Stuffing vs. Dressing: Which Would You Choose?

Our current political environment considers polling to be a valuable asset. On any given day during any given political season, you can find the results of numerous politically oriented polls. Since we're one year away from the next presidential election, the polls are so numerous you could grow bleary-eyed trying to keep up with the results.

Borrowing a page from the playbook of politics, I conducted a Facebook poll the week before Thanksgiving that is of national importance:

Do you prefer stuffing or dressing?   

The results were overwhelmingly in favor of dressing. They were well outside the margin of error, as they say. I'll admit that my results were a little skewed. I'm a southern food writer, so a great many of my readers are southern. Dressing, cornbread in particular, is a taste of the Deep South that southerners have loved for generations.

Originally created as a way to use leftover cornbread, biscuits and bread, cornbread dressing is a staple on many southerners' Thanksgiving tables. It's traditionally served with giblet gravy that's made with the giblets and meat from the neckbone of the turkey. If you're unfamiliar with giblets, it's the content of the little bag that you find in the cavity of the turkey.  

I follow the method my Granny used to make dressing. My ingredient list is short just like hers: Cornbread, bread, onions, celery, stock and seasoning. She used poultry seasoning. I've never bought that, but I'm sure it contains sage as one of the ingredients. I use fresh sage instead.

A tip for getting as much flavor in your dressing as possible is to use stale cornbread and bread. I make cornbread a day ahead. Stale bread will soak up more of the stock and bring loads of flavor into the dressing. Of course, you need to have a good quality stock. Also, after mixing in the stock, let the dressing sit for 30 minutes before baking. This gives the bread a chance to really soak up all that flavorful stock instead of having it cook out as it bakes. Plus, it gives everybody in the dressing a chance to get to know each other and come together as one.

I've been cooking for many years and have gone through many cooking phases, including everything from hating to cook to preparing large gourmet spreads. During my gourmet cooking phase, I experimented with dressing up the dressing. I was snobbish and thought cornbread dressing was just too plain and simple. As it turns out, being plain and simple is what makes it taste so good.   I'm over being snobbish about my food. I've come full circle back to the down home honest cooking that has fed my family for generations. I'm thankful to be back home and I won't be straying again.

Old-Fashioned Cornbread Dressing

I keep odds and ends piece of bread in the freezer for making croutons for dressing. After thawing out the bread, I cut it into cubes, drizzle over some oil and seasoning, toss well and bake at 350 degrees until it browns. I used up all the bread I had saved. For the life of me, I can't remember how I used it, but I hope the dish turned out well. As a substitute for homemade croutons, I like Pepperidge Farm Cubed Stuffing in either herb or sage and onion flavors. Instead of croutons, you can use biscuits or saltine crackers.

• 1 batch Egg Bread (Southern Buttermilk Cornbread) or use your favorite recipe
• 6 cups croutons (I used Pepperidge Farm Cubed Stuffing sage and onion flavor)
• 3 medium sweet onions, diced
• 2 cups celery, diced
• olive oil
• 2 tablespoons fresh sage, finely minced
• 2 quarts homemade chicken/turkey stock or good quality commercially prepared
• 1 to 2  teaspoons black pepper
• salt to taste

Tear cornbread into pieces.

Put the cornbread and croutons into large bowl. You'll need to find a bowl bigger than your head.  I have a 16-inch graniteware bowl that is perfect for making dressing.

Cook onions and celery in olive oil until tender. Add to bowl along with sage.

Add stock and stir well. Add one teaspoon of black pepper, stir and adjust as needed. I rarely need to add additional salt. Let dressing sit for 30 minutes to absorb all the liquid. Stir and pour into  greased baking pans.  I used two 8x8 aluminum pans instead of one 9x13 pan because I want to freeze the dressing for use at a later date. One 8x8 pan fits nicely inside a gallon freezer bag for storage.

Serve with Giblet Gravy.  

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Follow Jackie Garvin on her blog, Syrup and Biscuits.