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Why does stuffing vary so much from state to state?
In this video, we explore the history behind America’s stuffing traditions.
From regional styles to my personal stuffing story, here’s why no two stuffings are alike.
Discover why stuffing looks—and tastes—so different depending on where you live. In this cozy Thanksgiving special, we explore the surprising history of stuffed foods, how early American Thanksgiving menus were shaped, and the regional traditions that make everyone’s stuffing a little unique.
From colonial kitchens to modern family tables, stuffing has evolved into one of the most personal dishes on the holiday menu. I’ll also share my own stuffing story… and I’d love to hear yours.
What’s your stuffing tradition? What goes into YOUR perfect stuffing?
Share your story in the comments!
#thanksgiving
#stuffingrecipe
#stuffingstory
#holidaycooking
#foodhistory
#thanksgivingtraditions
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0:00
Hello everyone. I'm so excited.
0:03
Thanksgiving is coming and this is the
0:05
stuffing episode. I've been looking
0:07
forward to making this. So this week in
0:10
this video, I am talking about of course
0:13
a little bit of a history of stuffing
0:15
foods and then we're going to move
0:17
forward to how it came to be that we
0:21
serve the things that we do on our
0:23
traditional American Thanksgiving table.
0:25
Now, Canadians, I know you also
0:27
celebrate Thanksgiving in October, and
0:30
we will certainly get to you. So, I want
0:33
to talk about
0:35
stuffing stories. I have a stuffing
0:37
story. I really want to hear yours. This
0:39
is why I'm so excited. My mouth is
0:41
already watering.
0:44
Isn't this almost everybody's favorite
0:46
dish on the Thanksgiving table? So,
0:49
let's get get started. Let's get to the
0:52
the facts and the history and then we'll
0:54
get down to the deliciousness of our
0:56
personal stories.
1:09
Now, stuffing is older than
1:11
Thanksgiving. Far older. In fact, the
1:14
ancient Romans were already stuffing
1:16
birds, fish, mice, and even vegetables
1:19
with mixtures of herbs, spices, and
1:22
chopped organ meats. 2,000 years ago,
1:26
bread was not part of the picture. In
1:29
the early centuries, stuffing was more
1:31
about keeping the meat moist and adding
1:34
flavor from the inside out.
1:36
In medieval Europe, cooks began blending
1:40
meat with dried fruits and warming
1:42
spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. It was
1:46
an elegant dish that showed off a
1:48
household's access to imported
1:51
ingredients.
1:53
When European settlers came to North
1:55
America, the idea of stuffing came with
1:57
them. But the ingredients changed. Wheat
2:00
flour wasn't always available, but corn
2:03
was. Early American stuffing was often
2:06
made from cornbread, herbs, broth, and
2:09
sometimes oysters or chestnuts
2:12
influenced by both indigenous food ways
2:15
and regional abundance.
2:17
Stuffing became tied to Thanksgiving in
2:20
the mid 1800s when food writer Sarah
2:23
Joseph Hail promoted roast turkey with
2:26
bread stuffing as the ideal holiday
2:29
meal. Her influence helped shape the
2:31
traditional American Thanksgiving menu.
2:34
we recognize today. So, the dish we call
2:37
stuffing or dressing is a blend of
2:39
ancient technique, medieval flavor, and
2:42
American adaptation. And every family
2:45
carries a bit of that history to the
2:47
holiday table.
2:51
Now, stuffing isn't just a side dish.
2:53
It's a regional identity. Across the
2:56
United States, family families make
2:58
stuffing in very different ways. And
3:01
each style reflects the history,
3:03
agriculture, and immigrant influence of
3:06
that region.
3:08
New England bread and herbs are the way
3:11
to go. The stuffing is traditionally
3:15
made with white bread, butter, onions,
3:18
celery, and a lot of dried herbs,
3:21
especially sage and poultry seasoning.
3:24
This simple formula dates back to the
3:26
pilgrims and early English colonists who
3:29
used the ingredients they had easy
3:31
access to like bread scraps, garden
3:34
herbs, and local aromatics. It's
3:37
classic, straightforward, and deeply
3:39
connected to early American cooking. The
3:43
South cornbread stuffing. Now, here in
3:46
the American South, stuffing is almost
3:48
always cornbread based and often moist,
3:50
crumbly, and sometimes mixed with eggs
3:53
and broth to create a casserole texture.
3:57
Cornbread became the standard because
3:59
wheat was harder to grow in the humid
4:01
south, while corn thrived. Southern
4:04
cooks also had strong African and
4:07
indigenous influences that favored
4:09
cornmeal as a staple. This is why
4:12
cornbread dressing feels so comforting.
4:14
It's built from the crops and traditions
4:17
rooted in the region. Now over in the
4:20
Mid-Atlantic, oyster stuffing.
4:24
Now, especially Maryland and Virginia,
4:27
oyster stuffing is a long-standing
4:29
tradition. This goes back to the 18th
4:31
and 19th centuries when oysters were
4:33
plentiful, cheap, and common, a
4:36
workingclass food.
4:38
Chesapeake Bay communities added chopped
4:41
oysters to bread stuffing for extra
4:43
moisture and richness.
4:46
This version survives because it feels
4:48
historic, a true regional specialty.
4:51
Now in the Midwest, we've got white
4:54
bread, butter and everything in the pan.
4:58
Midwestern stuffing tends to be soft,
5:00
buttery, and casserole style made with
5:03
white sandwich bread. sometimes saltine
5:05
crackers and plenty of celery and
5:08
butter. This comes from the region's
5:10
agriculture and dairy roots, plentiful
5:13
wheat, affordable bread, and abundant
5:16
butter. It's the style most likely to
5:18
include whatever the family has,
5:21
mushrooms, sausage, apples, reflecting
5:24
the resourceful farm- centered cooking
5:26
of the Midwest.
5:29
Pennsylvania Dutch. Yes. Yes. Potato
5:33
stuffing.
5:34
In Pennsylvania Dutch country, stuffing
5:37
is made with potatoes and bread mixed
5:39
together. Why? German immigrants brought
5:42
strong potato traditions and potatoes
5:45
stored well all winter. Combining
5:48
potatoes and bread also stretched
5:50
ingredients for large families. A very
5:53
practical tradition that survived into
5:55
modern holiday tables. Now, let's go to
5:59
the west coast.
6:01
We will see in the Pacific Northwest
6:04
stuffings like sourdough with wild
6:05
herbs. Many families use sourdough bread
6:10
or artisan loaves with mushrooms, leaks,
6:13
hazelnuts, and wild herbs. This reflects
6:16
the region's strong artisan bread
6:18
culture and access to foraged foods,
6:21
especially mushrooms. It's a stuffing
6:24
that mirrors the landscape. Woodsy,
6:26
rustic, and seasonal.
6:29
Now, down in the southwest, chili and
6:32
cornbread variations can be found.
6:37
These stuffings are a mix of cornbread,
6:39
green chilies, cilantro, choro, roasted
6:44
peppers. This blend reflects the
6:46
region's Mexican and indigenous culinary
6:49
influences where corn and chilies are
6:52
functional ingredients. It adds heat,
6:56
color, and a depth of flavor unique to
6:58
the region. Over in Louisiana, you'll
7:01
find Cajun and Creole stuffing.
7:04
Louisiana's stuffing is often made with
7:06
rice instead of bread seasoned with a
7:09
Cajun holy trinity. Onion, celery, and
7:12
bell pepper, plus spices, sausage, even
7:15
seafood. The substitution exists because
7:19
rice was the dominant crop, not wheat.
7:22
And Creole cuisine traditionally relied
7:25
on rice-based dishes. This gives
7:27
stuffing a bold, savory profile you'll
7:30
rarely see elsewhere. So no matter what
7:33
your stuffing looks like on your holiday
7:35
table, it's shaped by the land, the
7:37
culture, and the people who came before
7:40
us. Every region tells its own story
7:43
through this one comforting dish. All
7:46
right, so this is my non-scripted part
7:48
where I'm going to start telling you my
7:50
stuffing story. But one thing I wanted
7:52
to say when I was talking about the
7:55
regional stuffings and the oyster
7:57
stuffing. Now, I've never had oyster
7:59
dressing, oyster stuffing.
8:02
I can't picture how it would taste, but
8:05
something I noticed when I started this
8:08
channel. It's was it's not now, but it
8:11
it was a lot of it was based on that
8:13
book from 1897,
8:15
the Boston Cooking School and cookbooks.
8:19
I'll probably state the obvious here.
8:21
Maybe you've never thought about it, but
8:22
they're generally based on what's
8:25
popular at the time that the cook who's
8:29
writing it enjoys and notices about
8:33
society. So maybe they're, you know,
8:36
vegetarian and that's kind of what they
8:38
focus on, but they're focusing on modern
8:40
vegetarian of this time. So the things
8:42
we're making now, of course, 100 years
8:44
from now, they're going to be vintage,
8:46
right? Anyway, in that cookbook, there
8:48
was a ve a large amount of oyster
8:51
recipes, and it really stood out to me
8:53
because we don't see that a lot in our
8:55
more modern cookbooks. And now I see
8:57
why. It's because they were plentiful
8:58
and they were very affordable uh in that
9:02
time period, which is what I referenced
9:04
in my uh script when I was talking about
9:07
the different regional types of
9:09
stuffing. If you make oyster stuffing,
9:12
I'm probably going to ask you about it
9:13
here in in a couple of minutes. So,
9:16
let's get to my stuffing story because I
9:18
have one. All right. So, I live in the
9:22
South. Um, if you're been around, you
9:26
know my father is Swedish. So, his kind
9:29
of take on Thanksgiving, he didn't
9:30
really have one. And
9:35
for a good part of my youth,
9:38
what I Well, let me preface this.
9:41
everyone in my orbit. Kind of like when
9:43
you think about, okay,
9:46
uh,
9:48
grandparents, in-laws, parents, sibling,
9:52
cousin, neighbor, friends giving, all of
9:55
that, everyone cooks well. So,
9:59
regardless of where I would go for
10:00
Thanksgiving, the meal would always be
10:02
good. There would be no dreading, you
10:03
know, the turkeyy's going to be dry, the
10:05
gravy's going to be lumpy, whatever else
10:06
people complained about, that would
10:08
never be a concern. So the food would
10:10
always be delicious wherever we went.
10:13
Now the suffing story is this. For many
10:17
Thanksgivings, one of us
10:22
that eats together pretty often would
10:24
make stuffing that had um the actual
10:28
stuffing was tasty. The flavor was good.
10:30
It was white bread, white sandwich bread
10:33
left out, you know, overnight and
10:36
the seasoning was perfect. It was kind
10:38
of velvety when you would eat it and it
10:41
was so tasty.
10:43
However, the ingredient that was put in
10:46
there that was kind of different and it
10:48
turned out to be unpleasant because only
10:50
the person that made it liked it. The
10:52
rest of us not so much. And it was
10:54
chestnuts. Now, the chestnuts were
10:56
prepared roasted.
10:59
And this could have been the problem.
11:01
But first of all, it added no flavor
11:05
and the texture was like a mealy
11:08
undercooked piece of bean and it was
11:10
chopped so small that there was no
11:12
eating around it
11:14
and it was so frustrating for many of us
11:16
because the actual stuffing was
11:18
delicious. The seasoning was perfect. Um
11:21
but the texture was unpleasant. So, one
11:24
year my mother comes to me and she's
11:29
like, "Honey, I'm going to make this
11:31
stuffing this year." I'm like, "Okay,
11:33
mom. Yes, mom. Okay, I'm down. I'm
11:37
down."
11:39
And I come to the kitchen and it's
11:41
Thanksgiving Day and she's starting to
11:43
make the stuffing to get ready for the
11:45
bird. And uh I saw she had a pan of
11:49
cornbread and I was like I'm already
11:51
sold cuz southern I love me some
11:54
cornbread and biscuits. Double southern
11:57
delicious, right? So the cornbread is
11:59
cut with this fluffy tender biscuit and
12:02
then it had all the traditional kind of
12:05
seasonings, at least how our family
12:07
makes it, which is, you know, throw two
12:09
sticks of butter in a pan, sauté up the
12:11
diced up celery and onion till tender,
12:14
throw in some sprigs of sage, and then
12:16
season with the poultry seasoning, toss
12:18
everything together, put the turkey
12:20
stock or chicken stock, or combo of both
12:22
over it. We we were not a egg house that
12:25
put egg over it, although I'm not
12:27
opposed to that. Anyway, so I tasted it
12:30
and she tasted it before we put it in
12:32
the bird just to kind of make sure it
12:34
had enough salt and all that.
12:36
It was very promising. I was so excited.
12:39
It was It was pretty good just like
12:41
that. All right. So then we sit down at
12:43
the table and there's a pan of the
12:46
dressing. It was made as dressing. And
12:48
then we always would stuff our bird as
12:50
our family would. And um I had some in
12:53
both and it oh god it was like the
12:55
stuffing angels came down and sang in my
12:58
ears it was all I wanted to eat. I
13:01
didn't want to eat anything else on that
13:02
table even though I love Thanksgiving
13:04
food. All of it. Cranberry sauce and
13:07
stuffing. I mean just give me all of it.
13:11
So that to this day is how I make my
13:15
stuffing now. I make it as dressing now
13:17
because let me tell you, I've done
13:19
enough. If you're new here, I was a
13:22
private chef for many years and I've
13:24
cooked many Thanksgivings for other
13:26
families, not just my own. Um, I tend to
13:30
do a spatchcock style. I just I break
13:32
the back, I take the kitchen shears, cut
13:35
out the spine, and cook it flat so
13:37
there's nowhere to stuff the actual
13:39
bird. But it cooks evenly. It cooks very
13:41
quickly. About an hour and a half, hour,
13:44
45 minutes. There's no rubbery bottom.
13:46
Now, you don't get that traditional um
13:50
bird presentation, but I don't really
13:52
care about that. I just want my food to
13:54
be delicious. So, I make that cornbread
13:58
biscuit dressing as
14:02
dressing. Okay. The casserole. Um
14:06
sometimes I'll do some mushrooms in with
14:08
it. I have done it with the bulk sage,
14:10
kind of like that breakfast sausage that
14:11
you crumble up. That's really good in
14:13
it, but it doesn't need it. I do like
14:15
the wild mushroom with the herbs though.
14:16
So that is my mouth is watering my
14:19
stuffing story. So I want to hear do you
14:22
have one and I'll tell you why. So at
14:25
Christmas I normally do some kind of
14:27
beef roast like a a prime rib roast or a
14:32
beef tenderloin and I'll make a stuffing
14:35
well a dressing with it because I don't
14:36
stuff the beef. And this year I want to
14:40
I don't want my Thanksgiving dressing.
14:42
So, I'd like to hear how your family
14:44
makes it. Also, say for instance, you
14:47
had it one way growing up. You got
14:49
married, you go to your in-laws, they
14:50
make it totally different and you like
14:52
it better. Like, I tell me and then tell
14:55
me what region you're in. I'd like to
14:56
kind of see if that influenced the type
14:59
of dressing or stuffing that you make.
15:02
So, back to the Christmas where I want
15:04
some ideas is
15:07
I could do the oyster stuffing. I kind
15:09
of had in mind I might I'm still
15:12
open-minded about this. I was thinking I
15:14
might do more like a savory bread
15:16
pudding with more of a custardy kind of
15:21
poured over my I was going to do bio
15:23
bread and then a custard over it with
15:26
caramelized shallots, fresh sage and
15:28
cranberries or dried cherries. Something
15:30
like mouth
15:33
stupid. My mouth is watering.
15:38
Um, I thought I might do something like
15:39
that. However, I'm open to trying oyster
15:41
dressing. I can try oyster dressing from
15:43
the cookbook if you're interested to
15:45
see. Um,
15:49
oh my gosh, what is the author's name?
15:51
I'll put it up on the screen. No, I
15:53
don't want to disrespect this woman for
15:55
her wonderful contribution to the
15:57
culinary community. But yeah, tell me
15:59
what kind of dressing you eat, what you
16:01
love. Is there something else unusual on
16:03
your Thanksgiving table that's a little
16:05
off the beaten path, but very specific
16:08
to your family that you have to have? I
16:10
mean, I have to have my my southern
16:13
dressing now. So, when I'm going to
16:15
someone else's house, I make a pan. I
16:16
take it with me. I try to be as
16:18
respectful as possible. I still eat
16:20
whatever they're preparing. I'm not a
16:22
particularly fussy eater. Um, but I
16:25
that's my one thing that I have to have
16:27
now is my cornbread biscuit dressing.
16:31
So, I would love to hear from you. Happy
16:35
Thanksgiving, everyone. And I'll talk to
16:37
you in the comments. I answer all my
16:39
comments. So,
16:41
let's get talking.
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