To think that this is not stuffing

[Snoff]

I picked up a load of Christmassy bits from the reduced section at Co-Op, to join the selection of indulgent leftovers destined for tonight's dinner. Among them was a ready-to-bake foil tray of 'Pork, Cranberry and Chestnut stuffing' from the fancy range (this thing). I thought it looked a bit un-stuffingy when I put it in the oven, but was not prepared for it to come out looking like I'd just baked a block of mince whole. It hissed and oozed fat when cut. I then belatedly read the ingredients and learned it's 65% pork (!) while breadcrumbs do not feature on the ingredients list at all. I thought perhaps it was really meant to be actually used to stuff a turkey, but there are no instructions for doing that - you're supposed to just bake it and eat it. Which no one did in this house because it tasted like a shit sausage.

AIBU?
YABU: this concoction that is 65% pork and 0% breadcrumb that that is not meant to be stuffed into anything is stuffing
YANBU: this is not stuffing, it is just a huge, weird, slab-shaped sausage

...also feel free to post about any festive supermarket food you bought that was weird/nasty/not what you expected.

You are right, but as an insatiable yellow-sticker vulture, this is a lesson I'll never really learn

Yeah, that looks like stuffing to me.

I used to just use paxo stuffing, which I think is sage and breadcrumbs and probably the kind of thing you are thinking of?

But a few years back after having sausage stuffing I mostly make that now. It is basically like a kind of meatloaf and is delicious. That’s what the thing you bought looks like.

It’s sausage-meat stuffing.

Is this really your first time encountering sausage based stuffing? It isn’t new.

Sausage meat stuffing. The best kind. Not all stuffing is sage and onion flavoured breadcrumbs (thank fuck).

The first word is pork & it looks like sausage meat. I’m not sure what else you expected.

I have encountered birds stuffed with sausagemeat. But I'd never consider sausagemeat stuffing unless it's stuffed. Do you really eat this stuff on it's own? Not as a little cross section in a slice of turkey, but just a quivering, oily chunk?

I would have been much, much happier with something made from a bag of sage flavoured dust.

From the meat content, being sold in a block in an oven-ready tray, and the serving suggestion in the photo I’d have assumed that it was more of an accompaniment stuffing than a stuffing stuffing. It’s just preference really, many people don’t actually stuff the turkey or chicken but serve it on the side in the same way as sausages / pigs in blankets.

It’s basically another side dish, in that format.

Yes. It’s a side to a roast, you cut a piece and eat it with the rest of your roast (meats, potatoes, veg) and it’s delicious.

But the same can be said of the sage and onion type stuffing?

I know it’s semantics really, but if it’s not stuffed in an animal it’s not really “stuffing” is it?

I always found it a bit odd to just get a slice of sage and breadcrumb “stuffing” that wasn’t actually stuffed in a bird.

Likewise, the sausage stuffing is delicious but again, if it’s just a slice, it slightly irks me that it’s called “stuffing”. It’s more or less just meatloaf.

Either way, I much prefer sausage stuffing, although do like both.

Sausages in any shape or form have NO place on a roast dinner in my world - yuk!!

Then the best option would have been to purchase exactly that.

Not enjoying the quality of a particular product is fair enough, but you seem quite perplexed that something very ordinary, that’s labelled clearly, is not something entirely different.

Do you really eat this stuff on its own? Not as a little cross section in a slice of turkey, but just a quivering, oily chunk?

Well no - you slice it into slim serving slices as the photo shows, then cut a small bite from your serving on your plate to add to a forkful of something else on the plate.

In which case, you really need to buy a box of paxo. I bet there were some in the shop.

if you want dusty sage and onion breadcrumbs, you don’t want the fresh section.

Yes, that is also what I assumed. And we are both correct, it is meant as an accompaniment. I wasn't struggling with that part.

Is this your first time doing Christmas dinner? Yes that’s sausage meat stuffing.

I want to agree with you as the only person who isn't heaping me with scorn, but you are also wrong. What about pigs in blankets?

Nope - hate them too!!

That's real stuffing. Not the horrid sawdust type concoction. Paxo is to stuffing, what Bisto is to gravy.

Its stuffing and looks fantastic. I will be on the look out for that now

I keep christmas fancy stuffings in the freezer and eat them throughout the year, you cant get them for the rest of the year. The cranberry ones are my favourite.