Stouffer’s comes in second.
There’s a part of me that wants to suggest recipes to save you from this nightmare, but your ignorance is your bliss and it comes from a readily available, cheap and easy to prepare cardboard box.
Truly, a conundrum.
In my 40 years, I have had many home made recipes. I have never found them comparable for one weirdly indulgent reason - salt. I think the salt content for better or worse is what drives me to the boxed stuff, especially now with the huge (and reasonable!) drive toward low sodium broth. I don’t know why, but boxed stuffing/dressing is my favorite food.
I think that’s totally fine, as much as some might want to turn this into a “Ketchup on Steak” kind of holy war.
I grew up on StoveTop and I do think it’s yummy.
My mother in law makes a stuffing that’s essentially potatoes, bread, onions, whatever other seasonings, and yes a good bit of salt. (I haven’t helped make it I admit, so I could be doing it a disservice to describe it that way)
She even cooks some of it inside the turkey and some of it outside, though it never really gets soggy.
As far as I’m concerned, you could throw out the entire rest of Thanksgiving dinner and just give me a big bowl of that.
You’re damn right that a lotta stuffings end up undersalted. And I’m not gonna tell you the boxed stuffing isn’t tasty. (My “nightmare” comment is totally hyperbolic and flippant, but we’re having fun here I hope)
But I have a friend who makes it with sausage and sage herbed brown butter and I’m confident it’s a box beater. Heck of a lot more work, though.
I’m with you. Maybe it’s because I’ve never had truly good homemade stuffing? It’s always a weird, damp, spongy mess. But that box of Stove Top, ready in minutes? I’ll eat the whole thing by myself. It’s also great to have an extra box to go with the leftovers, especially for the sandwiches.
You’d rather eat a stove top than homemade dressing?
The box ones are disgusting. Worst side, half is soaking wet and half is somehow dry and chewy but inedible.
The directions say to mix the hot water thoroughly throughout the dry mixture, cover, and remove from heat so the entire mix can absorb the water. Sounds like there was no mixing and the half that wasn’t in the water barely got any while the rest was sitting in the water meant for the entire package. Easy fix is to mix it before covering. Hopefully the next batch comes out to your satisfaction!
No way, man. My grandma’s stuffing was some of the best stuff I’ve ever eaten. She passed down the recipe to my mom, but my mom is gluten-free so she can’t taste-test it as she makes it, so it’s never quite the same. Yet, still way better than stovetop.
Cranberry sauce, though. I will always prefer the canned jello type stuff over homemade. Some homemade ones are great, sure, but that canned stuff is so good.
This is incredibly true.
Most of my family just does really dumb stuff with stuffing. Celery? Fucking gross, get that slimy wood out of my food. Putting it in the turkey? Far too soggy. I understand some people want to call it “dressing” instead of “stuffing” if it’s not “stuffed” into the bird, but I don’t care. If you want to get pedantic I’ll just say dressing > stuffing.
The worst is overseasoned stuffing. Under-sessoned stuffing can be saved by gravy. But I’ve had stuffing that’s way too salty, or just completely overwhelmed with black pepper.
The boxes stuff? Perfectly acceptable every time. A variety of flavors: traditional is great, but don’t be sleeping on cornbread either.
I’ve had some pretty good stuffing in restaurants. And I suspect it comes straight from the same factory as the boxed stuff too. I’m sure I could make a slightly better stuffing myself from scratch, but not significantly better enough to merit the increased cost, time, and kitchen resources.
