A Comparative History of Casseroles and Hot Dishes in American Foodways, 1912–1952

The pictorial version of this poster. The poster is arranged into three sections. The first section consists of the thesis, historical context, and methods paragraphs. The second section consists of three parallel timelines (casserole, hot dish from a natinal perspective, and hot dish from a regional perspective), with each timeline consisting of two to four moments described using text and illustrated using images of recipes, book covers, and illustrations from historical sources. The third section consists of the conclusion and bibliography sections. The text of all of these sections is included in the following web page, except the bibliography, which can be navigated to using the button above and the button at the end of this web page.

Section 1: Argument and Background

Thesis

While hot dish is often defined as an “Upper Midwestern casserole,” casseroles and hot dishes have independent histories defined by unique relationships with the foodways of the United States. Comparing discourses around casserole and hot dish in the first half of the twentieth century, differences in the social functions of and norms associated with each dish become clear. Although they came to resemble each other materially, the national history of casseroles and regional and national histories of hot dishes demonstrate that they were functionally and meaningfully different, the legacy of those differences persisting through the twentieth century and to the present day.

Historical Context

Recipes for “casseroles” appear in American cookbooks as early as the 1830s. “Casseroles” in the nineteenth century US were ragouts added to rice or potato paste crusts and baked. Even after casserole pans slowly entered the home kitchen in the late nineteenth century, this form of “casserole” persisted into the early twentieth century.

However, the American casserole as recognized now is strongly associated with the 1950s. Scholars in the twenty-first century associate casserole in the postwar era with food trends such as the gourmet movement and increased use of prepackaged “convenience” goods as well as discourses around the role of women and the multicultural heritage of the nation.

Meanwhile, “hot dishes” first appear in the twentieth century. Hot dish, as recognized in the Upper Midwest today, was recorded as a regional dish of Minnesota and North Dakota by the 1950s and Michigan and Wisconsin by the 1970s. Writings on its history in the twenty-first century speculate that it developed in the 1930s either through the ethnic foodways of people of Scandinavian descent, cultural foodways of Lutheran churches, or the effects of food scarcity on cooking and preserving habits.

Methods

Cookbooks are prescriptive, containing explicit instructions to follow but also implicit assumptions about how we should cook and who should be cooking. The research process for this project involved reviewing, comparing, and grouping examples of prescriptive rhetoric in thirty-three cookbooks. Other publications invested in the functions of and norms around food, such as domestic science manuals and newspapers, were also reviewed.

Section 2: Timelines

Casserole Timeline

1912–1919: Cookbooks with “casserole” in their titles were published in America. Authors depicted historical American casseroles as passe and cooking en casserole as relevant knowledge for the modern home cook. Casserole pans were represented as time efficient, requiring less attention during the cooking process, saving cooks from having to re-plate a dish before serving it, being easy to clean afterward.

1926–1932: During the first six years of “Housekeeper Chat,” a radio program created by the USDA’s Bureau of Home Economics, casserole pans were the main topic of episodes at least four times. Each script emphasized economical and aesthetic benefits of casserole cookery as well as shared care instructions and recipes. Scalloped dishes were one of many dishes the home cook could make with casserole pans.

1938–1943: Casserole cookery reemerged as a topic of discussion in commercial cookbooks. While some cookbooks were reprints from previous decades, echoing previous ideas, new publications and updated editions of cookbook series featuring this topic for the first time presented casseroles often as scalloped dishes and associated its history in the US with World War I-era rationing and cross-cultural encounters.

1949–After 1952: Cookbooks presented casseroles (scalloped dishes) as simple suppers for “gourmet” and “epicure” home cooks. Authors evoked upper class and French foodways to represent casserole cookery as classy and cosmopolitan but affordable to the middle class.

Hot Dish (National Perspective) Timeline

Before 1912–1946: Home economists rallied behind the idea of “hot dishes” for school lunches from the 1890s until the passage of the National School Lunch Act in 1946. “Hot dishes” referred to warm foods perceived as nutritious for children, from hot cocoa to scalloped dishes made with meat, vegetables, and milk (what we would now call casseroles and hot dishes).

Demonstration agents visited (often rural) schools interested in developing school lunch programs and train teachers and older girl students how to make "hot dishes."

1920–After 1952: Newspapers began advertising hot dish suppers and luncheons in the 1920s. These events were held across the US but advertised consistently and frequently in the Midwest, Great Plains, and Northeast. In the 1920s and 1930s, many of these events were hosted by women’s clubs associated with Protestant churches. In the 1940s and early 1950s, youth and leisure related community clubs hosted these events more frequently.

1949–1952: Recipes for hot dishes began to appear in cookbooks on regional cooking in the United States, associated with North Dakota and Minnesota.

Hot Dish (Regional Perspective) Timeline

1921–1938: Christian and secular women’s clubs in the Twin Cities and southwestern Minnesota started including “hot dish” recipes in their cookbooks, especially after 1935. Many — but not all — “hot dish” recipes were scalloped dishes. All recipes had generic names, usually just “hot dish” but occasionally an ingredient as well (e.g. “hot meat dish,” “ham hot dish”), and were published in “Luncheon Dishes” sections of cookbooks.

1939–After 1952: Community cookbooks with contributors across Minnesota, northwestern Wisconsin, and urban Iowa and South Dakota published hot dish recipes in “Hot Dishes” sections. Recipe names became more complex, highlighting unique ingredients and combinations (e.g. “cashew-tuna,” SPAM), recipes’ relationships with foodways (e.g. “war time,” “Minnesota”), and writers’ attempts to feign a cosmopolitan awareness of other cultures through food (e.g. “chop suey hot dish”). “Hot dishes” were scalloped dishes most often.

Section 3: Conclusion

Conclusion

While casseroles and hot dishes stabilized into scalloped dishes by the end of the 1930s, the functions and meanings of these dishes developed independently before this turning point. Reviewing prescriptive literature related to both dishes reveals that casseroles were symbolic of aesthetic and economic discourses surrounding emerging middle class tastes (read: norms) in the first half the twentieth century, while hot dishes moved from an abstract solution in national discussions about children’s nutrition to a distinct dish in the foodways of community-based organizations in the Upper Midwest during that same time period.

The legacies of these different discourses have persisted to the present. While placing its development in the post-World War II era, scholarship on American casserole still clearly discusses what middle class discourses the dish represented. Writings on hot dish implicitly center community in the development of the dish, even if authors fixate on the idea of specific “originator” communities.

Recognizing these histories as separate and previous scholarship as assumptive to a limiting degree provides a generative space for future research into the histories of scalloped dishes that asks deeper questions and evokes more complex historical concepts like taste and classism or the roles of women in feeding communities, moving research beyond reiterations of casserole as a symbol of the 1950s or the “first hot dish recipe” as the invention of a single Lutheran church in 1930.

Bibliography

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Primary Sources

Historical Context:

A Boston Housekeeper. "Potatoes, Casserole." In The Cook’s Own Book, 149. Munroe and Francis, 1832. Schlesinger Library. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc2.ark:/13960/t8nc5v93d.

A Boston Housekeeper. "Rice, Casserole." In The Cook’s Own Book, 174. Munroe and Francis, 1832. Schlesinger Library. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc2.ark:/13960/t8nc5v93d.

Delineator Home Institute. "Casserole and Oven Cookery." In New Delineator Recipes, 185. Cuneo Press, 1929. Cornell University Library. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/coo.31924089587186.

Harland, Marion. "No. 1. Casserole of Rice." In The Dinner Year-Book, plate 4. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1878. Herndon/Vehling Collection. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/coo1.ark:/13960/t9474zh93.

Ronald, Mary. “No. 15. Casseroles and Baking Dishes.” In Luncheons: A Cook's Picture Book, 30. The Century Company, 1902. Project Gutenberg, Salt Lake City, UT. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/57896/pg57896-images.html.

Casserole Timeline:

Berolzheimer, Ruth. "Casserole and Oven Cookery." In The Domestic Arts Edition of the American Woman's Cook Book, 701. Domestic Arts Institute, 1939. Internet Archive Books. Internet Archive, San Francisco, CA. https://archive.org/details/americanwomansco00deli/page/700/mode/2up.

Berolzheimer, Ruth. "Casserole and Oven Cookery." In Victory Binding of the American Woman's Cook Book, 701. Consolidated Book Publishers, 1943. Doris S. Kirschner Cookbook Collection. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/umn.31951d023758099.

Brobeck, Florence. Cook It in a Casserole, with Chafing Dish Recipes and Menus. M. Barrows and Company Inc., 1943. Oak Street Library. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uiug.30112073542281.

Campbell, Jean Hamilton and Gloria Kameran. "Casserole Dinners." In Simple Recipes for the Epicure, 27–43. The Viking Press, 1949. Internet Archive Books. Internet Archive, San Francisco, CA. https://archive.org/details/simplecookingfor00camp/page/26/mode/2up.

Cannon, Poppy. "Drama at the Table." In The Can-Opener Cookbook, 8–10. Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1951. Internet Archive Books. Internet Archive, San Francisco, CA. https://archive.org/details/canopenercookboo00cann/page/8/mode/2up.

"Casseroles and Baking Dishes." Housekeepers' Chat, April 15, 1932. Produced by the United States Department of Agriculture, Radio Service. Housekeepers' Chat/Homemakers' Chat/Homemaker News. Internet Archive, San Francisco, CA. https://archive.org/details/casserolesbaking1932unit/page/n1/mode/2up.

"Casserole Dishes." Housekeepers' Chat, October 20, 1927. Produced by the United States Department of Agriculture, Radio Service. Housekeepers' Chat/Homemakers' Chat/Homemaker News. Internet Archive, San Francisco, CA. https://archive.org/details/casseroledishes1927unit/page/n1/mode/2up.

"Cooking en Casserole." Housekeepers' Chat, October 18, 1928. Produced by the United States Department of Agriculture, Radio Service. Housekeepers' Chat/Homemakers' Chat/Homemaker News. Internet Archive, San Francisco, CA. https://archive.org/details/cookingencassero1928unit/page/n1/mode/2up.

Donnelly, Alice M. "Casserole Cookery." In Practical Home Economics: 1245 Scientific Recipes, 475. Brigham Young University. Internet Archive, San Francisco, CA. https://archive.org/details/practicalhomeeco00donn/page/474/mode/2up.

Hulse, Olive M. Two Hundred Recipes for Cooking in Casseroles. Hopewell Press, 1914. Cornell University Library. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/coo1.ark:/13960/t4zg76k3m.

Neil, Marion Harris. How to Cook in Casserole Dishes. David McKay, 1912. Offsite Shared Collection (ReCAP). Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.32044087438644.

Roberson, John and Marie Roberson. The Casserole Cookbook. Prentice-Hall, 1952. Internet Archive Books. Internet Archive, San Francisco, CA. https://archive.org/details/casserolecookboo0000unse_q3f5/page/n9/mode/2up.

Rombauer, Irma S. "Quick Casserole Dishes." In The Joy of Cooking, 5th ed., 120. Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1943. Internet Archive Books. Internet Archive, San Francisco, CA. https://archive.org/details/joyofcooking0000unse_h3t9/page/120/mode/2up.

Rorer, Sarah Tyson. "Dishes en Casserole." In Mrs. Rorer's Key to Simple Cookery, 136. Arnold and Company, 1917. New York Public Library, New York, NY. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433082244587.

Tracy, Marian and Nico Tracy. Casserole Cookery: One-Dish Meals for the Busy Gourmet. Viking Press, 1950. Doris S. Kirschner Cookbook Collection. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.

Hot Dish (National) Timeline:

"A Branch Chapter of the Southern Oxford Red Cross..." Oxford County Citizen (Bethel, ME), October 30, 1941, 5. Miscellaneous Newspapers. Internet Archive, San Francisco, CA. https://archive.org/details/SERIAL_5.1941.10.30/page/n3/mode/2up.

"A Covered Hot Dish Supper..." Appleton Post-Crescent (WI), March 14, 1924, 5. Appleton Post Crescent Newspaper Archive. Internet Archive, San Francisco, CA. https://archive.org/details/appleton-post-crescent-1924-03-14/page/n3/mode/2up.

"All Those Who Attended the Hot Dish Supper on Wednesday..." Cody Enterprise (WY), September 21, 1927, 5. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress, Washington DC. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn92066929/1927-09-21/ed-1/seq-5.

"Boy Scout News." Kingston Daily Freeman (NY), December 7, 1946, 2. Kingston Daily Freeman Newspaper Archive. Internet Archive, San Francisco, CA. https://archive.org/details/kingston-daily-freeman-1946-12-07/page/n1/mode/2up.

"Church Notes." Windham County Observer (Putnam, CT), September 13, 1939, 4. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress, Washington DC. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn92051419/1939-09-13/ed-1/seq-4.

Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Health. The School Lunch. Wright & Potter Printing Company, 1920. The Library of Congress. Internet Archive, San Francisco, CA. https://archive.org/details/schoollunch00mass/page/10/mode/2up.

"Crafts Club Party." Harlem News (MT), January 12, 1945, 8. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress, Washington DC. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86075250/1945-01-12/ed-1/seq-8.

Feldkamp, Cora L. and Miriam K. Silver. "School Lunches: A List of References." Library List, no. 26 (May 1946). National Agricultural Library. Internet Archive, San Francisco, CA. https://archive.org/details/schoolluncheslis26feld/page/n1/mode/2up.

Haakenstad, Mrs. Otto (Fargo, ND). "Hot Dish." In The American Hostess Cook Book, 2nd ed., edited by Ida Lee Dunne, 355. Cornell University Library Annex. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/coo.31924089587269.

Hart, Mary (Minneapolis, MN). "Wild Rice Hot Dish." In Coast to Coast Cookery by America's Newspaper Food Editors, edited by Marian Tracy, 118. Indiana University Press, 1952. Collection of the author.

"Hot Lunch Big Help to Child." In River Falls Journal (WI), February 6, 1919, 7. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress, Washington DC. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85033255/1919-02-06/ed-1/seq-7.

"Inaugurate 'University of Life' Youth Program." Arlington Heights Herald (IL), March 12, 1943, 1. Arlington Heights Herald Newspaper Archive. Internet Archive, San Francisco, CA. https://archive.org/details/arlington-heights-herald-1943-03-12/mode/2up.

Inez M. Hobart papers. 1910-1942. University Archives. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. https://archives.lib.umn.edu/repositories/14/resources/1457.

"Mrs. Herbert Steinberg..." The Frontier (O'Neill City, NE), February 22, 1951, 2. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress, Washington DC. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/2010270509/1951-02-22/ed-1/seq-2.

"Narbeth Junior Club Preparing for Fashion Show." Our Town (Narbeth, PA), February 20, 1947, 1A. Narberth Civic Association. Internet Archive, San Francisco, CA. https://archive.org/details/OurTownNarberthPA19470220/page/n7/mode/2up.

"Pythian Sisters Install." Marion Star (OH), January 19, 1944, 4. Marion Star Newspaper Archive. Internet Archive, San Francisco, CA. https://archive.org/details/marion-star-1944-01-19/page/n3/mode/2up.

"Something Hot Needed in School Lunch Menu." Redwood Gazette (Redwood Falls, MN), September 25, 1929, 10. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress, Washington DC. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85025570/1929-09-25/ed-1/seq-10.

"Supper and Contest." Smyrna Times (DE), March 28, 1935, 5. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress, Washington DC. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84020422/1935-03-28/ed-1/seq-5.

"The General Aid of the Plymouth Congregational Church..." Grand Forks Herald (ND), March 19, 1920, 7. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress, Washington DC. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042414/1920-03-19/ed-1/seq-7.

"The Ladies' Aid Society, of M. E. Church, Held a Hot Dish Luncheon..." Lambertville Record (NJ), April 9, 1925, 3. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress, Washington DC. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026089/1925-04-09/ed-1/seq-3.

"The Mid-Day Luncheon in Town..." Jersey City News (NJ), September 11, 1897, 3. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress, Washington DC. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87068097/1897-09-11/ed-1/seq-3.

"The Ramsey Creek Unit of the Farm Bureau..." Redwood Gazette (Redwood Falls, MN), December 1, 1926, 6. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress, Washington DC. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85025570/1926-12-01/ed-1/seq-6.

Hot Dish (Regional) Timeline:

Anderson, Mrs. C. W. "Hot Dish." In Cook Book, edited by the Grace Lutheran Ladies Aid, 69. Mankato, MN: Grace Lutheran Church, 1930. Grace Lutheran Church, Mankato, MN.

Brandes, Mrs. L. H. "Chow Mein Chicken Hot Dish." In Cooking with Rita, 3. Cottage Grove, MN: Church of St. Rita, 1942. Steve Trimble Cookbook Collection, Metro State University, St. Paul, MN.

Cole, Mrs. Tirzah. "Hot Meat Dish." In Senior Welfare Society, 29. St. Paul: Order of the Eastern Star Chapter 24, 1936. Gale Family Library. Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, MN.

Dearborn, Mrs. H. S. "Hot Dish." In St. Elizabeth’s Guild Cook Book, edited by St. Elizabeth's Guild, 38. St. Paul: St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, 1936. Gale Family Library. Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, MN.

Guenthner, Ruth (Sioux Falls, SD). "Hot Dish." In Seven Years with Your Neighbor Lady, 37. Sioux City, IA: WNAX, 1948. Steve Trimble Cookbook Collection. Metro State University, St. Paul, MN.

Hein, Mrs. H. A. "Ham Hot Dish." In Canby Community Cook Book, 39. Canby, MN: Women’s Club of Canby, 1938. Gale Family Library. Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, MN.

"Hot Dish." In Cook Book, 1937, edited by the Women's Guild, 45. Minneapolis: Lyndale Congregational Church, 1937. Gale Family Library. Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, MN.

"Hot Dishes" (section title page). In Shafer Study Club Cook Book, 83. Taylor Falls, MN: Shafer Study Club, 1948. Steve Trimble Cookbook Collection. Metro State University, St. Paul, MN.

"Hot Meat Dishes" (section title page). In Cook Book, 15. Duluth: Valykria Lodge Order of Svithiod, 1942. Steve Trimble Cookbook Collection. Metro State University, St. Paul, MN.

Jacob, Mrs. R. F. (Eau Claire, WI). "Mushroom Hot Dish." In St. Mark's Guild Cook Book, 3rd ed., edited by St. Mark's Guild, 96. Lake City, MN: St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 1940. Gale Family Library. Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, MN.

Johnson, Doris and Edna Kelley. "Cashew-Tuna Hot Dish." In Priscillas' Tried and True Recipes, edited by the Priscillas of St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church, 46. West St. Paul, MN: West St. Paul Printing and Stationary. Steve Trimble Cookbook Collection. Metro State University, St. Paul, MN.

Johnson, Mrs. F. E. "War Time Hot Dish." In 75th Anniversary Cook Book, edited by the Ladies' Aid of the Zion Lutheran Church, 38. Anoka, MN: Zion Lutheran Church, 1945. Steve Trimble Cookbook Collection. Metro State University, St. Paul, MN.

La Frenz, Clara. "Hot Dish." In Designed for Cooking, 2nd ed., 69. Minneapolis: Syndicate Printing Company, 1938. Gale Family Library. Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, MN.

Langer, Mrs. R. J. "Spam Hot Dish." In Cook Book, edited by the Women's Club of Resurrection Church, 83. Minneapolis: Resurrection Lutheran Church, 1944. Steve Trimble Cookbook Collection. Metro State University, St. Paul, MN.

Ramin, Mrs. C. "Spam Hot Dish." In Victory Cook Book, edited by the Ladies' Aid, 158. Minneapolis: Victory Lutheran Church, 1946. Steve Trimble Cookbook Collection. Metro State University, St. Paul, MN.

Sandey, Mrs. R. A. "Spam Hot Dish." In Victory Cook Book, edited by the Ladies' Aid, 158. Minneapolis: Victory Lutheran Church, 1946. Steve Trimble Cookbook Collection. Metro State University, St. Paul, MN.

Sather, Mrs. O. B. "Minnesota Hot Dish." In Circle Book of Recipes, edited by the Zion Lutheran Sewing Circle, 21. Warroad, MN: Zion Lutheran Church, 1939. Steve Trimble Cookbook Collection. Metro State University, St. Paul, MN.

Stowell, Mrs. H. C. "Hot Meat Dish." In S. S. S. Cookbook, 30. St. Paul: Wimodausis Club, 1921. Gale Family Library. Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, MN.

Todd, Mrs. George S. "Luncheon Hot Dish." In St. Mark's Guild Cook Book, 3rd ed., edited by St. Mark's Guild, 96. Lake City, MN: St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 1940. Gale Family Library. Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, MN.

Vitalis, Mrs. Harland. "Chop Suey Hot Dish." In Shafer Study Club Cook Book, 88. Taylor Falls, MN: Shafer Study Club, 1948. Steve Trimble Cookbook Collection. Metro State University, St. Paul, MN.

Wackholz, Mrs. Robert. "Just a Hot Dish." In St. Stephanus Cook Book, edited by the Ladies' Aid Society, 20. St. Paul: St. Stephanus Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1932. Gale Family Library. Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, MN.

Secondary Sources

Albala, Ken. “Cookbooks as Historical Documents.” In The Oxford Handbook of Food History, edited by Jeffrey M. Pilcher, 227–240. Oxford University Press, 2012.

Aldrich, Elizabeth. Casseroles, Can Openers, and Jell-O: American Food and the Cold War, 1947–1959. State University of New York Press, 2023.

"Hot Dish." In Dictionary of American Regional English Volume II, D–H, edited by Frederic G. Cassidy and Joan Houston Hall, 1125–6. Harvard University Press, 1991.

Neuhaus, Jessamyn. Manly Meals and Mom’s Home Cooking: Cookbooks and Gender in Modern America. John Hopkins University Press, 2003.

Roufs, Timothy G. "Hot Dish." In We Eat What? A Cultural Encyclopedia of Unusual Foods in the United States, edited by Jonathan Deutsch, 171–6. ABC-CLIO, 2018.

Trimble, Steve. "Memorable Minnesota Meals: Wild Rice, Hot Dish and Booya." Dayton's Bluff District Forum, May 2004, 4. https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn90059450/2004-05-01/ed-1/seq-4.

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