Casserole Theory

I’ve been mulling casseroles over a lot recently. Most of the trouble probably can be boiled down to the fact that I have yet in my adult life been invited to a potluck dinner. Sure I’ve of course gone to parties and brought a dip or an appetizer, but there’s never been that type of event that I can bring a filling casserole as my contribution. Anyway I digress…

My wife and I have still (since my post in September) been doing a great deal of casseroles lately. We mostly do a rotation of tuna noodle casserole, tator tot casserole, and (my wife’s favorite) taco casserole. Other classics like macaroni & cheese, lasagna, and shepherd’s pie sporadically make it into the rotation as well. Because we have this rotation, I know that we’re barely scraping the surface of the multitudes of various casseroles out there.

That last statement though got me thinking. There indeed are multitudes of various casseroles in America. What then is the common link between all these casseroles? Casseroles vary widely by ingredients, but is there some quality that every casserole must have to be…well a casserole?

That question led me to come up with what I deem my “Casserole Theory.” My little theory is that every casserole will fall under one (or more) of these classes: it contains cream of mushroom soup, it is cheesy, and/or it is layered. Here is my little Venn diagram to show this, with some examples:

As you can imagine, many casseroles fall into the into the “contains cream of mushroom soup” circle. For the just purely “cheesy” and “layered” classes, it’s much harder thinking of sole examples. However, many casseroles fall under two classes. With the double-class casseroles as well, most will fall into certain areas more than others. There are many casseroles that fall under the dual-classes of “mushroom soup / layered” and “cheesy / layered.” Myself personally, I really only ever have had the Cheesy Hash Brown Casserole (or a deviant thereof) as a casserole that would fit into the “cheesy / mushroom soup” area.

As disclaimers, I should mention a few things. First off, I am applying this only to American casseroles, or dishes that have been adapted to American casseroles (in some extent lasagna would be this way). I’m sure other countries and cultures have casserole type dishes (I’m assuming they wouldn’t call them casseroles though). Secondly, I have yet to find an exception to this theory (that’s why I’m posting this) but if someone out there CAN think of a casserole that does not fall into these three classes let me know. With that said, I should lastly also mention that I have yet to come up with a casserole that falls under all three classes (the vacant middle brown area of the diagram). I’m sure there is one out there, but again if you do indeed have one, let me know.

Well there you go readers, my casserole theory. I’m sure no one saw a theory on such a humble topic as casseroles coming. Many minds have probably been blown, many faces melted. I best bid you farewell and let you digest it for awhile.