Stuff Or Not; That’s Still The Question

It just may be the most beloved - and controversial - dish to grace the Thanksgiving table.

People simply enjoy discussing stuffing, whether you’re from the apple-and-nut camp or on the side of sausage and herbs. There are converts to the crunchy kind, and devotees of tender pudding, not to mention the age-old name debate: Yankee “stuffing” vs. Dixie “dressing.”

But with food poisoning outbreaks making headlines every other week, the burning question on the mind of any safety-minded home chef these days is whether the stuffing should actually be stuffed inside the bird.

“I always have a big discussion with my mother this time of year,” says Jennifer Schiff Berg, who teaches a sanitation course at New York University’s department of nutrition and food studies. “We all grew up having our turkeys stuffed, but I wouldn’t do it today.”

Neither would most of the restaurants serving a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, she claims. Chefs have long been taught that stuffed birds pose a greater risk of salmonella, because bread soaks up raw juices from the meat and both must be cooked correctly to kill bacteria.

In the largest salmonella outbreak in 12 years, more than 700 senior citizens took ill - two fatally - earlier this month after eating a Maryland church supper of stuffed ham. The Centers for Disease Control sees 40,000 cases of salmonella poisoning a year, including 1,000 deaths, and reports are on the rise. Millions more go unreported.

Last year the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued an inflammatory warning urging “non-believers and traditionalists who still insist on stuffing the turkey (that) there is growing evidence against this practice.” The agency has since eased up and now focuses on providing tips for stuffing turkey safely.

“You can do what you want, but stuffing the turkey is a pretty strong American icon to have to erase,” says Rick Rodgers, spokesman for Perdue Farms and author of “50 Best Stuffings and Dressings” (Broadway Books).

Still, stuffing a turkey does prolong its cooking time. An anxious cook - and who isn’t on Thanksgiving? - might be tempted to bring the bird out too early, or, conversely, to bake and bake until the stuffing is done, overcooking the breast meat.

“You have to be a little Julia Child and a little General Patton at the same time - there’s a lot of planning,” says Rodgers.

Bessie Berry, manager of the USDA’s Meat and Poultry Hotline, answers thousands of to-stuff-or-notto-stuff questions each Thanksgiving. She’ll tell you how to do it, but cautions, “Certainly, it is safer not to stuff.”

Sure, you always stuffed the turkey without any problem, and so did your mother and grandmother before you. Berry’s heard that before.

“Mishandled foods caused illness then as they cause illness now and will cause illness in the future, if not handled correctly,” she says.

To safely stuff a turkey, the USDA offers the following tips:

Avoid pre-stuffed turkeys unless frozen at a USDA-inspected plant; follow manufacturer’s directions carefully.

Chop ingredients in advance, but do not stuff the turkey until Thanksgiving morning. Stuffing should be warm when it goes into the bird (cold stuffing prolongs cooking time), just before putting it into a preheated oven (at least 325 degrees).

Do not overstuff. Fill body and neck cavities loosely (1/2 to 3/4 cup stuffing per pound of turkey). Stuffing should be moist, not dry, since heat destroys bacteria more rapidly in a wet environment.

After following the 15-to-20-minutes-per-pound formula (stuffing adds 5 minutes per pound), remove turkey from oven and hold thermometer in place 5 minutes in two places: the innermost part of the thigh must reach 180 degrees, and the center of the stuffing, 165 degrees.

Never leave stuffing in the turkey; scoop it out and serve it in a separate dish.