10 Things You Didn't Know About Stove Top Stuffing

While most of us associate stuffing with Thanksgiving, America's favorite prepared  stuffing brand, Stove Top, however, has turned this holiday treat into a quick and easy side dish any time of the year. This quick cooking stuffing mix's motto is "Stove Top Stuffing. It's not just for Thanksgiving anymore." You can have your stuffing fix in the fall, winter, spring, or summer if you so desire.

That's what the folks at Maryland-based Flying Dog Brewery think, anyway. Their website offers five beer and Stove Top pairings — K-9 Winter Ale with pork stuffing, Easy IPA with savory herbs, etc. Works for us.

The success of Stove Top stuffing has to do in large part with the size of the crumbs. Each crumb is approximately the size of a pencil eraser. It was found that if the breadcrumbs were too small, tthe mixture would get soggy and if they were too large, the texture would be too coarse.

At least that's what the Pilgrim at a modern-day holiday table in a 2013 Stove Top commercial says. "We are so thankful for this Thanksgiving dinner we are about to eat," he intones, "except the stuffing. I can tell from the smell that it's not Stove Top." The family, he says, has "let their incompetence ruin this precious holiday." Be forewarned, especially if you've invited a Pilgrim to your feast. 

Kraft Stuffing Mix scores an eight out of 10 on the Environmental Working Group's food score scale, with one being the best score. The score is a product rating which is based on "nutrition, ingredient, and processing concerns." Some of EWG's concerns are that the product is not certified organic, contains food additives, has ingredients with artificial trans-fat, and mixes BHA and BHT (chemicals that are on EWG's "Dirty Dozen Guide to Food Additives"). 

There's not just one Stove Top, anymore — there are eight kinds. Stuffing has eight different boxed varieties: low sodium, chicken, cornbread, pork, savory herb, traditional sage, turkey, and whole wheat. 

According to the U.S. Institute of Medicine, the stuffing mix may contain genetically engineered ingredients since there are corn and soy in it. Americans are left in the dark about this matter because there is no mandatory labeling law for GMOs.

Stove Top Stuffing was created by Ruth M. Siems, a home economist on the research and development staff at General Foods. Her name is listed first on United States Patent 3,870,803 for the product, followed by those of the other General Foods employees who contributed to the development of the product, Anthony Capossela Jr., John Halligan, and C. Robert Wyss. 

The stuffing mix may be a favorite side dish all year long, but it really shine around Thanksgiving. It  has been reported that Kraft Foods sells about 60 million boxes of the product each year.

One serving of the Kraft's Stove Top Stuffing mix contains about 29 percent of your recommended daily sodium intake. If you have seconds. that's more than half of the salt you should be eating in a day. We suggest taking just one serving and filling up on vegetables and lean protein instead.

It's a tribute to the qualities of this packaged product that there are recipes on the internet telling home cooks how to make their own version from scratch.