Casseroles are the underrated heroes of the culinary world, the humble, unappreciated equivalents of daisies in the horticultural one. As a dish they don’t have much cachet, which might explain why you rarely see them on restaurant menus. Even cassoulet, their more sophisticated French cousin, is in fact a stew not a casserole. (For an explanation of the difference read on). But if casserole, for you, conjures up memories of overcooked, dry, flavourless brews of tough meat and watery vegetables, or hodgepodges of tuna, beans, canned soup and gluey cheese, they’re in need of redemption.
In winter, we turn to food that makes us feel warm. When it’s cold, grey and dismal outside, the thought of a hearty pea and ham soup with crusty bread, or beef stew redolent with red wine, thyme and garlic instantly lifts the mood. Craving warm, hearty and satisfying food in winter seems instinctive although there are theories that suggest some kind of metabolic change is behind it. Some go so far as to link it to the primitive hibernation instinct responsible for sending bears for example (and some humans) into their caves to hunker down until the Spring thaw hits. This may be a stretch too far and probably not a reasonable excuse for pigging out and piling more fat on our bones to see us through the chilly season. (What is a reasonable excuse I wonder?)
Nevertheless, the feel-good aspect of hearty food can’t be dismissed, and regardless of science or the dictates of the kale and quinoa brigade, the consolation of warming food in winter is undeniable.Â
What got me thinking about this was a sudden urge a couple of weeks ago to cook a lamb casserole. Not sure why except that as a lapsed non-red meat eater, I’ve recently gone for lamb in a big way. I’ve also managed to banish all thoughts of frolicking baby lambs from my consciousness. As I did the multitude of cookbooks gathering dust all over the house when I went straight to Google for a recipe. The one I chose was “Home-style Lamb Casserole” from taste.com.au. When you’re in the mood for casserole, “home-style”, not surprisingly, fits the bill.Â
My urge to cook a casserole led to thinking more about the dish and dredging up a plethora of information on the internet, more probably than one winter night’s dinner justifies, but knowledge is never wasted.
For a full run-down on the etymology of the word casserole, if you’re interested, there’s an excellent article on the website MasterClass. Suffice to say it’s important to differentiate between a casserole dish, pan or bowl and what goes in it (the actual casserole). A casserole is something of a one-pot wonder because you assemble, cook and serve the dish in the one container, (a “dump and baker” in other words), which has a lot of appeal for busy cooks trying to save on the washing up. Although sometimes you have to brown meat or cook some ingredients, such as pasta, separately first, which means more washing up. Unless of course you have one of those brilliant searing slow cookers.
Now, as to the difference between a casserole and a stew (a name with even less cachet than casserole), while both are slow cooked in the one dish, a casserole is baked in the oven (or a slow cooker) and a stew is cooked on the stove top. The website Cooked Best (from which I took the feature image for this post) enumerates finer distinctions such as gravy which is a significant component of the stew but not of the casserole.
Casseroles are defined in this article as “more put together” than stews. With casseroles you need to combine the three ingredient categories of protein (meat), vegetables, and starch (potatoes pasta or rice) whereas with stews you can chuck anything in. (Think of it as the difference between the carefully accessorised woman who buys only designer fashion and the one who throws together motley unmatched bargains from thrift stores).
A point of confusion for me has always been about the browning process, i.e. whether or not meat for either a casserole or stew needs to be browned (or seared) first before adding other ingredients. I’ve always believed searing was in order to seal in the juices of a piece of meat, but according to this article on FineDiningLovers, that’s not the only reason. It’s all about the chemistry, in this case the Maillard Reaction or a reaction between amino acids and a type of sugar.
To find out how to sear anything (chicken, pork, steak, beef, lamb etc.) the sparkly Grant from ChefSteps shows us how in the video below.
As to whether you absolutely must brown/sear your meat in preparing a casserole or stew, the consensus seems to be if you want more flavour, yes you do. But it’s not strictly necessary, according to the Reluctant Gourmet. The reluctant washer up will also want to know what about flouring and the Reluctant Gourmet also weighs in on this, but in essence there’s no categorical answer.Â
It seems to boil down to (pun intended) how much of an impact you want to make. If you’re casseroling or stewing for guests and aiming to impress with maximum intensity of flavour, you’ll probably want to go to the extra trouble. But otherwise, slow cooking alone should give you a perfectly acceptable and tasty dish.
There are of course the casserole police, who insist you must never put any meat or even vegetables into a casserole without pre-cooking, but I think it all depends on the individual dish, ingredients and energy levels of the cook. That said, don’t go putting huge chunks of anything in, they should be more or less uniformly bite-sized.
As for my lamb casserole, I did brown the lamb first (albeit in a slap-dash fashion that would have horrified the chef-stepping Grant) but I didn’t bother with flouring.
For the pedantic among us, there’s also the question of covered or uncovered. Stews definitely need to be covered to prevent splattering and drying out, but casseroles are usually cooked uncovered. They can however be coated with breadcrumbs, cheese, bacon bits or anything tasty that will give a crunchy top.
This seems to have exhausted the subject and possibly bored you rigid, but I hope I’ve managed to redeem the humble casserole. Despite its lack of exoticism, your spouse, family, friends, children and even dog will thank you if, like the proverbial 1950s housewife, next dinner time you turn from the stove with a flourish and a big steaming casserole dish of something yummy and comforting for them.
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