This Is The Only Stuffing Recipe You'll Ever Need (2024)

FAQs

Is stuffing better with or without eggs? ›

Broth: Chicken broth keeps the stuffing moist without making it soggy. Eggs: Two lightly beaten eggs help hold the dressing together and add moisture.

Some people make the distinction that dressing is the proper name for the dish when it has been prepared outside of the bird—that is, when it has not been stuffed and cooked inside.

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

Turkey stuffing was popularized in the early days of Thanksgiving, as it is written in many 16th-century Boston area documents. Stuffing most often uses dried bread, herbs, and vegetables that are reconstituted with liquid, stuffed into the turkey cavity, and baked until it is firm and finished cooking.

Sourdough, Italian, and white bread are standard choices for stuffing; however, journeying beyond your comfort zone can produce excellent results.

Cover the baking dish tightly with aluminum foil. Bake at 400°F for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake until crispy. Uncover the stuffing and continue baking until the top is crispy and golden-brown, 15 to 20 minutes more.

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.

In Theodora Fitzgibbon's massive The Food of the Western World, stuffing is “The name given in England to combinations of a variety of foods which are inserted into meats, poultry, fish, eggs, or vegetables. In the United States, stuffing is also called dressing . . .” Onward.

Stuffing should be moist, not dry, because heat destroys bacteria more rapidly in a moist environment. Once the bird is stuffed, it should be placed immediately in an oven set no lower than 325°F. Check out the cooking chart for recommended cooking times for stuffed turkey of various sizes.

Stuffing consists of a mixture of savoury ingredients such as breadcrumbs, herbs, fruit, nuts, sausagemeat and onion which are bound together with egg or liquid to form a semi-solid mixture. It is usually cooked with roast meat such as chicken, pork or lamb and is served as an accompaniment to the sliced, cooked meat.

What is the American word for stuffing? ›

Dressing Is For Midwesterners

Generally, in the Midwestern states, it's called stuffing regardless of the ingredients or whether it's cooked inside a turkey.

Juices from the turkey soaked into the stuffing, infusing it with fat and flavor. "You've got those juices, and those juices taste great,” Smith said.

Minced pork should comprise about 50 per cent of your stuffing; breadcrumbs, nuts and fruit should make up about 15 per cent each. The last 5 per cent would be made up of cooked onion, herbs and (perhaps no more than 1 per cent) salt.

I've never not put eggs in stuffing, but also, the eggs act as a binder. They prevent the stuffing from being crumbly and help it hold together.

Modern stuffed toys are commonly constructed of outer fabrics such as plain cloth, pile textiles like plush or terrycloth, or sometimes socks. Common stuffing materials include synthetic fiber, batting, cotton, straw, wood wool, plastic pellets, and beans.

For recipes that use eggs as a binder or for moisture, substitutes like applesauce or oil can do the trick. If the eggs act as a leavening agent, try a combination of vinegar and baking powder. It's worth noting that the finished product won't be exactly the same as when you use real eggs.

Typically, baking the stuffing inside the bird helps keep the mixture moist. “I prefer stuffing (in the bird) to dressing (outside of the bird) because all those delicious drippings that come off the turkey gets absorbed right into the stuffing,” Bamford says.

Typically high in fat, carbs and salt, stuffing can be made fresh or purchased chilled, frozen or dehydrated. Traditionally, a stuffing would use the giblets of the bird with the addition of sausage meat, a source of starch, such as bread, with some aromatics such as onion, herbs and spices.

Making the stuffing the day before

I find this helpful for two reasons. The first is that letting the stuffing sit overnight allows the herb flavors to sink into the bread making the flavor even and delicious.