These Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipes Will Make the Feast Legendary (2024)

FAQs

What is stuffing made of Thanksgiving? ›

The BEST traditional Thanksgiving Stuffing recipe is easy to make dried bread cubes, sausage, diced vegetables, and chicken broth. It's a great side dish to make ahead of time and it definitely tastes best homemade! Pair this easy homemade stuffing with our popular turkey recipe, homemade rolls, and Thanksgiving pie.

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.

Classic stuffing made with bread cubes, seasonings, and held together with chicken stock and eggs. A holiday staple!

The term stuffing comes from the practice of filling the cavity of a bird with a mixture of ingredients before cooking. Stuffing is "a mixture used as a filling for an ingredient," according to the Larousse Gastronomique Culinary Encyclopedia. "Stuffing may be made from bread, rice or other grains, vegetables or fruit.

In the context of Thanksgiving, the word dressing is commonly used to mean the same exact thing as stuffing—including when it's cooked inside the bird.

"Stuffing is cooked in the cavity of the turkey, so the juices soak into the ingredients, making it more flavorful. Dressing gets cooked on its own and needs extra liquid to make it flavorful." So stuffing is cooked inside the bird. Dressing is cooked outside the bird, usually in a casserole dish.

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.

Although experts are not clear on when or where stuffing was first made, the first recorded history of the dish comes from Apicius de re Coquinaria, a Roman collection of popular recipes from the first century AD.

It's wildly flavorful and buttery and filled with herbs and most importantly, a delicious neutral flavor that truly goes with any meal. Stuffing is by FAR my favorite side dish. In fact, Thanksgiving is alllll about the side dishes for me.

The most important ingredient of stuffing may be the binder, which keeps all the other elements in place. For a fluffy texture, use eggs. Stock is the most-used binder. Less conventional possibilities include fruit juice (such as apple or orange) and alcohol (wine or liqueur).

What is British stuffing made of? ›

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.

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.

People have been stuffing poultry since ancient times -- the Romans and Arabs are both thought to have stuffed birds with mixtures of bread, herbs and spices. Today's stuffings are frequently prepared on the side instead of in the bird to reduce roasting time and avoid uneven cooking.

Stuffing Facts:

Stuffing dates back to the Roman Empire, where the ancient cookbook "Apicius de re Coquinaria" had recipes for stuffed chicken, rabbit, pork, and more. The brand Stove Top introduced its famous boxed stuffing in 1972.

So how far back can we find stuffing used in cooking? Some time between the 2nd century BC and the 1st century AD, a chef by the name of Apicius created a cookbook entitled, “Apicius de re Coquinaria.” In its pages are recipes for stuffed chicken, rabbit, pig, and even dormouse.

Stuffing is a side dish consisting of dried bread, such as cornbread, croutons, or breadcrumbs, mixed with meat, onions, celery, and sage. The mixture is then inserted into the cavity of the turkey and roasted.

How do you make traditional stuffing? If you've never made Thanksgiving turkey stuffing before, you may think it is difficult. Our recipe is very simple, though and calls for just a handful ingredients: bread, butter, onion, celery, chicken broth, eggs and spices.

Should I stuff my turkey? Stuffing cooked inside the turkey cavities is delicious, but it does slow down the cooking time and could be a potential health hazard if done incorrectly. For perfect no-worry results, opt for "dressing" instead – stuffing cooked alongside the bird instead of inside.

But stuffing is soft and porous by nature. That's the main reason to cook stuffing inside a turkey: The bread cubes soak up roasting turkey juices and transform into incredible-tasting flavor bombs. That means the stuffing needs to reach a safe temperature (165°), so it won't make you sick.