So what is wrong with Stove-Top?

[Gumbo4x4]

I saw recently on "Best Thing I Ever Ate" a nice restaurant had Stove Top stuffing as part of a sandwich. When the new owners tried to replace it with homemade stuffing, the patrons complained

 

[aprilchem]

If you don't use stovetop, do you buy the bags of croutons and make it yourself that way or do you buy whole bread, dry it , cube it and do it that way? Ther are different levels of homemade. No matter which method, I always add celery, onions, and often, apples and raisins.

No, I bake the bread, then cube and dry it. I use chicken stock that I make myself.

 

[RadioNate]

So what is wrong with all the stuff you call garbage? I admit I don't get the whole no processed food thing. My family lives on processed food. I told my husband that people were saying they didn't like stove top because of the additives. He laughed and said "That's what makes it taste good".

Seriously? What's wrong with that stuff? I mean aside from being terrible to put in your body, lack of nutritional value & full of chemicals?

 

[nighttowll]

If you don't use stovetop, do you buy the bags of croutons and make it yourself that way or do you buy whole bread, dry it , cube it and do it that way?

Ther are different levels of homemade. No matter which method, I always add celery, onions, and often, apples and raisins.

Cornbread, with just a little white bread mixed in. A few pieces of regular white bread, or many people where I live use dinner rolls or a mixture of white bread / dinner rolls. But the main thing is lots and lots of corn bread.

 

[Hrhpd]

This is me exactly. I don't like things in my stuffing. I've heard people put sausage and giant onions (blecch) and things that really don't need to be there.

Having been raised on Stove-Top, it is REAL to me. All of the other ones I've tasted are just too fussy.

One could turn your question around and ask "What is wrong with home made or traditional stuffing/dressing?

Just as you are turning your nose up at unprocessed stuffing, many others turn their nose up at boxed processed stuffing.

It is all a matter of taste. What you prefer is the right one for you.

Happy Thanksgiving.

 

[Wendy31]

Yep, it has loads of garbage. Most processed foods do.
It has HFCS (which will be GMO corn so you get your residual glyphosate).
Hydrolyzed Soy and Corn Protein (again GMO) and hydrolyzed means it acts as MSG.
Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) in case you didn't get enough from the hydrolyzed soy.
Caramel Color - carcinogen.
Natural Flavor which if you get down to it is really nowhere near 'natural' due to the amount of chemistry that goes into creating 'natural' flavors.

So loads of things wrong with eating Stove Top.

Good grief! I just read this to my DH, & he just threw away the box we had in our pantry! LOL!

Like I said previously, we sometimes would fix some Stove Top as a quick side for a weeknight meal. However, it's been a while since we do try to limit processed foods.

At any rate, MSG can give me a killer migraine! I had no idea MSG was in Stove Top, & DH & I are both normally pretty good about checking labels.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I actually do a lot better when we are eating more whole foods & less processed anything - and it probably has a lot to do w/ additives that will act like MSG (like the hydrolyzed soy).

And I'll just stick w/ our "from scratch" cornbread dressing today!

 

[CaliBear]

I prefer Mrs. Cubbinson's brand boxed stuffing. I also like Ocean Spray canned cranberry sauce.

 

[Kimberlyann11]

Really, if stove-top and instant mashed potatoes are what your family likes, serve them and be happy. I don't think you need to justify yourself to a random internet board.

My mom always made the stuffing in the bird. She cut the bread up and toasted it in the oven. yum. It came out soft and juicy - but she hated it. It didn't last at all and was the first of the leftovers to disappear. Well a few years ago she made it outside the turkey and it turned out hard. I guess you could call it "carmelized" I call it "like a bunch of little rocks". She thought it was wonderful. Everyone else, guests included, pushed it around their plates and I don't think anyone else took seconds.

 

[luvmy3]

If you don't use stovetop, do you buy the bags of croutons and make it yourself that way or do you buy whole bread, dry it , cube it and do it that way?

Ther are different levels of homemade. No matter which method, I always add celery, onions, and often, apples and raisins.

That is what I use, and I add mushrooms, celery and onion. It is just as processed as stove top but I don't care, this is how we like it. Of course I'm not a zealot about only putting natural things into my body so sometimes processed works for us. If I was, I'm sure I'd have nothing good to say about stove top, or pepperidge farms stuffing mix, etc.

 

[bookgirl]

If you don't use stovetop, do you buy the bags of croutons and make it yourself that way or do you buy whole bread, dry it , cube it and do it that way?

Ther are different levels of homemade. No matter which method, I always add celery, onions, and often, apples and raisins.

we bake cornbread the day before.

Then crumbled corn bread, turkey drippins, chicken broth, poulty seasoning, sage, onions and celery (sometimes sautéed sometimes not), egg, s&p.

Pretty basic but people just rave about it.

 

[Disneyland1084]

I love Stove Top, but on Thanksgiving every year I make stuffing from scratch.

 

[mjkacmom]

My family eats a pretty non-fussy Thanksgiving dinner (doctored up Pepperidge Farm stuffing with real onions and celery), but I don't think I could do stovetop. That would be like serving Kraft mac and cheese instead of baked mac and cheese.

Although one year, I was almost lynched by my relatives. Instead of the usual sweetpotato/marshmallows (made with frozen sweet potatoes), I made a fresh sweet potato/carrot puree. "Where's the marshmallows?!" You would think it was dog food. The Silver Palate cookbook was not appreciated by my family.

 

[deedeetoo]

Seriously? What's wrong with that stuff? I mean aside from being terrible to put in your body, lack of nutritional value & full of chemicals?

Everything is a chemical. Somtimes we give names to chemicals like salt and sugar. Sometimes chemicals are combined into more complex compounds so we call them things like flour and meat. There is nothing inherently wrong with chemicals. As for for lack of nutritional value, that is true of most flavorings for example spices and vanilla. None of that makes these ingredients bad.

 

[nighttowll]

we bake cornbread the day before.

Then crumbled corn bread, turkey drippins, chicken broth, poulty seasoning, sage, onions and celery (sometimes sautéed sometimes not), egg, s&p.

Pretty basic but people just rave about it.

Yumm!! You are making me hungry. This is my kind of stuffing.

 

[disneychrista]

Stove Top is the best part of the meal

 

[Lita]

If you don't use stovetop, do you buy the bags of croutons and make it yourself that way or do you buy whole bread, dry it , cube it and do it that way? Ther are different levels of homemade. No matter which method, I always add celery, onions, and often, apples and raisins.

We eat cornbread dressing. I make cornbread from scratch a few days prior. I make the dressing the night before, refrigerate then bake on a thanksgiving day.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

We don't mind Stove top stuffing if I'm in a rush. My DS18 loves it. I've added stuff to it like sliced mushrooms, celery and onions to jazz it up sometimes.

That being said I'm using Pepperidge Farm herb stuffing mix at Thanksgiving this year and baking it in the oven along with a few extra things in it. We all like that too. So this year it will be called dressing. LOL

Normally I put it in the turkey and we call it stuffing but I'm just doing turkey breast this year to make things easier on me.

 

[oneprincessjo]

I use it anytime of the year except Thanksgiving and Christmas. I do like it, but during the holidays I make everything from scratch, just because we like homemade better. Homemade is a lot of work, but I think I prefer it for the holidays because it reminds me of when I was a kid and now I have my own daughter, she's 2, and she had a lot of fun ripping up the bread with me like I did with my mom when I was a kid. Like I said I will use stove top stuffing and instant mashed potatoes the rest of the year without thinking twice about it.

 

[ellone]

Everything is a chemical. Somtimes we give names to chemicals like salt and sugar. Sometimes chemicals are combined into more complex compounds so we call them things like flour and meat. There is nothing inherently wrong with chemicals. As for for lack of nutritional value, that is true of most flavorings for example spices and vanilla. None of that makes these ingredients bad.

Except none of these 'food' chemicals have had any long term health studies on humans. All a food manufacturer has to say is that a chemical is similar to another already used in food (without any proof btw) and the FDA rubber stamps it for human consumption. Heck the FDA doesn't even have a list of all the chemicals used in processed foods (there's probably about 2000 or so).

 

[Maggie7313]

I say more power to those who like Stovetop. Embrace the simplicity!

I just slid my family's traditional stuffing into the oven. I'm exhausted, my kitchen looks like a hurricane blew through, and that is the only thing I have to make. I loved my great-grandmother but I've spent the better part of the week on the various components of this recipe - French bread, cornbread, double-strength chicken stock, sausage - all homemade - and I wish my family would eat the stuff in a box.