Easy Oyster Dressing Recipe: Southern Thanksgiving Side Dish (2024)

FAQs

What is the difference between stuffing and dressing in the South? ›

"Stuffing is cooked in the cavity of the turkey, so the juices soak into the ingredients, making it more flavorful. Dressing gets cooked on its own and needs extra liquid to make it flavorful." So stuffing is cooked inside the bird. Dressing is cooked outside the bird, usually in a casserole dish.

Dressing: Dressing typically includes ingredients like cornbread, white bread, or biscuits, mixed with vegetables, herbs, spices, and sometimes sausage or other meats. It is often moistened with broth or stock and baked in a casserole dish until it forms a crust on top.

While oysters aren't commonly associated with a Thanksgiving feast, they actually played a larger role in the origination of the holiday than you'd think. The mollusks were likely feature prominently on the tables of early American settlers, unlike a turkey.

Mignonette is a classic sauce for serving with oysters. A classic, proper one is made with just red wine vinegar and eschalots (called shallots in the US). No messing around with oil, no sugar, no salt. It's meant to be clear and pink and pure, not sweet, oily and brown.

If you like raw oysters on the half shell, go for the sweet Vidalia vinegar sauce with pink peppercorns and a hint of sweet sparkling wine. Oysters roasted in the oven or over a live fire are insanely good with garlic butter hot sauce or creamy jalapeno remoulade.

But for the Thanksgiving side dish in the South, the term dressing was adopted in place of stuffing, which was viewed as a crude term, during the Victorian era. Although dressing and stuffing are interchangeable terms, the signature ingredient of this Thanksgiving side dish in the South is cornbread.

In Western culture, there are three basic types of salad dressing: Vinaigrette; Creamy dressings, usually based on mayonnaise or fermented milk products, such as yogurt, sour cream (crème fraîche, smetana), buttermilk; Cooked dressings, which resemble creamy dressings, but are usually thickened by adding egg yolks and ...

This is down to a science: A 2015 survey conducted on behalf of the poultry company Butterball revealed that, regardless of how the dish was cooked, most of the country—including 100 percent of New Englanders—refers to the side as stuffing, while Southerners are devoted dressing fans.

The stuffing mixture may be cooked separately and served as a side dish, in which case it may still be called 'stuffing', or in some regions, such as the Southern US, 'dressing'. This is from Wiki. Basically, everyone except a tiny percentage of Black people with family in Alabama calls it stuffing.

There is an inaccurate myth that has been spread around over the years stating oysters are only safe to eat during months containing an "R". September- April is the range; these months encompass the colder times of the year; therefore, oysters will be safe to eat raw during the winter season.

What are 3 foods that are eaten on Thanksgiving? ›

Millions of people across the United States will sit down to a traditional Thanksgiving meal, including turkey, potatoes, squash, corn, and cranberries.

When are oysters in season? In the northern hemisphere, the old rule that native oysters should only be eaten when there's an 'r' in the month still holds true; so eat oysters from September to April. During the summer months they're busy spawning, and their flesh becomes unpleasantly soft and milky.

Enjoying some seafood with co*cktail sauce is acceptable and even encouraged, but oysters have a flavor that stands on its own. Stick to just a drop of lemon juice and let the flavors of the oyster speak for themselves.

Taste before you sauce.

Don't put any seasonings or sauce on the first oyster on the plate, getting familiar with the taste. Grip with your index finger and thumb on each side and use your oyster fork to separate the meat from the shell. Bring it to your mouth and tip the oyster shell into your mouth to eat.