brother's was dressing from inside the bird, mine was outside of the bird (there's a story about that), my sil's was stuffing balls that her mother made, and everyone else just seemed to take a little of everything.

I still won't eat dressing from inside the bird, but my soon2b sil makes a fantastic dressing with ground beef. What type do you like, and does it have anything special in it?


We could also get into a discussion of the joys of cranberries: jellied or sauce?

Stuffing - inside the bird
Dressing - outside the bird

There does seem to be a regional angle - dressing being the more southern. My mother's cornbread dressing is legendary. Mmmmm . . . I love it with gravy. Lots and lots of turkey gravy.

As for cranberries - I make my own relish and sauce. I was told once by my father and brother that I ruined Thanksgiving the year I hosted and did NOT have that jellied canned abomination. So I have gracefully bowed out of hosting duties.

For me & my Southern roots, dressing is what you make with cornbread, whether it is inside or outside the bird. Stuffing is what you make with white bread.

Dressing is my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner!

The only thing that I really care about at Thanksgiving is dressing. Lots and lots and lots of dressing. I also don't like it when people put extra junk in it. No need to be fancy. Just be good.

ours is cooked outside, made with cornbread and sausage ( a southern living magazine recipe) and is so good you want to roll around in it! i just cooked the sausage(jimmy dean spicy) and corn bread, sauteed' the celery and onion, mixed it all together with the other ingredients and put it in a gallon ziplock bag for the transport to my folks house. i will bake it Thursday morning.

this recipe freezes very well, i just was not on the ball ahead of time.

re: cranberry sauce. i like the whole berry sauce best, and if anyone wanted to make their own for our dinner, i would be thrilled.

LOL. From the perspective of my Southern roots, dressing is what we eat, while stuffing is what is eaten by people in some other parts of the country (presumably those parts of the country where they also frost cakes instead of icing them). I can remember my grandmothers suggesting that there is something slightly uncouth about serving something called "stuffing."

I'm not sure I've ever met a dressing i didn't like, but I'm partial to a good cornbread or oyster dressing. (Oysters are mandatory at Christmas, though ours were traditionally scalloped oysters rather than in the dressing.)

Dressing is always my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner. MC, my mother said the same thing as your grandmother about "stuffing".

My favorites are the aforementioned dressing with ground beef (it sounds awful but it's awesome!) and the cornbread with sausage dressing. If someone throws little bits of apple or cranberries in it, I can deal with it.

We always had cornbread dressing made with egg and celery. Turkey gravy is a must. Rice dressing is another option. It's not standard in my family, but my SIL is making it for T-giving for our first West Coast transplant holiday dinner. I miss having my grandmother's cornbread dressing, though. It's been 9 years since I had it. :(

I love to make fresh cranberry relish and will probably make it at least two times between now and Christmas. The stuff in the can is gross.

Cornbread Dressing ! ... AND LOTS OF TURKEY GRAVY with giblets. My family's cornbread dressing has been handed down for generations. I even have a copy framed and in my kitchen. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday!!! I cannot wait.

We call it dressing, in the bird or out.

It's made with cornbread, melted butter, chicken broth, green onions, sage, and, if I'm feeling reckless...rosemary.

I don't like cooked celery, so that's out.

I like it from the bird. Baking it ruins the texture.

But, I learned a neat trick of putting some in the crock pot - perfect moist consistency without touching the inside of the turkey.

As to the cranberry sauce, I think the stuff from the can - whole berry or gel is about as fancy as I need.

And if I had to throw in a pie choice? Pecan. Or chocolate chess.

We call it stuffing whether or not you actually make it in the bird.
I like it with regular bread & doused in gravy.

Yummm...

I knew I should have never opened this thread.

Thank you and amen.

Likewise - around here, whether you cook it inside or outside the bird, it's stuffing - although if it's cooked outside the bird, the only thing it actually "stuffs" is the people eating it :p

My husband and I decided to host Thanksgiving this year. This means two meals, as my parents and in-laws don't get along. But our families are small (DH and I are only children) so Thursday will be the two of us and my parents, and Saturday will be the two of us and his parents. For my folks, I'm trying out a slow-cooker recipe I found for a turkey breast. For his parents, we're grilling lamb chops (as Her Highness (a.k.a. my MIL) doesn't like turkey). But at each meal, there will be stuffing. White bread, celery, onion, seasonings, and butter.

White cornbread dressing, roasted in a pie pumpkin! I'm also putting chopped apples and dried cranberries in it. No cranberry relish/jelly at my table!

This year for us it's cornbread dressing outside the bird, made with bacon and apples. And I did cranberries 3 ways-- traditional sauce, orange-cranberry relish, and jalapeno and onion cranberry chutney!

Hey, can we get some recipes up in this piece?

And whether it be dressing/stuffing, I don't eat it if it's smothered in gravy. Gravy, like cocaine, has no place on this earth.

Ditto. I actually don't care for turkey at all -- I don't hate it, but I'd much rather have ham or pork tenderloin or roast beef or just about any other meat I can think of on Thanksgiving. And yes, dressing goes perfectly well with ham. :p

But when I was growing up, we would often go with my grandfather to a particular restaurant for Sunday dinner, and I would usually order the turkey with dressing. Thanks to this, my mother thought I loved turkey and would fix it sometimes just because she thought I liked it. We had a good laugh when I finally realized (years later) that she thought I loved it and explained that it was the dressing I loved -- I only ordered the turkey to get the dressing.

Yes! Please! I want to find a good dressing recipe, but haven't managed to do so. I've never been a big fan of either dressing or stuffing, but I'm sure that's because I haven't found the right recipe. I want to like it, and I try it every time (because everyone's is different), but so far it's just not been my cup of tea. Dammit.

We call it stuffing regardless of it being in or out of the bird.

I make a vegetarian stuffing that is quite popular in the family at both Thanksgiving, Christmas, & Easter.

It is actually a Pampered Chef recipe that I changed a little bit. It an apple & cranberry stuffing. I leave out the sausage and use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth. Pepperidge Farm Herb Stuffing is not made with any animal stock. I use granny smith apples for my apples.

It goes great with my husband's deep fried turkey!! :)

We also call it stuffing regardless of where it is baked. But the important thing is that it be CORNBREAD, none of that white bread nonsense. I bake my own cornbread for this purpose (meaning that the stuffing is gluten-free), but my mother swears by Pepperidge Farm cornbread stuffing.

We don't measure, but here's the recipe. Crumble a pan of day-old cornbread. Mince a head of celery, a couple of large onions, and a container of button mushrooms and saute them in butter. Add salt, pepper, herb of your choice, and mix into the crumbs (or a couple of bags of PF crumbs). Moisten with a mixture of broth, beaten eggs, and as much melted butter as your calorie budget allows (anywhere from a couple of tablespoons to two sticks). Bake in a medium oven till it's brown and crispy on top.

Re: cranberries, there is no wrong way to serve me cranberry sauce. I love simple and homemade -- I use brown sugar for that. But I'll happily eat the jelly from the can too, especially the whole-berry kind. If we run out of gravy, I put cranberry sauce on the stuffing. So good!!

Y'all are getting too fancy with the dressing around here for this southern girl. ;)

Cornbread, celery, onion, my family's special blend of spices, every bit of stock you can get from the turkey, and maybe some extra broth. That's it.

I agree with the no gravy thing. If you make it right, you don't need gravy.

Also, someone posted about dressing in the pan not being moist enough. If that's the case, you just haven't had good dressing. :p

As did mine.

Being the Trader Joe's addict that I am...The Trader Joe's Cornbread Stuffing (or any other cornbread seasoned stuffing) is OK, but is really great with some tweaking. First, I make it out of the turkey to avoid bacteria issues. Saute about a cup of chopped celery, a cup of shredded carrots (...thank you Trader Joes, for saving time on this), and about a cup of chopped mushrooms. I also put in part of a package of the Trader Joe's pre-made wild rice (though don't go overboard on that), and some toasted slivered almonds. While the turkey is cooking, set aside some of the pan drippings for the stuffing (as well as the gravy). Refridgerate, skim off the fat, and use that as part of the liquid base. Also, save that extra skin from around the neck, cut in strips, saute a bit, then lay it on top of the stuffing as it cooks, and move around a bit while cooking, and completely take the skin off during the last 10 minutes of cooking. I also pull out one or two of the sprigs of sage that have been cooking in the turkey cavity and chopped them into the stuffing. That way the safe taste is not too strong in the stuffing.
For cranberries, I use my step-mother's recipe using dried figs and port wine. I tastes much more delicious than it sounds.

I demand a recipe for this! *stomps foot* That sounds absolutely delish.

I second!

Here it is.... as requested. It's actually pretty good. It's a new recipe for me, and I really like it, as does the hubs.


Jalapeno and Onion Cranberry Chutney (taken from Seaworld's Foodie Friday)
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
8 oz. sugar
2 small jalapenos, diced
4 oz. yellow onion, diced
2 oz. orange juice
Juice from 1 squeezed lime
Instructions:
Cook first two ingredients for 30 minutes or until tender on medium heat. Cool, and then add the last 4 ingredients to mixture.

I beg to differ! Cocaine is commonly used in medicine to contract bleeding vessels in the nose during ENT procedures. Nothing weirder than seeing your first vile of cocaine solution during medical school.

Gravy, basically another name for sauce, when done well is wonderful in the right quantities. It should be an accent to a dish and not smother it. If you have to cover a dry dressing with gravy to make it edible, your doing it wrong.

I concur.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/...isrc=obnetwork

To quote:
"For a holiday that ostensibly brings Americans together, Thanksgiving has a knack for highlighting regional fault lines and exposing local prejudices. Consider stuffing, the holiday’s quintessential side dish. The very word invites conflict, since many Southerners call it “dressing,” whether it’s stuffed into a turkey or baked separately from the bird. But the vital controversy arises over substance: Depending on where you’re from and who your ancestors were, you might make it out of white bread, out of rice or other grains—even out of chestnuts.

In which cases you’d be sorely mistaken, because the correct way to make stuffing is out of cornbread."

Amen.

ETA: Sorely disappointed in the dressing offering. Our resident gourmand hosted this year. Oyster dressing and dressing made with white bread and biscuits of all things!

Well, I have now. :o

I am up north here in Chicago about to eat a Thanksgiving meal with stuffing/dressing. Do I need to call it by one name or the other if my southern-bred and raised mother-in-law makes it?

I'd make a joke about it and ask her if it's stuffing or dressing.

i will share my dressing recipe with you all when i return home-sometime sunday.

I grew up in the north and my family calls it dressing. We use unseasoned croutons from white bread, onions, celery, carrots, lots of butter, a little milk, and chopped up sticks of pepperoni. Weird, but so tasty! We like it baked until crunchy on top. Personally, I don't care for oysters, raisins, apples, or nuts in dressing. Or chopped up gizzards.

Resurrecting this thread to get some recipes!

LOL - we-ell although I grew up southern, my mother certainly didn't and she taught me to make the stuffing - cooked in the bird - the way her grandmother made it.

(My grandmother is from a country where they don't eat corn...)

I have modified it a little, but essentially I cook a pound of Sage sausage and let that cool. Saute one diced onion until its translucent. Throw the carmalized onion in with the sausage, 4 stalks of celery diced (with most of the strings removed), 1 whole RED apple (diced), and 1 large egg (beaten). Then I add 2 bags of the cubed Pepperidge farm stuffing (must be cubes for consistency) and mix all of that together. Then I add one can of chicken broth. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper on top. This is plenty to stuff a 20lb. bird with some left over. The left overs I cook on the side in a covered dish for about 45-50minutes in the oven with the turkey just before the turkey is about to be done (or just after if you have a small oven and a big turkey.) :rolleyes:

Yumm.. ok now I am getting hungry...

Yum! I love stuffing. I prepare it the way my dad does it: I use Pepperidge Farm stuffing (cubed like HQWest suggests), add chicken broth, cooked onions, and diced giblets that come from the turkey (sauté them prior to adding to the stuffing) and stuff it in the turkey. Depending on the size of the bird, if it's small I'll do an extra helping of stuffing on the side.

Brooklyn born and Los Angeles raised: Start with Cubisons corn bread stuffing (not dressing), loaf of homemade cornbread, chicken Italian sausage, onions, celery....whatever....cook the onions, sausage, celery...add extra poultry seasoning...substitute some apple juice for the butter, and some turkey broth. taste....cover the huge pan with foil...eat...

My mom's stuffing, whether in or out of the bird is really simple - made with white bread, breadcrumbs, bits of turkey (she cooks up the giblets), and juice from the turkey as it's cooking. She no longer stuffs the bird because A. it takes longer to cook and B. that can lead to salmonella poisoning (the juices INSIDE the bird don't reach as high a temperature).

Oh, gosh, I just love Thanksgiving. Aside from my bday being around Turkey day (my 10th, 16th, 21st birthdays and one in my 30s were ON Thanksgiving!!), I am a turkey fiend.

Due to my medical issues, I often don't have much of an appetite and/or have issues eating too much at a time, so I usually spend my appetite as follows: 75% turkey, 15% stuffing, corn, taters, veggies, and 10% on coffee and a small dessert like a cookie or brownie afterwards. (Not a fan of pies and pastries.)

Yum. Yum yum yum!!!