What makes casserole, casserole and what makes stew, stew?

[RPCookin]

I have a 13"x9" casserole dish. We use it for cakes, brownies, lasagna and casseroles/hotdishes. I wouldn't call the cakes, brownies or lasagna casseroles.

Hmm, my 9"x13" pans are still called cake pans, even though they are used more for hotdishes in our house (we try to keep the desserts to a minimum because we are both too maxi sized as it is).

 

[Kayelle]

I have a 13"x9" casserole dish. We use it for cakes, brownies, lasagna and casseroles/hotdishes. I wouldn't call the cakes, brownies or lasagna casseroles.

Like most of us Andy, we do the same. The difference is you wouldn't use it on top of the stove. All of my casserole dishes are breakable and designed for only the oven. Sure, there's always the exception of cast iron or Corning Ware.

 

[taxlady]

Not everything has to be a casserole or a stew.

 

[Cheryl J]

The problem with this discussion is that when you have an eclectic membership, the variety of what can be called "casseroles" is endless. I'd call a chicken pot pie a casserole. Others would call it a stew. I've seen stew's with potatoes and dumplings that made for a prominently featured starch, yet they are still stews - or sometimes not even stew, but soup.

Even the term "casserole" is relatively new for me. When I was growing up, they were always "hotdishes", and a casserole was the vehicle that a hotdish was baked in.

And then there's deep dish pizza... what the heck is that???

Just to put my 2 cents in..... I agree with RP's statement above....it's regional and semantics. When RP was growing up, they were called 'hotdishes' in the area he grew up in.....on the other hand, I had never heard that term until a few years ago when I started reading cooking forums. I grew up with the term 'casserole'. It's all the same, IMVHO.

To me, a casserole is multiple main dish ingredients baked in the oven in a 'casserole' vessel. It can be lasagna, mac and cheese, etc., and still be a casserole. It's just that lasagna and mac and cheese have names. We don't normally say 'lasagna casserole' or 'mac and cheese casserole', even though they're baked in a casserole dish.

For example, if I were to deconstruct a lasagna and use egg noodles instead of lasagna noodles, and mix everything up together instead of layering it, then bake it in a casserole dish, I'd call it a pasta casserole. It wouldn't be lasagna anymore. I bake enchiladas in a casserole dish, and they are just enchiladas...

This has been a fun thread to read! I've enjoyed reading about our versions of casseroles and stews.

 

[taxlady]

Around here a lasagna casserole isn't the same thing as lasagna. It's made with layers of short pasta instead of lasagna noodles. It is usually layered exactly like lasagna.

 

[Kayelle]

We could always get into "stove top casseroles".......

Shades of "Hamburger Helper'.......nahh I'm done.

For those across the pond...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburger_Helper

 

[Cooking Goddess]

In the end, does it matter what it's called as long as it's called "delicious" when eaten? And, for the record, I've always made stews and pot roasts on the stove top and have never scorched a piece of food. YMMV.*

*Your Mileage May Vary

I'd call a chicken pot pie a pie...

But can it rightfully be called a "pie" if there is no bottom crust?

 

[Wyshiepoo]

Goodness Cooking Godess, of course it's a pie with no bottom crust.

I've even made 'pies' where the crust wasn't a crust at all but was instead topped with several sheets of buttered, scrunched up filo pastry.

And us Brits also do a Steak and Kidney Pudding which is in fact a steamed pie.

Not that I wish to confuse matters..........


BBC - Food - Recipes : Steak and kidney pudding

 

[CWS4322]

I'd call a chicken pot pie a pie.

"Hotdish" is a regional name for a casserole. Which is the name of both the vessel and its contents.

I'd call it a chicken pot pie a savoury pie. Regional = MN, WI, ND, maybe part of northern IA and maybe a corner of SD, depends on the ethnic background of the people who settled in the area. I don't recall that any of the vessels were called hotdishes, just the contents, when I lived in MN. There was also a cultural/social difference re: hotdish and casserole. A hotdish was s/thing you served to family but a casserole was s/thing you could serve to company because it had more expensive ingredients and was more "elegant." Wish I could afford to go back to university and get funding to research this and write a thesis on it! For example, that standby of noodles, cream of XX soup, peas, celery, a can of tuna, S&P is a hotdish, topped, of course, with crushed potato chips, cooked in the oven at around 350 for about 35-40 minutes and that is tuna hotdish. I don't know when we would've called it a casserole. But, when we would take wild rice, ham/shrimp/chicken, broccoli, cream of mushroom soup or a white sauce, add some mushrooms, celery, onion, frozen peas, put it all together and bake it in the oven for about 45 minutes at 350 in a dish that could be brought to the table, (and served to company or brought to a church supper or other potluck functions) that would be wild rice casserole. Note: no potato chips to make a crust.

A stew was something that had to cook low and slow, didn't include pasta (instead it would have potatoes, carrots, rutabaga, turnips--fall/winter veggies) or was made in the pressure cooker or started on the stove and finished in the oven. The meat (usually beef) came from the front of the animal--a bit tougher, needed the longer cooking time. FWIW--Kebab meat comes from the back end--not as muscular and can be cooked at higher temps and faster.

 

[Andy M.]

...For example, that standby of noodles, cream of XX soup, peas, celery, a can of tuna, S&P is a hotdish, topped, of course, with crushed potato chips, cooked in the oven at around 350 for about 35-40 minutes and that is tuna hotdish. I don't know when we would've called it a casserole...

We call this "Tuna Noodle Casserole". Regional difference.

 

[RPCookin]

There are so many one pan or pot hot dishes (not "hotdishes) that are cooked in such a mix of methods that taking a name and trying to nail it down to any range of food types is nearly impossible.

I think that it suffices to say that we generally know what we are talking about in 99% of the cases, whether or not we agree fully on the terminology.

 

[jennyema]

For example, that standby of noodles, cream of XX soup, peas, celery, a can of tuna, S&P is a hotdish, topped, of course, with crushed potato chips, cooked in the oven at around 350 for about 35-40 minutes and that is tuna hotdish. .

Growing up in Minneapolis, my family called this a casserole, not a hotdish.

I also had never heard of the term "hotdish" until recently, despite living my childhood in Minnesota, North Dakota and Iowa.

 

[Aunt Bea]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzyI_Hh8ufI

 

[CWS4322]

We call this "Tuna Noodle Casserole". Regional difference.

Call it what you like, in MN that is tuna hotdish. Or tuna hotdish casserole...MN tater tot hotdish casserole. I guess for those who didn't grow up knowing the difference between a hotdish and a casserole, the Internet now has to add "casserole" to a recipe for a hotdish.

 

[Kayelle]

Oh good grief!! WHY is it so important CWS?

 

[Caslon]

There are so many one pan or pot hot dishes (not "hotdishes) that are cooked in such a mix of methods that taking a name and trying to nail it down to any range of food types is nearly impossible.

I think that it suffices to say that we generally know what we are talking about in 99% of the cases, whether or not we agree fully on the terminology.

I oven cooked some dry rubbed chuck roast with vegetables in a covered casserole dish. It was like beef stew when I broke apart the meat and chunked up the vegetables.

Casserole stew.

 

[CWS4322]

Oh good grief!! WHY is it so important CWS?

It isn't important, because words are one of my favorite things--instead of asking why the sky was blue, I was one of those children who wanted to know why grandma said K-nife instead of knife. I loved words with the letter 'q' (btw, in one of my linguistic courses, people shared the letter they fell in love with as a child--q, x, z, k, p, and w were the letters). It is one of those linguistic quirks that I find so very interesting because my MA is in linguistics and dialects were one of the areas I found fascinating to study. I love talking about words. I thought perhaps there were others who would find it fun.


The word is reflective of the immigrants who settled in the area. Where I come from, and where I now live, the word gravy isn't used for the sauce one puts on pasta. For those who live in areas settled by Italian immigrants, gravy is to them what sauce is to those of us living elsewhere and who grew up in communities made up of immigrants from other areas. Another one is bars vs. squares. In New England, there are a lot more verisions for chowder than you'd find in Nebraska. Not a lot variations for chili in MN, but head on down to TX! Church cookbooks and Jr. League cookbooks are a great source of these regional differences.

Language is reflective of culture and "hotdish" is reflective of the tradition of barn raisings, meals that could be stretched to feed a large family, neighbours stopping by if they haven't seen habitual activity at your house for three days (this happens when I'm in MN and my dad is out of town and not walking his dog--the neighbor usually comes by to find out if s/thing has happened to my dad because I'm the one walking the dog). Hotdish is a regional word reflective of the Scandinavian immigrants who settled in the areas mentioned. I just find it an interesting "food" word. Not important, just a regional linguistic anomaly. My grandmother's handwritten cookbook has hotdish recipes--pre-dates when casserole entered the English language in the '50s. She lived almost all of her life 18 miles south of the US-Canada border. In a region settled by Norwegians and Swedes.

You were born in MN, didn't you eat hotdishes before you moved to CA, Kayelle?

 

[Addie]

I am like you CWS. I too love words. Living in a city of immigrants, I hear pronouncements of the English language and some times you can't even recognize the word they are trying to say. They bring with them the words for food that they used in their country. If I were to say a "sauce for pasta", they would look at me and not have one inkling of what I was referring to. I figure it is their food and if they want to call it gravy, then gravy it is. For those who live here in this region. If I moved to another part of the country, then it would become Pasta Sauce.

 

[CWS4322]

Call it what you like, in MN that is tuna hotdish. Or tuna hotdish casserole...MN tater tot hotdish casserole. I guess for those who didn't grow up knowing the difference between a hotdish and a casserole, the Internet now has to add "casserole" to a recipe for a hotdish.

When I talked to my dad the other night, he was making tuna FISH hotdish for supper. Noodles, a can of tuna, a can of cream of xx soup (chicken/mushroom/celery--whatever was on sale), chopped celery, onion, frozen peas. Cook the noodles, sauté the celery and onion in a bit of butter and oil, mix the tuna, soup, frozen peas, onion and celery together. Add some milk or water or--gosh be adventuresome--the tuna "juice" if more liquid is needed. Dump everything in a Corning ware dish, sprinkle with crushed potato chips or saltine crackers, cook at 350 for about 25-30 minutes. Done. CWS' dad's Tuna FISH hotdish.

 

[CWS4322]

I am like you CWS. I too love words. Living in a city of immigrants, I hear pronouncements of the English language and some times you can't even recognize the word they are trying to say. They bring with them the words for food that they used in their country. If I were to say a "sauce for pasta", they would look at me and not have one inkling of what I was referring to. I figure it is their food and if they want to call it gravy, then gravy it is. For those who live here in this region. If I moved to another part of the country, then it would become Pasta Sauce.

If tomato-based and it has ground beef in it, it would probably be called spaghetti sauce!