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 fightCalled dressing if cooked outside the bird
safety riskIn-bird stuffing can harbor undercooked-meat bacteria
ancient rootsRomans stuffed birds and fish two millennia ago
medieval termOnce called farce, from a Latin stuffing word
bread baseStale bread works better than fresh