Stuffing, filling, dressing, oh my!
So many responses on my post back in March about whether it’s stuffing, filling or dressing.
Bill Landes says, “Filling, Filling, Filling … any Dutchman worth his weight calls it this.”
And, I even got a letter in the mail about this topic! Connie Sheely-Good from York writes: “It’s filling because it fills you. And stuffing if you use the stuffing mixes, but that fills one as well. As for dressing, who’d want to do that to a turkey, but my midwest friends insist and no one other than us locals use the word filling – but what could possibly be more appropriate!”
She says her family makes filling separately as well as inside the bird. (Our family does, too. In fact, we’ve given up on filling the bird and just make a casserole dish full of the whatever-you-call-it.)
Connie was nice enough to share her recipe, too. “Any bread, not the bagged, cubed dry stuff. In large frying pan, melt 1/4 lb. butter, gently simmer diced onion and celery leaves till opaque. Add the bread and mix through. Lower heat. In one-cup measure, beat an egg. Now add milk and beat. Add quickly to bread mixture, coating thoroughly. Now plop it all into a 1 1/2-quart casserole, put a little broth or milk on it, cover or not, into the oven at 350-ish and heat through.”
She has a serving suggestion I’ve never heard of – what do you think? She says, “Now you may serve, or – we chill it. Then remove and cut into bite-size pieces and use as an appetizer … a little spicy mustard to dip. Trust me! It’ll disappear before you can get filled up!”
Well, that’s an awesome new idea – and that’s two votes for filling. I originally did a stuffing vs. filling poll, but I left out dressing, and it got kind of skewed because of that. (Though we did get 106 votes, and stuffing won, 65 percent to 35 percent for filling.) Anyway, due to popular demand – er, argument – I decided to do another poll. Cast your vote carefully; this one’s “for the record!”
