The riddle
What Age Is Used in Turkey Stuffing?
From The Handbook of Conundrums, 1915
Adding the s
Put an s in front of age and the word becomes sage, the herb. The question asks for an age and the answer hands over the age with one letter added. Edith B. Ordway printed it in 1915, in The Handbook of Conundrums, as "What age is used in turkey stuffing?" with the answer "(S)age." J. Gilchrist Lawson reprinted it in 1924.
The herb
Wikipedia describes common sage, Salvia officinalis, as a perennial evergreen subshrub with woody stems and grayish leaves, native to the Mediterranean region. Wiktionary lists the dried leaves as a cooking herb and says any plant in the genus Salvia may be called a sage. The gray-green of the leaves gave the color sage its name.
Two words that look the same
Sage the herb and sage the wise person are different words. Wiktionary traces the wise sage to Latin sapere, to taste or to be wise, and the herb through French to Latin salvia. They share a spelling and nothing else. Wiktionary records the noun for a man of profound wisdom from about 1300. A riddle that reads "sage" for either meaning is playing on a coincidence that no one planned.
The next riddle in the book
The Handbook of Conundrums prints another age riddle just below this one: "What age do a number of people enjoy in common?" with the answer "Village." Both answers end in the letters age, and each question asks for an age. For a holiday-table riddle with a different kind of answer, try what is the best key to a good dinner.