Poultry seasoning
Also known as poultry spice, stuffing mix seasoning, sage and onion seasoning
Quick answer
Contains no poultry, and is not really for seasoning poultry. It is a stuffing blend — sage-led, bread-facing — and the name has misdirected people for a century.
In essentially every version: Dried sage, Dried thyme, Dried marjoram, Dried rosemary, Black pepper.
2distinct versions are recorded below. None of them is presented as the correct one, because there isn’t one.
What goes in it
The defining core first, then the versions. Roles are recorded so it is clear what each ingredient is doing.
| Ingredient | Role | How essential |
|---|---|---|
| SageThe defining component and usually the largest. A blend without sage is not poultry seasoning, whatever else it contains, and sage is also what makes the mixture taste unmistakably of Christmas or Thanksgiving to anyone who grew up with it. | base | defining |
| Thyme | primary aromatic | defining |
| Marjoram | supporting aromatic | usual |
| RosemarySmall. Rosemary is resinous enough to dominate at a few per cent, and a blend that reads as rosemary has lost the sage it is built on. | supporting aromatic | usual |
| Black pepper (ground) | supporting aromatic | usual |
| Nutmeg (ground)A trace, and the component that separates a good stuffing from a merely herbal one. It is the one warm spice in an otherwise entirely herbal blend. | supporting aromatic | optional |
| OnionCommon in American blends and the norm in British sage-and-onion mixes, where it is defining rather than optional. | savoury depth | optional |
The composition is settled around sage and thyme and varies mainly in what joins them. American blends tend to be purely herbal — sage, thyme, marjoram, rosemary, pepper, sometimes nutmeg — and to leave the onion to the cook. British sage and onion mixes carry dried onion as a defining component and often dried breadcrumb as well, which makes them a stuffing base rather than a seasoning. The two are sold under overlapping names and are not interchangeable by measure, because one of them is partly bread.
The versions
Each attributed, with how firm its proportions are stated plainly.
American herbal
commercial typicalCommon American commercial and household composition · proportions representative · medium confidence
Sage-led and entirely herbal, with nutmeg and pepper behind it.
| Ingredient | Parts | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Dried sage | 4 | 46% |
| Dried thyme | 2 | 23% |
| Dried marjoram | 1 | 12% |
| Dried rosemary | 0.5–1 | 9% |
| Black pepper | 0.5 | 6% |
| Nutmeg | 0.25–0.5 | 4% |
British sage and onion
regional traditionalCommon British household and commercial composition · proportions representative · medium confidence
Sage and dried onion in roughly equal measure. The commercial packet version also contains breadcrumb and is a stuffing mix rather than a seasoning.
| Ingredient | Parts | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Dried sage | 3 | 40% |
| Dried onion | 3 | 40% |
| Dried thyme | 1 | 13% |
| Black pepper | 0.5 | 7% |
Recorded without the breadcrumb, since a packet stuffing mix is a prepared food rather than a spice blend. If you are substituting a packet mix for this, remember that most of its weight is bread.
Using it
Stuffing above all — which is what it is for, whatever the name says — then roast chicken and turkey, sausage meat, gravy, and pork. It suits fat and bread rather than lean meat: sage is at its best cutting richness, and a lean chicken breast rubbed with it tastes dry and medicinal where a sausage seasoned with it tastes right.
Herbal, savoury and slightly camphorous, with sage well in front. Sage is a divisive herb and this blend does nothing to soften it — a dish seasoned with poultry seasoning tastes of sage, and that is either what was wanted or not.
None beyond a little warmth from the black pepper.
Scaling: Scales linearly, with rosemary held back as always. If you are scaling for a large stuffing, taste the raw mix rather than trusting the multiplication — sage strength varies considerably between jars, and it is the one component where being twice as strong as expected ruins the dish.
If you have none
Sage with Thyme
Excellent matchUse: 1× by volume — Two parts dried sage to one part dried thyme, at the same total volume. A pinch of grated nutmeg is worth adding and is what separates a good stuffing from a merely herbal one.
Very close. Poultry seasoning is sage and thyme with supporting herbs, and sage does so much of the work that the rest is refinement. Marjoram and rosemary round it out if you have them; without them the mixture is simpler rather than wrong.
| Flavour | Aroma | Colour | Heat |
|---|---|---|---|
| close | close | close | n/a |
Works for
- Stuffing, which is what the blend is actually for
- Roast chicken, turkey and pork
- Sausage meat and gravy
Does not work for
- Nothing meaningful, provided the sage is fresh — an old jar of dried sage is the usual reason a stuffing tastes of nothing
Cuisine: None. Sage and onion is the British form of the same idea and the two traditions converge here.
If a British recipe calls for a sage and onion stuffing packet rather than poultry seasoning, note that the packet is mostly breadcrumb: substituting this by volume leaves the stuffing far too strong and without any bulk.
Herbes de Provence with Sage
SituationalUse: 1× by volume — Like for like, with dried sage added if any is available. Both are dried herb blends of similar strength.
Shares thyme, marjoram and rosemary and lacks the sage that defines poultry seasoning. The result is a competent herb seasoning for a roast and does not taste of stuffing, because sage does most of that work. With sage added it is close; without it, it is a different dish.
| Flavour | Aroma | Colour | Heat |
|---|---|---|---|
| partial | partial | close | n/a |
Works for
- Roast chicken and vegetables
- Gravy and pan sauces
- Any case where a general herb blend is acceptable
Does not work for
- Stuffing, where sage is the identity rather than a component
- Anything where a lavender-containing blend would be wrong — the floral note is unwelcome with poultry fat
Cuisine: Moves a Thanksgiving or Christmas dish towards a Provencal one.
Italian seasoning works equally well by the same logic and with the same limitation. All three are thyme-and-marjoram mixtures differing in what they add, and sage is what this one adds.
Storage
Good for: 9–18 months (typically 12 months)
Cool, dark, dry and closed.
Stale poultry seasoning is a quality matter. Kept dry it does not become unsafe. The safety questions attached to stuffing are about the stuffing rather than the seasoning — they concern cooking it inside a bird, which is a food-handling matter and outside what this record covers.
Culture and origin
The United States and Britain in parallel, as a commercial version of the sage-and-onion stuffing seasoning that both traditions already used. The American name attached it to the bird and the British name attached it to the stuffing, which is the more accurate of the two.
The United States
A Thanksgiving fixture, and one of the few seasonings whose smell is tied to a specific day for a large number of people. It goes into the stuffing and, secondarily, onto the bird. Its name is the source of a perennial confusion: it is a blend for cooking poultry, not one made from it.
Britain
Sage and onion is the British form of the same idea, and it is bound to the Christmas roast and to pork in equal measure — sage and onion stuffing accompanies roast pork throughout the year, not only at Christmas. The packet version has been a supermarket fixture for decades.