The Traditional Thanksgiving Side That Has No Place On Ina Garten's Table

Who knew that a little torn bread and some vegetables could cause such a debate? When it comes to the bread-based side dish on Thanksgiving, Ina Garten serves bread pudding, not the traditional stuffing or dressing you're used to. However, anyone who has ever had dressing on Thanksgiving knows that it looks suspiciously like stuffing, and bread pudding looks like stuffing, too, so what gives? Once you understand the difference between each one, you'll see that they're a lot alike, which explains why people use the terms interchangeably.

Let's start with some simple definitions. First, it's good to keep in mind that all these dishes are made from bits of bread (unless you're working with rice stuffing). Stuffing gets its name from the act of stuffing the bread inside the carcass of the turkey. Dressing is like stuffing, but instead of cooking it inside the body of the bird, the Thanksgiving chef cooks it in a baking dish.

The dish that the Barefoot Contessa favors isn't the sweet British kind of dessert pudding that's made with raisins and nuts. Instead of softening the bread with just stock, she molds hers together a mixture of stock and custard, which usually consists of cream or milk and eggs, to add even more richness.

Garten has two savory bread pudding flavors she favors: an herb and apple and a mushroom and leek. Both are made with generous amounts of eggs and cream in the custard base, with the herb and apple calling for five eggs and two cups of cream and the mushroom and leek dish requiring four eggs and one-and-a-half cups of cream. 

She also adds some other ingredients to promote a more savory taste. She recommends using chicken stock in her recipes (homemade is best, if you have it), and she's also generous with flavor-enhancing ingredients like cooking sherry, unsalted butter and olive oil), and grated Gruyère cheese. Seasonings, such as rosemary leaves, tarragon, celery, and black pepper, also give the dishes more complexity.

Finally, despite having such a complex array of goodies inside each savory pudding, Garten still advocates doing things easy come Turkey Day. In keeping with her make-it-ahead stance for the big holidays, she whips up her stuffing in the days prior to Thanksgiving and other holiday dinner parties. This approach allows her (and her followers, if they're so inclined) to spend more time enjoying dinner with guests and less time in the kitchen once the dinner bell chimes.