If you don’t spend a lot of time reading food blogs and recipes, then you may not know the difference between stuffing and dressing. When it comes down to it, stuffing and dressing are the same things, but when the recipe is cooked inside a bird or a roast, it’s called stuffing and when it’s served as a side dish, the recipe is called “dressing.” There are some exceptions to this rule, though.

The maple apple sausage stuffing recipe below is not stuffed in a roast or a bird. It’s definitely a side dish that pairs well with main courses and sides, like soup, gumbo, and potatoes or a garden salad. If you do make this maple apple sausage stuffing with salad, then you definitely don’t want to call it dressing. That could get really confusing.

The key to this sweet-tasting recipe is the meat. We suggest using Jimmy Dean® Premium Pork Maple Sausage. It’s a sweet and savory-flavored sausage made with a unique blend of Jimmy Dean® signature spices. This sausage was selected specifically because of how well it pairs with the other stuffing ingredients, include tart and subtly sweet Granny Smith green apples and cranberries, which are tart like green apples. These ingredients, along with eggs, celery and onions, come together to form a deliciously unique stuffing — and dressing.