Who’s making dressing/stuffing for Thanksgiving? My grandma and my mom after that always made the holiday meals. I never helped. I never watched. I didn’t have a clue how to make it. It took me a few years to get my dressing down but the year mom and dad were here for Christmas, dad said my dressing was the best he’d ever had. Talk about make me feel good!
I had once had a secret quilting buddy from New York. Her sister lived not too far from me in KY and one year at Thanksgiving, they came to visit and brought me some of what they call “Yankee Dressing”. It had white bread, sausage and I can’t remember what else. I loved it! I made it a couple of years, though mine wasn’t as good as what they made, but Vince and Chad didn’t like it so I quit making it.
What kind of dressing or stuffing do you make? For us, it will be cornbread dressing . . one dish without celery for Chad; one dish with lots of celery for us. Chad will eat his entire dish in one day and then he’ll eat what’s left of the dish with celery . . and complain about the celery the whole time.
When Chad was probably 2, he ate so much dressing at Thanksgiving at mom’s that we almost had to take him to the hospital with a belly ache. Same thing happened at Christmas. That boy loves cornbread dressing!
Connie says
Cornbread dressing. My Mom’s recipe, which came from a neighbor when we lived in Pascagoula. It’s always best at Mom’s where all of us taste and make tweeks to the seasoning. I won’t get to be there this year, though. Oh, and the celery is needed but is chopped fine and then cooked way down. Not a big fan of it.
Vicky says
For years I made Mom’s homemade dressing, and mine was every bit as good as hers. I really enjoyed the process of getting up early and boiling giblets, making the cornbread, using Mom’s old hand-cranked meat grinder. But the last few years I’ve been going over to Jane’s for Thanksgiving, and their dressing is awesome. Just give me dressing and cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving Day and I’ll call it good!!
Judi says
We always have sage dressing. I think cornbread stuffing is more of a southern thing. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Trish says
Cornbread dressing with LOTS of sage!
Leah S says
My sister makes the best stuffing (we use bread bits). She’s extremely creative with her additions. There’s been brussel sprouts, apple bits, craisins and all other kinds of veggies. Not all at once, of course. She also goes very heavy on the butter – probably why it’s so good!
Liz says
My mom was from Europe (Lativa) so she had to learn a whole bunch of American cooking. I remember that we would all get into cutting the onions, celery, white bread for the stuffing. There was lots of butter involved and the best hint my mom gave me with the spices was put in a lot and when you thought it tasted ok, add a couple more tablespoons since once we stuffed the turkey, the spices would be absorbed into the bird.
It always seem to work. We loved the stuffing… I have never made cornbread stuffing even though I live in OK. Always have to have the “northern’ style!
Janna says
I’m with Chad, I love cornbread dressing but I like mine with celery. I don’t make it here in Montana, no one likes it–so I made bread stuffing with sausage and apples.
Ruthie says
Mine has cornbread and bread, sausage, onions, celery, apples, dried cranberries, chicken broth
Pat T. says
Ours is always traditional with the dried bread pieces – all my own herbs from the garden (harvested & dried in late August) & our own onions. The stuffing I remember is my West Virginia Grammy’s. She always added fresh oysters!
swooze says
I make cornbread and bread dressing. All the remaining ingredients are the same. I use the big bags of crumbs. For each bag I use a stick of butter and an onion and cook it til the onion is soft. I add the crumbs and soak it with chicken broth and add lots of pepper. Then I put it in a casserole dish and bake it. Love it!
tami says
I don’t like onions or celery, so growing up I never ate dressing. Since I now make my own I have created a corn bread recipe with dried cranberries and chopped pecans. My family loves it and no one has mentioned the absence of the onions or celery.
Bon says
I like a “traditional” stuffing – right out of the bag/box and according to directions with celery, onion, butter, broth/water. Guess I’m not very creative though I have tried a few variations over the years. My son won’t eat it at all, and my hubby will only eat the day of and maybe one leftover meal and then it’s all MINE! 😉
Kelly Ann says
My mother always made oyster dressing growing up and I would get a small bowl of the raw dressing before she cooked up container big enough to feed the Washington Redskins, I would sit and eat my raw dressing while watching the Macy’s parade. I’ve tried all kinds of dressings…gotta say not my best dish I put on the table.
Julie in the Barn says
Dad loved oyster dressing so that’s what I had growing up. You won’t find any oysters in my dressing these days…just lots of butter, onions, celery, chopped up giblets, white bread, chix broth and plenty of sage. Served with a big helping of gravy, yummmm.
Bessie H. says
I have combinded my mother’s and my mother-in-law’s resipes, til it’s the way my family likes it. I myself don’t care for dressing. I use cornbread, white bread and soda crackers. For liquid I use the broth from cooking the giblets with a lot of butter added, three eggs, sauted onions, sage until I can smell it just right and my mother-in-laws special tip. Stir until your arm feels like it going to fall off and then stir some more.
Vicky says
The oyster discussion reminded me that Mom also made rice dressing at Thanksgiving. I’ve never made it, but I remember lots of onions, crumbled beef and oysters. I’ll have to ask my brother about that. Hmmm…..
Eve says
Cornbread dressing here—not stuffing, ‘cuz it doesn’t go in the bird. Dressing and giblet gravy and jellied cranberry sauce!! Who need dessert?? LOL!! Everyone else goes for cakes and pies, and I go back for more dressing, gravy and cranberry sauce. I KNOW what tastes yummy!! Eve
Sue Lord says
Cornbread dressing for this family. Lots of onions, no sage or celery. I use my Grandmothers recipe. However, mine is not as good as hers! Sue
peggy says
The tradition at my parents house was Mrs. Cubbisons’s for the base with lots of add ins. Never changed it. No one seems to notice it didn’t start from scratch.
Carol says
Our tradition is bread dressing with oysters — I’m a Yankee through and through! But two years ago I found this recipe for brown and wild rice dressing with dried sweet cherries, apricots and pecans. YUM!
Hazel says
I make a bread dressing with celery and onions. I loved my mothers cornbread dressing, but she is gone now. She gave me the recipe and I have tried a few times to make it and it tasted nothing like hers. I remember as a kid sneakiing into the raw dressing (no eggs) and snarfing it down. In later years she always saved me a small bowl of it to eat raw when I was running late and wasn’t there to help her start cooking! I miss her!! Happy Thanksgiving!
Freda Henderson says
Cornbread dressing with lots of chopped boiled eggs, onions and celery and bring on the sage. Awesome!
Mary-Kay says
I don’t know how to make dressing but I sure do love it. That’s my favourite part of a turkey dinner.
Evelyn says
Bread soaked in milk, onions, celery, apples, dried cranberries and sausage, chicken broth… yum!
Diane says
I could eat my weight (and that is a lot!) in my mother’s cornbread dressing! I can make a pretty good dressing, but it isn’t as good as hers. I don’t like crunchy celery or onions so my mom always cooked the vegetables in broth before mixing it all up. Now at Christmas and Thanksgiving, you can have everything on the table leave me the dressing and the cranberry sauce. I can’t wait for Thursday!!!!
Marilyn says
Oh! Dressing is my favorite part of the dinner. I have dried my own bread…but the family prefers Pepperidge Farms. I use both the cubes & crumbs. Lots of onion, celery, some garlic, tons of mushrooms. Lots of broth and BUTTER! Sage, thyme, oregano, salt and pepper. Stuff the bird and I make huge pans of extra. Best part of the meal! I often add sausage too. I’m drooling. I also make my cranberries with sugar, orange juice (not water) and orange zest. Green beans, mashed potatoes, baked yams with butter, green salad, creamed onions, some years I make homemade noodles with gravy for dh, rolls, plenty of condiments, pies, appetizers before dinner and some good wine to go with it all. I know I am forgetting something!
Marilyn
My DIL’s mom makes oyster dressing which I also love.
Pam in KC says
I think my recipe came from my dad’s mom by way of my mom. There may be a technical difference between dressing and stuffing, but we use the words interchangeably much the same way dinner and supper are used.
cornbread, white bread toasted (I have no idea why it toasted), celery, onion, eggs, salt & pepper to taste, butter enough broth from the gibblets to moisten and sage — lots of sage
We stuff our bird (I guess that’s the stuffing) and then put the rest in a pan (the dressing) to cook after the bird came out of the oven.
Linda says
I had no idea there were so many dressing recipes out there!!! I tried various recipes over the years and finally settled on Stovetop Stuffing doctored up with onion, celery, chicken broth & butter. Turns out better than anything else I did. My mom always served roast duck for holidays & dressing was made out of homemade bread, apples, raisins, eggs & a little sugar. DH didn’t like it at all so haven’t made it in about 38 yrs.
Anna McD says
I doctor up pepperidge farm cornbread dressing and make oyster cracker dressing. All of my kids love dressing…they are already talking about it 🙂
Carol C says
4 generations , the last of the family makes this:
one pan of cornbread
one can of CHEAP biscuits
cook, cool and tear into tiny pieces
chop up celery and onion
add to bowl
half a jar of sage spice
put on plastic gloves
pour in one can of chicken broth
begin to stir and mix
add another can of broth
form into balls, put in refrigerator and serve cold
slide up hot sweetpotatos near it
turkey
and pour giblet gravy that I do not make over the dressing
whatever else you like to the table
and chow down, makes enough that it lasts maybe 4 days
Sherry says
I used to make my own bread stuffing with bread, butter, onions,
and celery but since I do all the cooking myself it’s really hard to
get everything on the table at the same time. So for now, I’m a Stovetop girl.
Connie says
I saute onions and celery in butter, then add white bread torn into pieces, salt and pepper. This gets stuffed into the bird. Simple, but it’s my family’s tradition. I don’t actually like stuffing, but everyone else seems to, and I think it helps keep the turkey moist.
One year I tried a recipe for sausage dressing, and one year one with apples, but DH likes the traditional one.
Peggy says
I make dressing with any left over breads we have. I use poultry seasoning instead of just sage. If we fry the turkey I use canned chicken broth and butter. If I stuff the turkey with the dressing I make the dressing drier so the turkey juice can be absorbed. We like to grind or process some of the gizzard and a little liver to add to the dressing. Lots of celery and onions.
Kathy C says
Since I have lived in New Jersey, South Carolina and now Oregon my dressing has evolved as we moved.
It is now both cornbread and white bread together with sausage, apples, walnuts and dried cranberries with LOTS of sage, thyme, and flat-leaf parsley, onion, celery. And there is NEVER any leftover after the next day, so it must be good.
Some people here put oysters in their dressing but I would much rather have them raw with a squeeze of lemon and a shake of hot sauce.
cityquilter grace says
easy as pie, i mean Bell’s, in a red box, add mushrooms and whatever you like, yummmmm! on a sad note, our turkey got killed day before yesterday. my brother was raising it for thursday and he got out into the road and splat! he’s off to that big coop in the sky….my brother had to go buy one…not a happy camper…
Lisa says
I know I am late to this, but can’t help but post. My mom’s dressing is pretty unique – not for the ingredients but for the baking method.
We use a combination of cornbread and biscuits (crumbled) for the base. We use a little more cornbread than biscuit. We simmer sliced celery in broth and saute onions in butter. We mix the bread crumbs, melted butter, celery, onions, poultry seasoning and sage with enough broth to moisten. Salt and pepper to taste. Use lots of pepper!
Here’s the unusal part. Form the moist dressing into patties, as though you are making burgers. Put the dressing patties on a baking sheet and bake at 350 until the bottom of the patties is browned. Broil to brown the top.
The patties of dressing are crusty on all sides. They are pretty with the patties overlapping around the edge of the turkey platter.
Leftover can be eaten out of hand, like a cookie. 🙂