Beyond Turkeydome

As we gear up for Turkey Day and the concomitant gorging, it’s time to explore everyone’s predilections. First up, that most timeless of battles:

Stuffing vs Potatoes: The Side-Starch Conflict

  • Stuffing
  • Potatoes
  • Both
  • Neither

0 voters

Vote away and be sure to pass the gravy!

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Mike has it 100% correct. There’s no reason to choose. Thanksgiving is not about being healthy. It’s about stuffing your face with food while in the company of the family you love (or other group of people you like or love or whatever).

But as an Idahoan, I’m a little miffed that people would choose stuffing over potatoes. In spite of what people try to tell you, potatoes are a very nutritious food. Just because most people only eat them as french fries or chips doesn’t make the potatoes themselves bad! Potatoes are filling, cheap to purchase, if you know how to store them (and you don’t get those wimpy Norkotah ones that are pretty but don’t store well at all; go for the Burbanks) they last quite a while, plus, they are great sources of Vitamin C, Vitamin B6, Potassium, fiber! And they are delicious and versatile to boot.

Take that, Crow and Tom! I’d like to see your precious stuffing manage all that!

(And yes, I like stuffing, too.)

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Wonder if we’ll graduate to the query about whether stuffing is better baked inside the bird or in a pan.

(I’m an outside proponent. My mom used to serve both.)

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I’ve never had it baked inside the bird, actually. In fact, I used to wonder why it was calling stuffing because it wasn’t stuffed in anything. :smiley:

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As for potatoes, as an adult I just mash them with the skins still on. I keep what’s basically an oversized hard-bristle toothbrush on hand to make sure that they’re nice and clean first. But the skin holds a lot of the good nutrients, I’m told.

(One combo I tried not long ago in a mash was cracked white pepper and Romano cheese. Delicious! But then I misplaced the recipe. I’ll have to try and work out the formula on my own next time.)

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We add cheese (and butter) to our mashed potatoes all the time. It’s delicious. For Thanksgiving, though, it’s plain mashed.

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My fam always cooked it inside the bird. I detest the taste of stuffing, but they’d always insist I try it, only I think they did that to hear what I’d come up with each year in response, “You want me to sample what’s in the cat’s box next?” or, “Can I just go outside and lick your encrusted snow tires instead?” or, “how about shaving uncle Fred’s back hair and serving me that?”

Laughter would ensue, and then I’d load up on the potatoes. Mountains of potatoes with rivers of gravy. Yum! (they always served mashed potatoes, which is fine, as I frequently do the baked in skins variety at home)

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Potatoes have the even-more-fabulous goodness waiting right on the heels of Thanksgiving. (11/28) I speak, of course of…

LATKES!! (My version has potato, carrot, parsnip, and leeks or red onion in lieu of the traditional white onion.) Accompaniments: Mom’s cran-applesauce and sour cream!!)

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Oo, I love latkes! And I’ll be making my own potato leek soup recipe soon. The secret ingredient? A bottle of fine beer, ideally a hefeweizen.

As for stuffing, we usually do the outside variety, but I’ve had the inside one too. I prefer that one made with oysters when possible. I’ve not yet had a very good cornbread stuffing, but I know it must exist. Maybe if it were moister, like spoonbread.

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An addition of green chili’s to the mash is really good. I discovered that when I left the Bronx.

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I’ve always been a stuffing guy—outside the bird, please—until my first Thanksgiving with the ex-in-laws, who served some weird variant that had slices of hard-boiled egg mixed in. They refused to believe that not everyone did it that way while I opted to go starch-free for the day.

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Stuffing instead of potatoes? Honey, I love you!

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I was pretty basic with my dinner needs - no fancy recipes, no unusual additions. I wanted the same thing every year. Turkey (white meat, with gravy), a ton o’ potatoes, buttered dinner rolls, a ton o’ fruit salad in whipped cream and that was it, I didn’t want the stuffing or the cranberries or the veggies (I might have a spoonful of green beans, but mostly I wanted stomach room for the other goodies, and the pumpkin pie at the end).

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Boiled eggs in stuffing? That is a new one to me. And it does not sound appetizing.

I think we probably all have at least one unusual variant food in our family traditions. When you say “banana sandwich” to most people, they take it to mean banana and peanut butter. But I grew up eating banana and mayonnaise sandwiches.

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You are correct: it was disgusting … and I like boiled eggs, but not in stuffing.

I’ve never cared for bananas. I think it’s a texture thing, though I’m led to believe that termites give the mashed ones a nice crunch factor.

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The side veg of choice in our family is rutabaga. We’re all quite mad for it and often would race for the last spoonful. It’s one of those vegetables, like leek or chard, that I love the smell of when it’s cooking.

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rutabaga, that’s like a turnip? I used to like raw turnips, sprinkled with salt, as a kid. Never had one cooked.

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I’m with you on bananas. Can’t stand them, especially the texture. Although banana chips are infinitely worse and they don’t have the texture.

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My mom did herbed stuffing. I didn’t try either the sausage or oyster versions until I was a grownup. But they’re both good.

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Raw root vegetables with a bit of salt? That’s good eatin’ right there. It was always kohlrabi when I was a kid.

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