The stuffing you put in the bird is called stuffing.
The stuffing you cook outside of the bird because there is never enough stuffing is called stuffing.
I acknowledge that some people chose to call stuffing “dressing.”
This year, I’m going to spatchcock the birds and make the stuffing separate. I use turkey stock that I’ve prepared ahead of time from a couple of turkey legs for the added liquid, as well as the liquid for the gravy.
Slightly off topic, sometimes I add the giblets to the stuffing, usually chicken giblets and what comes with the turkey. A few years ago I added the livers and it destroyed my dressing it was such a small fraction of the dish I had no idea it would have such a strong affect.
Was it Ranch or Thousand Island dressing?
You can’t put uncooked cornbread dressing in a bird. It’s like a thick soup before it’s baked.
Here it is before baking
https://goo.gl/images/s7CPpH
Well, since it’s the “stuff” that you actually “stuff” a turkey with, I always call it “stuffing”.
The word “dressing” seems to have no practical connection whatsoever.
It’s properly called “wadding”.
In my world, it’s all stuffing.
Cooked inside the bird = stuffing.
Cooked outside the bird = stuffing.
Yeast-bread based = stuffing.
Cornbread based = stuffing.
Straight up celery & onion inclusions = stuffing.
Fruit, nut, oyster, etc inclusions = stuffing.
In my world, stuffing with oysters is called “landfill”.
Moderator Note
Thread relocated from IMHO to Cafe Society.
At least in my childhood Thanksgiving experience, just the opposite. My dad doesn’t like turkey, so his mother stuffed the bird for the rest of us and made a separate pan of dressing for him. After the stuffing was gone, there was always some dressing left over, and it really suffered from not having been in the bird, even though the ingredients were otherwise identical.
I like both, and prefer the stuffing from the bird over the dressing from the casserole dish, but it’s a photo-finish either way.
Count me as another who uses the word “stuffing” whether or not it gets stuffed anywhere (aside from my mouth, of course).
“All the good juices” is the grease from the country sausage that goes in my dressing. Diluting it with turkey fat isn’t necessary.
I don’t care about that, I care about the fact that inside the bird, it can’t get all that crispy browned flavor it can get cooked in a pan by itself in the oven. It just turns into a soggy mass. You want “juice” on it, make some gravy and pour it on the stuffing, like everyone else does.
Nevertheless, I do call them both the same thing. “Stuffing” normally, “dressing” sometimes, both referring to the same food item, which I personally don’t actually stuff inside anything but a pan (and later my face).
Stuffing is cooked inside the turkey. Dressing is cooked in a casserole. Our family does both, then combines the two into one perfectly moist dish.
I vote no to both. You’re welcome to my shares.
I grew up calling it all “stuffing” (well, maybe not the cornbread dressing, but we didn’t have cornbread dressing growing up. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever eaten cornbread dressing, somehow.) But for the bread-based stuff, inside the bird or outside the bird, it don’t matter. Last year I went all lowbrow and decided to try that White Castle stuffing recipe (which I cooked in a casserole.) It was surprisingly good, but I love White Castle, so I’m not surprised. It was also the only stuffing to get completely eaten at dinner.
No matter whether it’s cooked inside the bird or out, it’s stuffing. Dressing is what you put on a salad.
What do you call that mixture? “Dressing” + “Stuffing”
uh…“Dressing”? “Stuffing”? “StuffDress”?