Food terminology v1. What is Casserole?

[amanset]

Amazing how concepts can be so different. I had no idea that Americans had such a weird idea of what a casserole is. Lasange? Shepherds Pie? It can be piled? Crikey.

[Brynda]

In my experience, the dishes Americans call casseroles (starch plus sauce and meat, and usually a veg or two, always cooked in the oven) are pretty uncommon in British cooking.

[Acsenray]

@WhyNot

A casserole is a dish cooked in the oven (although I grant there are “stovetop casseroles,” which mimic classic oven baked casseroles) with protein, pieces of a starch (usually noodles or rice) and a binder of some sort (often egg, cream and/or mayonnaise) in a **homogenous **mixture, which is served as an entree or side dish. Vegetables may or may not be present.

Baked macaroni and cheese, tuna noodle casserole and chicken rice casserole are all casseroles, while lasagne (not homogeneous), stew (no binder, cooked on stovetop), souffle (no starch) and quiche (not homogenous, no starch in the filling) are not.

@Chronos

I would say that a casserole is a more-or-less **homogenous **mix of ingredients baked in a shallow pan, and firm and dry enough to be piled on a plate. Beyond that, I wouldn’t stipulate much of anything about it.

@pulykamell

And it doesn’t have to be a **homogenous **mixture at all (see, again, layered casseroles.)

@pulykamell

Or, if you prefer your casseroles homogenous, you can chop up the cabbage finely and incorporate it with the other ingredients.

What are you all on about? The only way I can imagine a casserole being anywhere near “homogenous” was if you blended all the ingredients together in an electric blender. A medium with chunks of different things in it isn’t homogenous. Otherwise homogenized milk would be something very different from what we expect.

[Skald_the_Rhymer]

@TriPolar

A casserole is anything cooked in a casserole dish. I usually think of lame food at a church event.

So the no-bake cheesecake and fudge brownies I made last night for a thing at work today was a casserole? I mean, both were made in casserole dishes.

[Chronos]

Homogeneous in the sense that all of the ingredients are mixed together randomly, rather than being layered or otherwise organized. That’s a loose criterion, though, and I’m not actually entirely sure that lasagna isn’t a casserole.

[brad_d]

I didn’t grow up in Minnesota, so I only came to know the term hotdish a few years ago.

That wikipedia page I linked to considers hotdish to be a subset of casseroles. Reading the article, the sort of things they picture and describe match very closely to what I think of when I hear the term “casserole”. What I’d call tater tot casserole or green bean casserole are the basics of the genre, to me.

[pulykamell]

@Acsenray

What are you all on about? The only way I can imagine a casserole being anywhere near “homogenous” was if you blended all the ingredients together in an electric blender. A medium with chunks of different things in it isn’t homogenous. Otherwise homogenized milk would be something very different from what we expect.

I was using the term in the way I was assuming the other posters were using the term: to mean mixed together thoroughly. It’s not the way I would normally use the term, but it’s pretty clear what is meant. Honestly, I don’t think it’s confusing.

[WhyNot]

Yes, I used the term “homogeneous” a little loosely, but I didn’t think it was that mysterious.

Milk is homogenized when the cream is mixed in with the water and milk solids, instead of layered. Casseroles are “homogenous” in that the ingredients are mixed in with each other, instead of layered like a lasagne or layered like unhomogenized milk (although they do often have one top layer - breadcrumbs, cheese, crushed potato chips, etc.).

[devilsknew]

@Brynda

In my experience, the dishes Americans call casseroles (starch plus sauce and meat, and usually a veg or two, always cooked in the oven) are pretty uncommon in British cooking.

I don’t know. If one where adept, they could easily connect theBritish meat pie with the American casserole. Just another form of pie… when come backk…

[devilsknew]

@Brynda

In my experience, the dishes Americans call casseroles (starch plus sauce and meat, and usually a veg or two, always cooked in the oven) are pretty uncommon in British cooking.

I don’t know. If one were adept, they could easily connect the British meat pie with the American casserole. Just another form of pie… when come back…

[TriPolar]

@Skald_the_Rhymer

So the no-bake cheesecake and fudge brownies I made last night for a thing at work today was a casserole? I mean, both were made in casserole dishes.

Yes. Extra points if you were at a church event.

[Skald_the_Rhymer]

@TriPolar

Yes. Extra points if you were at a church event.

Zeus, but I hope you’re kidding.

[Oslo_Ostragoth]

Fifty-two posts, and no mention of Alton Brown?

Casseroles explained here:

DEB DUCHON: Well, despite its French genealogy, the concept of the one-dish meal was actually perfected by American cooks who were seeking to make ends meet through two World Wars and a nasty bout of depression. Then during the 1950’s and 60’s, home magazines told housewives that the casserole would “set them free,” especially if they relied on those space-age processed foods that were so heavily advertised in their pages.

[AB] After studying many recipes, the cook came to the conclusion that casseroles are either bound like broccoli or tuna casserole, layered like lasagna or moussaka, or scoop-able like bean or pot pie.

He further hypothesized that a casserole had to contain one to two main ingredients, some kind of starch, aromatics, seasonings, and a binder such as eggs and/or mayonnaise. The cook felt certain that he could improve the old recipes by using the contents of his freezer, fridge and pantry.