Stuffing or dressing?

[MistyMorning]

Ya know the stuff you put in the turkey before cooking. Now I've heard it as both stuffing and dressing. Which one is it? Also, anyone have an old family recipe or favorite that they would like to share? I've used a wild rice one, but want something new.

 

[Auburn_Ag]

Ya know the stuff you put in the turkey before cooking. Now I've heard it as both stuffing and dressing. Which one is it? Also, anyone have an old family recipe or favorite that they would like to share? I've used a wild rice one, but want something new.

Here in the south its called Dressing and it don't go in no turkey or chicken. Stuffing is what the TV people call it. I have eaten what some people call stuffing, I like to choked to death on it, and drank over a gal of tea trying to get it down. I am sure some where they may actually use it and put it in the bird, but not here. My Grandmother got cancer 3 years ago and so that year I fixed her thanksgiving dinner for her and all of the family. I am going to give you my best shot a remembering, you may have to wait till I can go home and find it.

Boil one whole chicken
Whole pan of cornbread
Some left over biscuits from the morning
And little loaf bread- let it set out over night
2 eggs
Celery
Onion
Black pepper
Red pepper
Salt
Sausage Seasoning ( that was her secret ingredient)

Pull the meat off the bone and tear it up. Break up all the bread. Add the chopped celery and onion. Add the broth from the chicken to make it moist or soupy. Add the seasoning to taste. Taste it and if it needs more spice then add some, if not add the two eggs and put it in a casserole dish. My grandmothers dressing was never BLAND.

I am going to go home tonight and see if I for got anything.

 

[Jim62]

Dressing.

We always use half cornbread and half regular bread. Dice up a couple apples and add in some chopped up pecans. The rest is just any old dressing recipe.

 

[Earl Thigpen]

Hey, Misty. I agree that down here it's called dressing. And the only thing that goes "in" the turkey or chicken is the dressing that just happens to wind up in there. There is no effort at putting it there.

The recipe here is very similar to the one my Mother always used. We (she) did not use oysters or wild rice or anything else besides cornbread and maybe a few left over homemade bisquits. The broth provided most of the flavor although (as stated above) salt, pepper, lots of onion and sometimes giblets made up the remainder of the ingrediants.

I might mention and I know you know this but make sure you get the neck and giblets out from inside your bought turkey or roasting hen before you pop it in the oven.

Turkey or chicken and dressing. Turkey on Holidays and chicken on Sundays. yum!

 

[angie1]

Huh. I suppose someone better represent the nort.
We call it stuffing. You call it stuffing too ~ yes?
Dressing I think is what you put on salad.

After my Thanksgiving fiasco of last year, :help: I am not going to try to attempt to share anything of my own, but my mom makes a FANTASTIC apple raisin dressing (here I use "dressing" because she is from somewhere south, and that is what she calls it). Anyhow, its amazing. I will try to get the recipe from her. I hope it is not one of those "a handful of this" and "some of that".

 

[MistyMorning]

I think I have it now. It's called stuffing when you put it in the bird and dressing when you bake it separately. I always make enough to stuff the bird and bake extra. Love the cornbread ideas, may give that version a go this year.

My Grandmother got cancer 3 years ago and so that year I fixed her thanksgiving dinner for her and all of the family.

What a wonderful thing you did there Auburn Ag and I believe that you Grandmother's secret ingredient(sausage) is the ticket.

Dressing.
We always use half cornbread and half regular bread. Dice up a couple apples and add in some chopped up pecans. The rest is just any old dressing recipe.

I am liking the apple and pecans idea too.

I might mention and I know you know this but make sure you get the neck and giblets out from inside your bought turkey or roasting hen before you pop it in the oven.

Thanks for the reminder Earl, have made that mistake before!

After my Thanksgiving fiasco of last year, :help: I am not going to try to attempt to share anything of my own,

How could we forget, was almost like a world record in replies on that thread and didn't that one stray off the subject a tad bit?

 

[CKC1586]

Yup you got it, stuffing in the bird, dressing in a dish. My mother in law taught me how to make it and her "way" can't be beat.
Get either store bought bread bags of stuffing or make your own with old bread cubed up
take out the giblets and put them in a pot with water onion and celery and cook till the neck meat is coming off the bone. Let that cool enough to pull the meat apart and chop up real fine the liver, heart and gizzard.
You will use the broth from the giblets too.
Melt at least half a cup of butter (real deal) and chop up more celery and onion and get it translucent
Put your bread stuffing in a big bowl season with some salt, pepper and sage to taste and mix your giblets, celery and butter, and broth all together if you have enough broth to make it wet/sticky you got it otherwise use some more hot chicken broth and throw it in. I usually end up with more butter and broth because I make a huge batch. Let this cool before you put it in the bird if you are going to stuff.

 

[Auburn_Ag]

Hey Misty

I told you I forgot something. Sage!! you mix in Sage and Sauage Seasoning to give it a KICK!

And Thank you for the comment.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Yup you got it, stuffing in the bird, dressing in a dish.

That must explain why I have always had Turkey and Dressing. Add cranberry caserole, sweet potato caserole, a touch of ham and pecan pie, and I am good to go. I can eat it for days.

Anything "low fat" can be thrown out.

I tried pumpkin pie once. Once was enough. Give me pecan.

We have had cranberry sauce out of the can and it wasn't all that bad.

Tomorrow is our second Thanksgiving get together. I split another cord of pecan wood today so I could use the calories.

 

[Wewild]

Dressing and giblet gravy around here.

Sweet potato and pecan pie. Both are the stuff.

 

[flaboy]

We call it packin. :lol2: :nod:

 

[backhoeboogie]

We call it packin. :lol2: :nod:

I aint telling what we call that kind of packing.

 

[flaboy]

We call it packin. :lol2: :nod:

I aint telling what we call that kind of packing.

Well, I certainly wouldn't have a clue as to where your mind went on this one and I don't care for you to explain me thinks. :lol2:

 

[shorty]

We call it filling , it has mashed potatoes , fried bread pieces , onions , celery , eggs and meat broth , after it is all mixed together it is baked in the oven . It is also good some sausage mixed in . I guess it is a pennsylvania dutch thing .

 

[grannysoo]

Let's just see if I can stir up a hornets nest here.......

You should not put anything inside that bird! When you load the interior of the bird, you greatly reduce the ability for heat to enter the body cavity, making it take longer to cook. The longer you cook, the more you dry out the bird.

That being said, if it were only stuffing that you had to consider inside the bird, you would not have to have an internal temperature as high. However, the stuffing is not all that must be considered.

When cooking the bird, your stuffing is soaking up the juices and blood from the bird, and therefore must be cooked to 165 degrees (according to the USDA). By the time the stuffing has reached 165 degrees, the rest of the bird is overcooked.

Dressing should be made. Never stuffing. :cry2:

 

[bigbull338]

stuffing goes in the turkey an is cooked in the bird.dressing is mixed up an cooked in the oven.an you gotta have your gibblet gravy mmmmmmmmmmmm mmmm good.

 

[hillsdown]

Poultry stuffing..

4 cups stale bread crumbs
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp thyme or marjorie
1/2 to 1 tsp poultry seasoning
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 cup melted fat

Combine bread ,seasoning and onion slowly add fat ,tossing lightly with fork until blended. For a more moist stuffing slowly add up to a 1/3 cup of hot stock/broth. Makes about 4 cups of stuffing allow 1 cup for each pound of poultry.

Prune stuffing for duck...

Follow the above but omit the thyme/marjorie and prepare half the recipe.

I omit onion in this as well.
Remove pits from cooked prunes and add 1 cup of diced apple.

You will need 1 cup of prunes and 1 cup of finely diced apple.

The prune stuffing is amazing for duck.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Ya know the stuff you put in the turkey before cooking.

When I take those 3, 4 or 5 turkeys out to the smoker, if someone has stuffed anyting inside of them, there's gonna be trouble!! :shock: :shock: I can't imagine tending to the fire, the wood, and temperature all that time, doing all that basting - for a ruined turkey.

The dressing, cranberry/strawberry cocktail sauce, pecan pies and all the rest of the trimmings are prepared inside the house, in the kitchen. I get to go in there to refill my cup of coffee, but that's about it. I can't tell you anything about that dressing - except it is not stuffed into anything.

 

[BeefmasterB]

Ya know the stuff you put in the turkey before cooking.

When I take those 3, 4 or 5 turkeys out to the smoker, if someone has stuffed anyting inside of them, there's gonna be trouble!! :shock: :shock: I can't imagine tending to the fire, the wood, and temperature all that time, doing all that basting - for a ruined turkey.

The dressing, cranberry/strawberry cocktail sauce, pecan pies and all the rest of the trimmings are prepared inside the house, in the kitchen. I get to go in there to refill my cup of coffee, but that's about it. I can't tell you anything about that dressing - except it is not stuffed into anything.

Amen to that!!

My experience is the dressing/stuffing is always prepared separately, in its own dish, with tasty giblet gravy nearby to ladle on as you want. Not to mention all the turkey salmonella that can soak into the stuffing if it was packed into the turkey. Strawberry cocktail sauce???????? That's a new one on me!

 

[backhoeboogie]

Strawberry cocktail sauce???????? That's a new one on me!

I probably did a bad job splaining it

Rather than eat the jellied cranberry out of the can, the boss lady buys whole cranberries - they are tart. She mixes them with whole frozen strawberries, pine apple, and maybe pecans. I'm not sure exactly how she does it but everyone on both sides of the family wants it both at Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. It is much better eating than the jellied cranberry out of the can.

Like I say, the kitchen is off limits to me. Now when we go camping, wimmens folk aint allowed in the camp kitchen on the river. Otherwise she'd be in there cooking for 5 days straight. We tell the wimmen folk to grab a hammock and they like our cooking just fine. Of course, they just have to come around, snoop, peaking over our shoulders. We tolerate that part a little.