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In anticipation of Thanksgiving, vice-president-elect Kamala Harris shared her family's recipe for cornbread dressing. The caring gesture sparked a national debate. Not for political reasons, but linguistic ones.
While many will argue politics over the Thanksgiving table (or not this year because of the pandemic), some will instead debate the name of a core part of the traditional holiday meal. When we refer to the side dish that contains bread, vegetables, stock, and aromatic herbs, do we call it "stuffing" or "dressing"?
Some people will argue that the distinction is in the preparation. As the name suggests, stuffing is "stuffed" into the cavity of the fowl and roasted inside of it, while dressing is baked separately in a casserole dish and used to "dress" slices of the turkey. However, confusion comes when we learn that some people say they "stuff" their birds with "dressing," while others bake their "stuffing" in a dish. In some homes, the words are used interchangeably.
Some will argue that the difference isn't about technique, but that the distinction is dialectal. What you call this dish can reveal where you are from. "Stuffing" appears to be the preferred term in the Northeast and Pacific Northwest, while "dressing" appears to be favored in Southern and Midwestern states. Pennsylvanians are outliers in that they often call the dish "filling."
There are also regional differences in ingredients, with San Franciscans preferring sourdough bread, while cornbread is used in the South because it was a staple in the Southern diet. Some recipes call for the addition of dried fruit, sauerkraut, sausage, or seafood.
How do we explain the different terms that are in use today? Stuffing, in the sense of "fill the inside of a bird before cooking," dates back to the fourteenth century. (Forcemeat is a curious older English term for this seasoned mixture.) In the United States, "stuffing" was in popular use until the Victorian era, when some people took offense to the vulgar term, and so the term "dressing" was adopted in various parts of the country.
Whether you call it "dressing" or "stuffing" (or "forcemeat"!), Happy Thanksgiving to you.
