What is “sage dressing”? Apparently, Illinoisans like to eat it on Thanksgiving | Main stories

(NBC Chicago) — Stuffing: A staple Thanksgiving side dish that spans generations, states and tables across the United States.

But what about dressing up? More precisely – “sage dressing?” Apparently, the dish could be on your table in Illinois for Thanksgiving this year, according to a map released Wednesday Google Trends.

According to Google, the map highlights some of the most “unique” search terms by state. In Washington it’s “apple stuffing,” in Kentucky it’s “soul stuffing,” in North Dakota it’s “keto cauliflower stuffing,” and in Vermont and Illinois it’s “sage dressing.”

Yes, dressing. Sage dressing.

According to Dictionary.com, “stuffing and dressing are commonly used as different names for the same thing, a dish consisting of slices of bread.” However, they are not completely interchangeable.

“When it is prepared separately, some people insist that it be called a dressing rather than a stuffing,” the entry says. “Others insist on one of these names regardless of how it was made—a preference that varies by region.”

However, it is unclear to which region the Midwest and Northeast states belong.

According to the map, several other states also refer to “stuffing” as “dressing” — including “cornmeal dressing” in Minnesota, “cornbread dressing” in Oregon, New Mexico, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi and “French dressing” in Rhode Island.

One Serious Eats recipe with 27 reviews and an average rating of 4.5 stars is part of the age-old discussion via “A classic recipe for stuffing with sage and sausage (dressing)..”

“I’m not going to come down on either side of the whole topping vs. dressing debate, except to say that three authoritative sources give three different answers,” the post says, before quoting the Oxford English Dictionary , The Joy of Cooking , and The Food Lover’s Companion all essentially offer different definitions of the two.

Alternatively, one recipe for Sage Dressing from Food chain brushes off all controversy with a pointed stick of celery, revealing only the recipe and ingredients for the dish, which includes dense rustic white bread, leeks, eggs and, of course, sage, two ways, dry and fresh.

So what is it? Dressing or filling?

After all, Thanksgiving is all about the gravy.