Is it Thanksgiving ‘stuffing’ or ‘dressing’ in SC? Take our poll and help end the debate
We’re nearing Thanksgiving again, and you know what that means.
Yes, it means football and eating so much that you fall asleep during said football game. But also it means folks across America will engage in the great, time-honored debate of what exactly to call that bread, herb and vegetable dish that you sometimes cook inside of the turkey and sometimes make separately.
Webster’s dictionary defines stuffing as ”a seasoned mixture (as of bread crumbs, vegetables, and butter) that is typically placed inside the cavity of a turkey, pepper, etc. and cooked.” Dressing, it defines, is “a seasoned mixture usually used as a stuffing (as for poultry).”
Stumped, we dove into the great food publications to parse out the nuances of the stuffing vs. dressing debate.
According to a 2016 article from Food & Wine, the differing names come down to geography. “Dressing” is more of a Southern term, while “stuffing” is favored by those up north. (Full disclosure, due to this reporter’s Ohio roots, we maintain a proud “stuffing” household.) (Editor’s note: Polite jeers are in order.)
Southern Living compared the stuffing vs. dressing debate to using “y’all, you all, or youse.”
But Food & Wine goes into the technicalities, alleging that dressing is cooked outside of the bird while stuffing is, well, stuffed in. The Food Network concurs with Food & Wine on this distinction, adding that a “classic” dressing is cooked alongside a turkey.
Either way, we want to know what you, our readers, call this delectable Thanksgiving dish. Take our poll below:
By no means is this poll scientific. It reflects the choices of our South Carolina readers.
This poll will close on Thanksgiving Day, just in time for you to set your stuffing — or dressing — down for your family’s meal. And if you can’t see the poll (above), please disable your ad-blocking software.
Regardless of what you call it, we’d love for you to share your best stuffing or dressing recipe with us. We’ll pick some of our favorites and share them with our readers before Thanksgiving Day.
This story was originally published November 17, 2021 at 11:28 AM.
