Dressing vs. stuffing: Where does Georgia side on this defining Thanksgiving question?

Forget politics. If you want to see Americans really go at each other over a topic, just ask them a seemingly simple question when Thanksgiving rolls around:

“Stuffing or dressing?”

Even the experts disagree on whether there’s a difference between the two, but for many it comes down to how they’re cooked and presented. Dressing is cooked and served outside of the turkey; stuffing is done the opposite way. As with most Americanisms, the term varies from region to region in the United States, regardless of how it’s prepared. One Thanksgiving gobbler’s stuffing may be another’s dressing. And vice versa.

The vast majority of the nation’s so-called “red states” (in the Midwest, mainly) flip to a brilliant blue — going all in on “stuffing” — on this issue, according to Google Trends, which tracks what people search for online. And, in a nod to past political convention, the Solid South rises again — mainly, to hold firm in the “dressing” column. Here in Georgia, a noted swing state politically, the choice is clear: 67% of folks search for “dressing” versus 33% for “stuffing.” Atlanta’s numbers are similar, with a dressing over stuffing advantage of 66-34.

Macon, about 70 miles south of Atlanta, has little love for stuffing, where the search term holds a measly 20% popularity rate. In Albany, clearly a big “D” dressing town, only 10% of rebellious souls seek information on stuffing. Sounds like the Stove Top grocery aisles there are lonely.

Most of the South is Team Dressing and Mississippi leads the pack; a whopping 87% of the populace there search for “dressing.” Then there’s Florida, ever the renegade, bucking its usual trend and going along with — wait for it — California and New York in favor of stuffing, which is the Google term of choice for 66% of those living on the peninsula.