"stuffing" news and stories

What southerners refer to as dressing, northerners call stuffing. Oyster stuffing is typically linked back to the chowda' capital of New England, but the variation has made its way onto tables from sea to shining sea. In this variation, chopped oysters and bourbon add some extra moisture (and holiday spirit) to turkey's best supporting actor.

Get the recipe to this classic along with many others after the jump.

Each Thursday, we round up a selection of scrumptious links from our friends over at YumSugar. Here's what they've got cooking this week:

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And then there's the stuffing v. dressing debate. Do you stuff the bird? Do you dress it? What is the right way to handle that popular Thanksgiving side?

Whether you call it filling, dressing, or stuffing (and whether you know that, to some, there is a distinction between each); whether you make it from sourdough, cornbread, or white bread (or spelt if you're sensitive to wheat or are Ancient Roman); whether you embellish it with chestnuts, oysters, cranberries or chorizo; no Thanksgiving table is complete without stuffing.

It plumps up in the roasting turkey's cavity and then cozies up to the finished product on your plate -- and both benefit, as your taste buds do (though your waistline doesn't), from a generous dousing of gravy. Like meatloaf, there are as many recipes for it as there are cooks to prepare it, and, also like meatloaf, nearly every cook thinks theirs is definitive. To its fans, the reason we call it stuffing is not the technical definition -- a working understanding of which could be "any food that fills, at least theoretically, a cavity in another food" -- but the obvious fact that you "stuff" it into "your face."

This recipe, it's the one I've always loved. Nothing comes close to the delicious simplicity of sausage and bread stuffing, and this one has become a favorite of family and friends. I'll include the recipe as-is, and offer a list of suggestions on how to twist it below.

Bread stuffing for a 5 lb bird:
Note: This is all a matter of taste. You can go for the exact amount that matches your bird's weight, or make by sight -- preparing the bread first makes it easier to determine.

Ingredients:

1 lb First Prize Sausage -- pick any good and flavorful sausage
1/2 cup minced onions
1/2 cup minced celery
1/4 cup minced parsley
10 slices of bread cubed
1 1/2 tsp Bell's seasoning
1 beaten egg

• Saute sausage until crispy, drain, then rinse with water. (I usually leave out the rinse.)
• Saute the onions and celery, then mix with the sausage and add Bell's.
• Mix together the parsley and bread, add the saute mix, then the egg.
• Squeeze and mix the stuffing with your hands until it sticks together. If it looks too dry, add some broth or water.
• Cover and refrigerate until ready to stuff turkey.

Now, to spice things up:

• add a variety of mushrooms to the mix
• use a mix of sausages -- Mennonite, elk, etc.
• use a gourmet bread and approximate the same amount