Because it's the same stuff. ;)

Call it dressing if you'd prefer.

We call it dressing around here. Never have "stuffed the bird".

Filling?

dcarch

Many serve it baked in a pan, because there was never enough in the bird for all to have all they wanted, so we bake the rest in a pan....but it's not nearly as good as what's in the bird and has soaked up the drippings.

You can call it dressing or stuffing but it's still that mixture of bread herbs and vegetables that was meant to stuff the bird.
Back in the "olden days" when you "dressed a bird" you removed the feet and feathers, gutted it stuffed it and tied the legs and wings and essential got it ready for the oven.
They say that southerners use the term dressing more often and those in the north say stuffing....even when it's cooked in a pan not the bird.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dressing the turkey

Thanks Jude.. and Linda

for the likes of me, I could not come up with the term dressing. Sometimes, my second language, English just doesn't come up with the correct term.

Moni

Habit. No matter how we make/serve it, we tend to call it stuffing. And if you buy the bread cubes - it's called stuffing mix.

As I understand it, if you cook it in the bird, it's stuffing. If you cook it in a pan or casserole dish, its dressing. However, I use my Mom's stuffing recipe (which she stuffed in the bird. The DH won't let me stuff the turkey so I cook it in a casserole dish, technically making the same stuff dressing. I still call it stuffing!

Call it what you will, its all good!

once you swallow it is stuffing.

Our local term is "filling." There is bread filling (the real reason I make a turkey) and potato filling, the Pennsylvania Dutch favorite.

I make my "stuffing" in muffin tins. LOL. I have never stuffed a bird. Heard too many horror stories about it not getting completely cooked and people getting sick. My Mom use to stuff the bird when I was very young than later switched to putting it in a pan and baking it. But we still called it stuffing and I still do.
Clare

I like "stuffin' muffins"...lots of nice crispy outside on each one.

We also call it filling. It's that PA Dutch influence sneaking in. However, I also say stuffing. The term dressing makes me think of the whole process of getting the bird ready -- like dressing it for its big occasion.

Maybe we use the terms filling and stuffing because we feel filled and stuffed when we eat it. I think my son could skip the entire rest of the meal and just eat filling and gravy.

We make some in a pan and some inside the bird, then mix them together. I like when I get one of those crunchy bits from the stuffing baked outside the bird.

Bread casserole side dish??

"Bread casserole side dish??" wins IMO.

When I was a kid it was always put into the bird as stuffing and then some extra was made in a separate dish because there's never enough. Then around the late 1970s or 1980s people started to worry about completely cooking it - apparently for a few hundred years it never occurred to anyone that the stuffing might be dangerous but that's when they started taking all the slides and teeter totters out of parks and playgrounds and the gestalt of the period was to panic about possibilities.

I've never known anyone to get sick from undercooked stuffing and as far as I'm concerned, it's a theoretical issue rather than a real issue, but I may be entirely wrong and I'm willing to be corrected if anyone knows of instances first hand and not thru reports. In Britain and Europe they've been stuffing meats for centuries and maybe people were dying off - who would know?

Anyhow, I don't put it in the bird because it takes longer to cook the thing that way. However, I've stuffed pork roasts and lamb roasts and beef roasts and fish.

In Britain it's called "forcemeat".

We always called it 'dressing' and always stuffed the bird and made extra for a separate dish. The dressing cooked in the bird is always the tastiest by a mile.

The PA Dutch influence in my family is oyster stuffing.

Hmm...in the US forcemeat is ground or chopped meat of some sort mixed with crumbs, chopped veggies and spices...very related to sausage. Sort of a classy meatloaf mixture..LOL!

Forcemeat started off as a sausage-like mixture, but the name has migrated over to non-meat based stuffings as well.
Haven't I heard of a US use of "filling"? Specifically I seem to recall a "potato filling" recipe for stuffing turkeys.

Colleen, we call it stuffing. I have to agree with Lindac that forcemeat is meat although traditionally we use a sage and onion stuffing in the body of the bird and one based on sausage meat and chestnuts under the skin.

Colleen, we call it stuffing. I have to agree with Lindac that forcemeat is meat although traditionally we use a sage and onion stuffing in the body of the bird and one based on sausage meat and chestnuts under the skin.

Colleen, see my post above.

Because it'd be bad manners to call it butt bread

(on what tv show did I hear that? Hm. It showed someone with a spoon putting in/taking out stuffing from the bird--LF and I just roared with laughter!)

I much prefer the flavor of the dressing that is stuffed in the bird. The drippings make it yummy. I stuff the neck cavity and the interior. I do bake the left over dressing in a casserole, but it is never as good. I even put sausage balls over the top of the casserole.

I prefer dressing/stuffing cooked in a casserole and not stuffed into the bird. I make broth/stock using the carcass and I find that it is almost impossible to get every little bit of stuffing out of the cavity and it ends up making the stock/broth cloudy.

I don't dislike dressing/stuffing that is cooked in turkey, but it isn't my favourite. Just personal preference.

I was watching Michael Symon on the Chew today, preparing his Thanksgiving Turkey. His advice was to never stuff the turkey because the stuffing draws moisture out of the turkey making for a dry bird.

~Ann

My stuffing wouldn't draw moisture out of the bird....but rather adds some'
I learned that a dry stuffing makes for a dry turkey....a moist stuffing mmeans a moist bird.
We have it both ways....for
those who like a dryer stuffing there will be a pan in the oven.

I've never had a dry stuffing that was cooked inside a turkey. Although I have had a few that were way to "wet" rather than just moist.

So although I don't know if his theory is accurate, that bread pulls the moisture out of the bird into the stuffing, it does make me wonder if that is why some have a problem cooking the perfect turkey.

I always stuff my bird. The stuffing is moist but not wet and ,if I do say so myself , my turkey is always perfect by our standard. For sure the dressing I cook along side the bird is a bit drier but not significantly. My preference is the stuffing in the bird....but I'll eat it any way. I love my stuffing/dressing!

The only thing that is important is to not over cook the darn thing, or heaven forbid undertook it! Buy a good thermometer and use it!

Well, the turkey was delish... I always love turkey, no matter the time of year.

But there was no stuffing/dressing. My daughter and her husband don't care for it.

We had a really nice dinner, and the kiddos were delighted with the amount of side dishes. It was the first TG they will remember I think.

Allison is 3 now, or as she says, 3 1/2, and Nathan is two.

Moni

Lindac hit the nail on the head.

I am so old that I remember when there
was no such thing as the term 'dressing',
it was ALWAYS called stuffing.

I'm still alive, so, go figure.