the.com/stuffing

The only food brave enough to spend the holiday inside another animal.

means A savory mixture of bread, herbs, and seasonings cooked either inside a bird or in a separate dish, especially at holiday meals.

from Plainly from the verb 'stuff' — itself from Old French 'estoffer' (to furnish, equip, or pad), possibly from a Germanic source. The verb meant to fill or cram something full, and the cooking sense follows naturally: the bread mixture is literally what you stuff into the cavity. The squeamish-Victorian preference for 'dressing' over 'stuffing' is a later genteel swap, but 'stuffing' is the older, blunter word.

name fight
Called dressing if cooked outside the bird
safety risk
In-bird stuffing can harbor undercooked-meat bacteria
ancient roots
Romans stuffed birds and fish two millennia ago
medieval term
Once called farce, from a Latin stuffing word
bread base
Stale bread works better than fresh
for instance

thanksgiving stuffing — american bread-based side dish served at 88% of us thanksgiving dinners

cornbread dressing — southern us variation using cornbread instead of wheat bread, particularly popular in louisiana and georgia

sage stuffing stove top — kraft's iconic boxed stuffing mix brand that captures about 70% of us instant stuffing market sales

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