Dressing or Stuffing?

[BvBPL]

Cook up a little mirepoix of onions, carrots, and celery. Add some slightly stale bread cubes. Toss in some herbs and an egg.

Then either throw it into the bird to cook while it roasts

-or-

cook it on the stovetop or roast it separately.

The former is obviously stuffing. Is the latter stuffing or dressing?

 

[Daw]

[...]

-or-

cook it on the stovetop or roast it separately.

That "separately" is a key word for a side dish... Fried egg hardly qualifies for a dressing, but it as well may be that I just got it all wrong...

 

[warpus]

Dressing would go on top of the turkey, wouldn't it?

IMO stuffing is stuffing even if it hasn't been stuffed. I stuff it in my mouth and that's good enough for me.

 

[Zelig]

Is the latter stuffing or dressing?

Neither.

 

[Borachio]

Dunno. Are you cooking it in a bain marie on the stovetop? If you are, it might qualify as a sauce Bernaise (or something, I dunno). Which would make it a dressing, I guess.

Just how liquid is this concoction?

 

[BvBPL]

It's not really liquid. This is a pretty good example.

 

[Daw]

Looks like a side dish to me

 

[bhavv]

Looks like you need to get in my kitchen with a steel ball chained to the ankle pronto!

 

[.Shane.]

IT's all stuffing!

 

[sophie]

Stuffing. Everything is stuffing.

 

[Birdjaguar]

"Stuffing" should be cooked inside the bird. when it moves to your plate along side the meat and potatoes, it becomes dressing.

 

[Borachio]

It's hardly a dressing if it's not pourable, imo.

I'd say "side-dish" is the most appropriate term for that rather appetizing-looking thing. (Who knows, though? The Americans will use English in their own peculiar way.)

You can make a stuffing outside the bird, though. I mean, why not? If the ingredients are the same.

 

[Birdjaguar]

It's hardly a dressing if it's not pourable, imo.

I'd say "side-dish" is the most appropriate term for that rather appetizing-looking thing. (Who knows, though? The Americans will use English in their own peculiar way.)

You can make a stuffing outside the bird, though. I mean, why not? If the ingredients are the same.

Well, by definition it is not "stuffing" since it didn't get stuffed into the bird. A side dish maybe, or faux stuffing. I'd call it dressing, though.

If I boiled my egg instead of frying it, can I still call it a fried egg? Same ingredients.

 

[Borachio]

Well.

I can't argue with your impeccable logic.

Nevertheless, I very often* get served sage and onion "stuffing" that's never seen the inside of a bird.

*"often" in this case meaning maybe once or twice a decade.

I know it's stuffing because that what it says on the outside of the packet it comes in. So there.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Well. I guess I am undone. The name on the package cannot be wrong.

 

[Souron]

So traditionally cooked stuffing, has those ingredients, and is roasted in side the bird. So in some sense it's not a "proper stuffing" otherwise. So for maximum snobbishness, it's not a real traditional thanksgiving stuffing if it's not cooked inside the turkey.

However, not cooking stuffing inside a turkey is a relatively minor change to a classic meal. Stuffing cooked outside of a turkey could be considered a simpler way of cooking stuffing, sacrificing intricacy for cooking labor. This is not unlike substituting a single ingredient with a similar one.


Furthermore, stuffing is obviously not a dressing. It is served as a side, however it's cooked; the turkey is not dressed in stuffing.

 

[BvBPL]

Not putting the dish inside the bird is not a minor change. Stuffing is continually introduced to drippings from the bird, roasted dressing is not.

 

[Borachio]

Ah. But where in the bird do you put the stuffing? In the body cavity, or the neck?

Personally, I like to place stuffing in the neck end. And an old boot in the body cavity. Just to keep the bird nice and moist. And I can also claim it's sole food.

 

[Birdjaguar]

We always stuff both places. We stopped eating old boots last time we had a layover at the Donner Pass Resort and Spa.