A casserole is a one-pan baked dish: a starch, a filling of protein or vegetables, and a sauce that binds them. The word is French for the pan before it was the food, a diminutive of casse, from the Provençal for “saucepan,” and it took on its current meaning around the 1870s (Wikipedia). Every casserole makes the same four choices: the starch, the filling, the sauce, and what goes on top before it bakes.
Most of what goes in is already cooked. That’s the point. A casserole turns leftovers, or a batch base from the freezer, into a new dinner, and the bake is mostly about heating it through and browning the top. Done well, it’s better than the dishes it was made from: the sauce soaks into the starch, and the top crisps.
Why casseroles
- They stretch scarce food. A little meat, egg, or cheese goes a long way when it’s bulked out with cheap starch (pasta, rice, potatoes) and vegetables. Casseroles earned their place in hard times, when that was the only way to feed a family.
- They became convenience food. In the United States the one-dish meal took off in the 20th century, especially the 1950s, alongside new lightweight metal and glass bakeware (Wikipedia). Campbell’s had made condensed cream of mushroom soup since 1934 (Wikipedia), and canned soup did the sauce, and the casserole became the standard weeknight dinner, then fell out of fashion.
- They travel. A casserole freezes, carries, and reheats, so it’s what you bring to a potluck, a new neighbour, or a family that’s grieving.
- They’re back, from scratch. The modern casserole swaps the canned soup for a real sauce and borrows from everywhere: enchiladas, baked ziti, curry over rice.
A short history
Baking a starch with cheese or meat is much older than the word. The Liber de Coquina, from around 1300, has de lasanis: sheets of dough, boiled, then layered with cheese and spices (Wikipedia). Cassoulet, the bean and meat bake of southwestern France, is traditionally dated to 1355, though the word itself is from the 19th century (Wikipedia).
The classics that fit all four parts:
| Year | Casserole | What it was |
|---|---|---|
| 1769 | Baked macaroni and cheese | Elizabeth Raffald’s macaroni in thickened cream under Parmesan; Thomas Jefferson served “a pie called macaroni” in 1802 |
| 1791 | Cottage pie | Minced leftover roast under mashed potato (see Cottage pie casserole) |
| c. 1900 | Funeral potatoes | Potatoes in a cheesy cream sauce under buttered cornflakes, from Utah’s Mormon community |
| 1905 | Tetrazzini | Poultry and mushrooms in a sherry cream sauce over spaghetti, named for the opera singer Luisa Tetrazzini |
| 1911 | Tamale pie | Seasoned meat under a cornmeal crust, from the Southwest |
| 1934 | Cream of mushroom soup | Campbell’s condensed soup, the sauce in a can |
| 1950s | King Ranch chicken | Chicken and tortillas layered in canned soup and Ro-Tel, under cheese; Texas women’s clubs |
| 1952 | Tuna casserole | Canned tuna and egg noodles in mushroom soup, in a Campbell’s recipe book |
| 1953 | Johnny Marzetti | Macaroni, ground beef, and tomato under cheese; the earliest dated recipe, from Columbus, Ohio |
| 1955 | Green bean casserole | Dorcas Reilly’s green beans in mushroom soup under fried onions, at Campbell’s |
What isn’t a casserole here
Lasagne is baked in the same dish, but it’s composed layer by layer, with a filling built for it, so it’s a dish of its own (see Vegetarian lasagna). Composed dishes like it are a specific kind of bake, and they get their flavour from a more precise set of components, each one made for the dish. The casseroles here are assembled from what you have.
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