Thanksgiving can be stressful. For many this holiday, families come together only to be torn apart by the same deep disagreement that divides dining tables across America. Late November can easily bring the exasperation of having the same argument, with that same uncle, once again, suspecting your well-reasoned position may never break through to him. I refer, of course, to the question of which Thanksgiving side is the best.
Fortunately for all, there is a clear answer to this conundrum: stuffing. Stuffing (or dressing, if you prefer) is not only the best Thanksgiving side; it is the perfect Thanksgiving side.
Perhaps you've seen the meme: a collage of typical Thanksgiving sides with the caption "one must go." Whenever the challenge appears on social media, comment sections overflow with criticism of the respective dishes each user would take off the table. And those criticisms are often valid, as most Thanksgiving sides have clear, common pitfalls. Mashed potatoes can turn out chalky or gluey or underseasoned, fit only as a vehicle for gravy. Vegetables might be boiled beyond any recognition, much less any flavor. Even at its best, cranberry sauce might be too sweet or too tart for any given person's taste, and it's nearly impossible to make a good version on your own if you don't want to use the canned stuff. And then there's the turkey, dry as sand more often than not.
Not so with stuffing. It is genuinely difficult to "mess up" stuffing, and there are many different ways to make it right. Whether you plate up stuffing that's crispy or soft or a mix of both, whether it came straight from a box or was assembled meticulously from scratch and roasted inside the turkey, it'll be good. It's one of the more flexible Thanksgiving recipes—you can make stuffing in oven, slow cooker, or on the stove, wherever there's room in between other, less forgiving dishes. What's more, stuffing holds up extremely well to experimentation. You can throw in jalapeños, or oysters, or use cornbread, or swap out some of the turkey or chicken stock for cooking wine.
What's necessary to make stuffing stuffing? Herbs, aromatics, carbs, meat (though mushrooms make an excellent substitute). In other words, all the best things in any Thanksgiving meal. Best of all, stuffing stands on its own; it never needs a blanket of gravy or a cloud covering of marshmallows. Even dry stuffing—unlike, say, flavorless mashed potatoes—will taste and smell distinctly like Thanksgiving.
By bringing so much together into one dish, stuffing offers a preview of the leftovers, the best part of the Thanksgiving meal, when you Frankenstein's-monster up a plate of whatever happens to have made it into the fridge the next day. If you like Thanksgiving, you like stuffing, and vice versa.
Stuffing, in short, is the everything side. There is nothing that better represents the holiday, and nothing else ties together all the different parts of the meal like stuffing does. It is a reminder that, no matter how many mistakes get made with each different contribution to the feast, it's still all better together than apart.
Philip Jeffery is deputy opinion editor at Newsweek.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
But only one dish reigns supreme. All hail the almighty stuffing. Something magical happens when stale bread meets butter, celery and tons of sage. Flavors meld and the bread turns soft and gooey and outshines everything else on the Thanksgiving plate.
Stuffing, according to Merriam-Webster, is "a seasoned mixture (as of bread crumbs, vegetables, and butter) that is typically placed inside the cavity of a turkey, pepper, etc.and cooked." In other words, a mixture that is "stuffed" inside your poultry.
While stuffing has long accompanied the "bird", the style and recipes have evolved. The birds present at the first meal, whether they were turkey or waterfowl, were probably stuffed with onions and herbs, not bread. As with the turkey, Sarah Josepha Hale's recipes for stuffing likely made it a companion to the turkey.
There's no specific date for when stuffing was first invented, but there is evidence of stuffing made from spelt, herbs, and vegetables in an ancient Roman document, according to Tasting Table. And while it's not clear whether or not stuffing was on the first Thanksgiving menu, it did become more popular in the 1800s.
Mashed potatoes are a traditional Thanksgiving side dish for a reason, and we definitely look forward to serving up this delicious dish every November.
Stuffing and dressing are commonly used as different names for the same thing—a dish consisting of bits of bread (or other starchy things) and various seasonings. The dish can be made by stuffing it (hence the name) inside a turkey or other bird that will be roasted, or by baking or cooking it separately.
The word “stuffing” dates back to 14th Century English, when it was used synonymously with the more uncomfortable sounding forcemeat. Soon after, Anglos borrowed the slicker French word, farce (from the Latin verb facire or “to stuff”).
When made from scratch and seasoned right, it is rich, moist and savory, shot through with different textures and flavors that give cooks plenty of room to play. That basic amalgamation of starch, fat and aromatics is indisputably delicious.
That temperature includes any potential stuffing deep in the turkey's cavity. At temperatures below 165°F you risk exposure to salmonella or E.coli, two very scary and gross bacteria. The problem with stuffing your roast turkey is that when the turkey's meat is safely cooked, the stuffing inside still is not.
It is also worth noting what was not present at the first Thanksgiving feast. There were no cloudlike heaps of mashed potatoes, since white potatoes had not yet crossed over from South America. There was no gravy either, since the colonists didn't yet have mills to produce flour.
Purportedly ancient Roman, or else Medieval, cooks developed engastration recipes, stuffing animals with other animals. An anonymous Andalusian cookbook from the 13th century includes a recipe for a ram stuffed with small birds.
The primary difference between stuffing and dressing is that stuffing is cooked inside a bird and dressing is made on the side. As with many food traditions in the U.S., regional loyalties to stuffing vs dressing abound.
There is no particular reason why stuffing is eaten at Christmas, other than it is a traditional accompaniment to turkey, the most popular Christmas meat.
As the turkey cooks, its juices drip onto the stuffing, infusing the bread and vegetables with extra flavor. Some people also think the practice yields a moister stuffing, while others "do it to save space in the oven," says Baker.
Stuffing / dressing is the most popular side dish in Ohio, according to Campbell's. It's also the most popular side in neighboring Indiana, as well as Wisconsin, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, New Jersey, Vermont, Maine and Alaska. Nationally, however, stuffing / dressing ranks the second-most popular side dish.
Think: deviled eggs, a cranberry-pecan cheese ball, and creamy caramelized onion dip. Then, divvy up Thanksgiving casseroles like classic stuffing, green bean casserole, and sweet potato casserole. And don't be afraid to try out a fresh veggie side dish such as garlicky green beans or shaved Brussels sprouts salad.
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