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In the American South, it is called dressing, not stuffing, and it is made with cornbread. The distinction is partly about where it is cooked: dressing is baked in its own dish rather than inside the bird, which gives it a golden, crisp top and a soft, custardy center.

Cornbread itself comes from the long tradition of corn cooking that Native peoples shared with early settlers, and it became the everyday bread of the South. Crumbled and baked with sage, onion, celery and stock, it turns into a side dish that, in many Southern families, is more anticipated than the turkey.

Taste the South

For a Southern food trip, start with our guide to Charleston and our New Orleans food scene Q&A, and plan a stay in New Orleans. For more Southern cooking, see our Southern chefs’ game-day recipes.

Use day-old cornbread

Bake the cornbread a day or two ahead and let it dry out so it soaks up the stock without turning mushy. Use an unsweetened, Southern-style cornbread, made with buttermilk and baked in a hot skillet.

Ingredients

Serves 10 to 12.

• 1 batch unsweetened skillet cornbread (about 8 cups crumbled), dried for a day
• 4 slices day-old white bread, torn
• 8 tbsp (115 g) unsalted butter
• 1 large onion and 4 celery stalks, diced
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh sage, or 1 1/2 tsp dried
• 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
• 3 to 4 cups (720 to 950 ml) rich chicken or turkey stock
• 3 large eggs, beaten
• Salt and plenty of black pepper

Method

1. Crumble. Heat the oven to 375°F and butter a 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Crumble the cornbread and white bread into a large bowl.
2. Cook the vegetables. Melt 6 tablespoons of the butter and cook the onion and celery for 10 minutes until soft. Add the sage and thyme for a minute.
3. Moisten. Add the vegetables to the bread, then pour in 3 cups of stock and the eggs. Mix gently; it should look very moist, almost soupy. Add more stock if needed. Season well.
4. Bake. Spread in the dish, dot with the remaining butter and bake for 45 to 55 minutes, until golden and crisp on top and just set in the center.

How to serve it

Hot, with turkey, gravy and cranberry sauce. Leftovers fried in butter the next morning, with an egg on top, are a tradition of their own.

What to pour

The Thanksgiving wines work well here: Pinot Noir, a dry Riesling or a fruity Zinfandel.

Make a menu of it

Serve with our roast turkey and cranberry sauce. Sweet potato pie is tomorrow, and every recipe is At the Table.

Photo: Alabama Extension, Wikimedia Commons, CC0