The Great Pecan Pronunciation Debate

The holiday table is the perfect breeding ground for some lively, occasionally explosive conversation and nothing gets a Southerner going more than the Great Pecan Pronunciation Debate. There has been so much debacle around the pronunciation of the little brown nut! The website americanpecan.com/pecandebate did their own survey and the results were telling. Out of 122,855 votes, 34.06% voted for the (nails on a chalkboard to my ears!) choice of “PEA-can” and the winner with 237,839 votes, 65.94% is “puh-CON.”

Wouldn’t it be great if pecan pronunciation was the main debate at your holiday table this year? Real Simple offered some conversation starters that are definitely worth passing along. Some of them include:

• If you could eat only three things for the rest of your life, what would they be?
• If you could be famous for something, what would it be?
• Who is the funniest person at the table and why?
• If you had a uniform you had to wear every day, what would it be?
• Which is your favorite month, and why?

Some of my own suggestions are:

• What is your favorite Christmas memory and why is it so special?
• Which holiday food do you pretend to like but really would prefer to skip?
• If you had to be on a long flight with only one person at this table, who would it be?
• Who has the best singing voice? Show us your talent.

More hotly debated topics are Supper vs. Dinner and Stuffing vs. Dressing. There are so many things to argue about; why not choose something that everyone can really sink their teeth into!

Supper vs. Dinner

I wrote an entire blog about this subject. Historically dinner is not necessarily linked to the time of day, but the size of the meal. That’s why over time this has become the phrase most people use to describe the evening meal. In some parts of the country, particularly those with strong agricultural roots, the word supper is still common.

Merriam-Webster defines supper as the evening meal, especially when dinner is midday. It can also be an evening social, especially for the sake of raising funds. For example, a “church supper” would fall under the category mentioned.

Dictionary.com defines supper as any light evening meal, while dinner is described as “the main meal of the day, eaten in the evening or midday.” Another definition for dinner is “a formal meal in honor of some person or occasion.” During the December holiday season, we traditionally call the feast “Christmas Dinner.”

There is no doubt that for many, “Sunday Supper” is still a time-honored tradition, for both the food, the memory and the weekly ritual. My girlfriend in Exira, Iowa has attended a family Sunday Supper for as long as I can remember. It generally includes home cooking and pot luck food items. The bottom line to this debate is there is no right or wrong, only preference of definition.

Stuffing vs. Dressing

Whether you prefer Turkey Cornbread Dressing or Giblet Stuffing, the ingredients are basically the same. Dried bread, herbs and spices, butter and broth with a variety of extras make up one of my favorite foods. The stuffing is generally placed inside the turkey and the dressing adorns the side of the plate. A look at Google says all you need to know. When researching recipes, dressing versus stuffing, the thedailymeal.com says the only non-Southern state to prefer “dressing recipe” over “stuffing recipe” is Indiana, with 52% of inquiries looking for the former. Ironically, my favorite box dressing is called Stove Top Stuffing! Indeed, such a confusing time for those of us with pronunciation and definition issues.

However you say it, I hope you enjoy eating it!

You may also like Demystifying the Holiday Dress Code. For more of Diane’s etiquette tips read her posts on Inc., subscribe to her articles on The Huffington Post, “like” The Protocol School of Texas on Facebook, and follow her on Pinterest,  Instagram and Twitter.