What goes in the turkey????

Stuffing
Filling
Dressing

???

We use "stuffing" around here...

We use stuffing here also.

Stuffing is that white bread, stove top stuff.

DRESSING is made properly with corn bread and celery and other yummy stuff.

I've never heard it called "filling"....but I use both stuffing and dressing....

OK - I think that my family doesn't eat stuffing. We don't put anything in the bird. We eat dressing made with toasted bread, milk, eggs, celery, turkey drippings, giblets, etc. It's cooked in a pan separate from the turkey. Yummy!

When it is in the bird ...it is stuffing. When it is out of the bird ...it is dressing.

We use stuffing
Dressing is what you put on salad
and filling is what goes in pies

Dressing down here. No matter what you call it - do you make it with cornbread or white bread? And where are you in the country? My hypothesis (there's a good 7th grade science word!) is that Southerners use cornbread and Yankees use white bread.

Lestie - see my post above; I'm in full agreement with you!

Most West coasters I know use cornbread. Of course it usually comes from a box with the name "Mrs. Cubbisons" on it.

Add some chopped apples, a SMALL amount of raisins, and a package of pine nuts to the mix.

If you're feeling adventurous, you can try my recipe for orange blackened turkey. I don't have any exact measurements, but basically you take a small jar of orange marmalade and heat it up in a medium size cooking pot, then add a few cups of orange juice and some cornstarch (just enough to thicken it a little.)

Put the turkey in the oven like you normally do, but after the first 30 minutes, start basting the turkey with a generous amount of the orange mixture. Repeat this basting about every 20 to 30 minutes until the turkey is done.

The sugar in the orange marmalade and juice will usually turn almost black, so it looks like you've burnt the turkey. But the skin does not taste burnt, instead it is a bit carmelized, and the meat underneath is very, very moist!

My yankee brother-in-law makes an out of this world potato dressing.

Oh - don't put "stuffing" inside the bird! Too many chances for nasty bacteria to not get properly cooked. And it just adds mass to the bird and slows down the whole cooking process and makes the breast dry out. Fill the cavity instead with less dense aromatics, like onions, celery, herbs - or go the citrus route and put a couple of halved oranges and lemons.

Anyway, we've always done cornbread dressing. My mom's mom is from Missouri, so maybe that's where it comes from...? My uncle tried to do a sourdough and apple concoction once, and he was roundly shouted down. You don't mess with Thanksgiving! Make whatever you want at Christmas dinner, but don't fiddle with the bird!

My Mom makes dressing with bread not cornbread. We have never stuffed anything in the turkey.

Does anyone ever put oysters in their stuffing?

Poll results:
What do you call it?? (Total Votes: 37)
Stuffing
28 75%
Filling
1 02%
Dressing
8 21%

My grandma always put oysters in the stuffing. It's the only way I will eat oysters. Now when I make it, its oysters and made with white bread (I'm a former yankee) and it's moist and delicious.

I agree with YY2Say. If it is in the bird, it is stuffing. If it is outside the bird, it is dressing. Although, I make mine the same for stuffing and dressing.

I call it Yummy!! But now I call it all gone...

I'm from south Texas and my mom always made the "dressing" by frying up sausage, celery and onions and putting it over cornbread. After we moved north, she changed that to croutons. Does everthing get corrupted north of the Mason-Dixon?