Aug. 31, 2010 - Issue #776: The Gaslight Anthem

Provenance

The history of stuffing

Filling foods with other foods is as old as history itself. Splitting meat, coring fruit or scooping out potatoes to replace with other foodstuffs could all be considered "stuffing." In the most commonly understood sense of the word, however, the earliest documentation is in the Roman cookbook, Apicius' De Re Coquinaria which contains recipes for stuffed chicken, rabbit and pig. Most of the stuffings described consist of vegetables, herbs, spices and nuts—not so dissimilar to some of our own turkey stuffing recipes.
Stuffing in the Middle Ages was known as "farce" from the Latin farcire and French word farcir meaning to stuff. A farce originally was a short, comical play stuffed in at intermissions between lengthy dramatic productions to keep the audience from being bored.
The term stuffing first appeared in England but after 1880 the term didn't appeal to the Victorian upper crust, who referred to it as "dressing." The terms stuffing and dressing are now used interchangeably, with stuffing being preferred in the Southern and Eastern portions of the United States, as well as the Canadian Prairies.
In North America, stuffing chickens, turkeys and other fowl seemed natural due to the deep cavities. Writings of early New England pilgrims talk of stuffing and cooking a large variety of birds. There is no historical evidence that stuffing was served at the first Thanksgiving, but the tradition is longstanding.
Turkey stuffing usually consists of celery, onion, salt, pepper, bread crumbs, and poultry seasoning. Other popular ingredients are oysters and sausage.
An interesting side note to stuffing is that, when cooked inside the turkey, it draws both moisture and flavour away from the meat. The next time you cook a turkey, insert your potatoes, carrots, turnip or preferred vegetables in place of stuffing, which you can prepare outside the bird. The difference is staggering. V
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