My family has always made it outside of the turkey, and only recently am I figuring out that it was often prepared inside of it, to begin with. Makes sense why it’s called “stuffing”. I’m a dumbass apparently.
One other thing that crossed my path while this revelation came upon me, the FDA doesn’t really suggest doing it anymore. And if you do, make sure you check deep within the stuffing, as sometimes it’s not hot enough to kill the bacteria, such as salmonella from the raw turkey juices contaminating the stuffing and not getting cooked thoroughly.
Anyway, just want to know if it’s common to cook it outside the turkey or inside now, as I never knew it was cooked inside it to begin with.
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TL;DR Imma dumbass
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32 comments
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We always make dressing (cornbread) vs stuffing, so it’s cooked outside of the turkey. But I’m from NC with some SC roots, so our experience/ traditions are probably similar
If it cooks in the turkey, it’s stuffing. If it cooks out of the turkey it’s dressing.
In the south we typically make dressing not stuffing. It’s a cornbread base and really pretty different than stuffing.
I’ve been a hobbyist home cook for 30+ years and have worked in some restaurants. Separately, always. Spatchcock the bird.
Always on the outside, usually a box of Stove Top. Stuffing/Dressing not a priority in our meals.
Mine is a dressing household and I won’t hear anything else.
I don’t stuff anymore, while you can can some great flavor doing that, it’s much more of a pain in the ass hitting the balance of getting both properly done without being undercooked or getting one good while the other is dry. I do dressing on the side and only put some aromatics in the cavity.
Always outside, for the food safety reasons you mentioned.
But even when stuffing a bird, there’s never enough room to cook all the stuffing you want to have, so there’s always some cooked separately.
My mom always cooked it in the turkey, but I prefer to cook it in a separate pan for food safety reasons, plus the turkey cooks more quickly if it isn’t packed full of bread.
We do both since the amount of stuffing that fits inside the turkey isn’t enough to feed us all.
Yes. You put it in the bird when it is cooking. But, that never makes as much stuffing as people want to eat so you make some excess stuffing in a separate pan.
When we were baking the birds there was some in bird, and some out of the bird.
But for the last 15 years we have been smoking or deep frying, so the in-bird stuffing went the way of the dodo
We’ve always done it on the outside and called it stuffing. This is also regular bread or sour dough based, I rarely have the cornbread kind but I think it was called dressing when I did.
If it isn’t cooked in the bird it isn’t stuffing; it’s dressing.
Getting stuffing and pot pies with the left over turkey meat is the only the only reason to have a whole turkey in my opinion.
Outside, IMHO It makes both the turkey & the stuffing much easier to both cook and to serve, and the nice crustiness of the baked stuffing doesn’t occur if cooked inside the bird.
Plus; I love the stuffing and don’t want to lose even a spoonful and it’s hard to get those last little bits out of a turkey.
I always cook it in the turkey. My mom did also.
Separately. Couldn’t cook it inside even if I wanted to, I’m going to spatchcock the turkey and smoke it on my pellet grill.
We make “dressing” instead of stuffing — we cook it separately.
Make it separately
It was always made outside of the bird. Growing up my grandmother made the stuffing but the person hosting made the turkey.
Separately.
Wait for all you people that cook it in the bird, how do you serve it?
Does each person scoop it out of the cavity at the table?
Dressing is made on the stove, and stuffing goes in the turkey. I usually cook it separately. You just have to make sure that you cook everything all the way through if you stuff the turkey.
Both. The recipe( not that a single ingredient or measurement is written down anywhere) makes enough to stuff a 20 lb bird and fill a loaf pan. The loaf pan is sliced for turkey sandwiches later on.
My family makes dressing seperately.
Stuffing a raw turkey with breads and spices risks salmonella. Fine to stuff with aromatics thar no one is going to eat.
Separately, not least because I’m a vegetarian. But the only real purpose to putting stuffing inside of the bird is to infuse it with meat juices, and you can accomplish that just as easily by using broth or stock to make it.
It comes out moister and tastier when you stuff it in the bird
Separately. Putting it inside the bird runs the risk of salmonella.
Both. We do some inside the bird and some outside. Inside the bird has a mushier texture.
We spatchcock the turkey, so the stuffing gets baked.
Separately