So what IS the difference between stuffing and dressing? Everyone who wrote in was emphatic, but two answers are running neck in neck with no clear winner.
Half concur with this reader who wrote:
my understanding has always been that if the mixture is stuffed into a bird or meat, it’s stuffing. if it’s cooked or baked outside the “vessel” (in a pan or dish), it’s dressing!!
Note the exclamation marks.
The other half believe that the word choice is dependent on one’s geographic location within the U.S., not the location of the foodstuff vis a vis the bird.
Two people referred to an AP Wire story that said, in part:
(AP) – Is there a difference between stuffing and dressing? This recipe for a tasty sourdough, pears and sausage accompaniment bakes in a baking dish rather than being stuffed inside the Thanksgiving turkey – but what you call it depends more on where you live than how the dish is prepared.
That’s the view of the editors of Cooking Light, noted in a holiday feature in the magazine’s November issue. “Stuffing” can be stuffed into the bird or baked alongside it in a separate dish, and the same holds true for the term “dressing,” they write. “In the southern and eastern United States, people generally call it ‘dressing,’ a term that came about during the 19th century. Elsewhere, it’s referred to as ‘stuffing.”‘
One of the people who cited the AP/Cooking Light stories, a writer friend of mine in Kentucky (she’s a reporter and columnist for the Kentucky New Era), wrote:
Think of it simply this way. Stuffing goes in the bird. Dressing is cooked in a dish outside of the bird.
I know you will try to analyze this, Devra. Just remember, I was once a food editor of a small rural daily, where food is serious business. I thought I knew the answer when I read your Thanksgiving entry, but just to be careful, I “googled” the question. I found the same conclusion in an AP story and in a Cooking Light magazine article.
Another thing. Dressing is typically more popular in the South. I had cornbread dressing for my family.
She knows me well; let’s analyze. On the one hand, she concurs with the stuffing inside/dressing outside definition, and on the other she supports the Cooking Light editors who clearly say that “it depends more on where you live than how the dish is prepared.” So, here’s my conclusion: lets all just agree that location is the key, regardless as to whether you’re talking about the location in which the bread-based morsels are prepared in relationship to the bird, or the geographic location of those about to eat it.
My Kentucky reporter goes on to mention:
In Kentucky, turkey and dressing with gravy is actually served yearround at many mom-and-pop restaurants and at grocery stories that offer the classic “meat and three” lunches.
Meat and three? I assumed that the three might represent stuffing, a vegetable dish, and one extra, maybe cranberry sauce or a biscuit. Wrong! These people eat three vegetable side dishes! According to my Kentucky reporter, stuffing is considered part of the meat serving (along with the gravy), and oftentimes the meat serving contains more stuffing than meat. With that, you choose three vegetables. Sounds good to me, but I can’t eat another bite — I’m stuffed.
Today is the beginning of renovation week #3. Clearly, there will be no Thanksgiving dinner served from my kitchen this year – we’ll be dining at the home of friends. I think the cabinets may get finished today or maybe tomorrow, and then they will start to tile the kitchen floor. The kitchen counter is almost done, but the tiles are heavy and the added few inches in depth now necessitates corbels be added to support the overhang. Also, the expanse of the counter changes the impact of the color of the tiles, which now no longer seem to blend with the color of the family room walls. (It’s hard to imagine a 12’ x 4.5’ expanse when looking at a 13†square tile.) So, I’ve had to pick out a new paint color for the walls. (Funny how these projects seem to mushroom.) I have never been partial to white walls – except perhaps for my parents’ home where the white living room walls make a great backdrop for all the colors and art works that fill the room. My childhood bedroom had yellow flowered wallpaper and the beds were covered with green corduroy spreads. Our bedroom today, once blue, became green about a year ago. John’s office is beige, my office walls are butterscotch, and for several years now the family room walls have been a deep raspberry color. The kitchen has been the only white-walled room in our house. As of today, my new plan is to paint the kitchen Soft Ivory and the family room a golden yellow color called Valley Flower that I think will complement the counter as well as the new bamboo floor to come without requiring a change of the family room draperies. Raspberry and blue will then continue to be the accent colors.
Brazilian born Sérgio and Odair Assad are brothers, and part of a multigenerational musical family that includes their mandolin-playing father, vocalist mother, sister who also sings and plays guitar, and the brothers’ two daughters. But tonight it’s just the two men, alone on an unadorned stage playing unamplified classical guitars, breathing as one, exhibiting a sympatico between them that belies not only their brotherhood but also the fact that they’ve been playing together for 40 years. The program opened with a piece by Isaac Albéniz that sounded oddly pianistic to me. I was not familiar with this composer, so later, in perusing the program notes by John Henken, when I read that Albéniz was a pianist and that his piano pieces have been transcribed and arranged for guitar, I was pleased that my ears had not deceived me.