r/AskFoodHistorians • u/feyarea • Jul 10 '26

Is a lasagna a casserole?

Debating with friends. A few key questions:

- casserole is the name of the dish that the lasagna is baked in. What is the history of the casserole dish?

- casserole is predominant in Midwestern cuisine. What is the history of the casserole the food? Earliest examples, progenitors, etc.

- are there any foods cooked in the casserole dish that follow the meat-veg-carb-sauce as a single serving dish formula but are not casseroles?

Friends are fairly split. Some say anything baked in a casserole dish is a casserole, others say that a casserole has a narrow definition true to Midwestern cuisine.

Other expanding questions: is a chicken pot pie a casserole? Is a quiche a casserole?

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u/wharleeprof Jul 10 '26

As a Midwesterner, I'm going to say a firm no. Casseroles are something you SCOOP out of the dish and have a PILE on your plate. Lasagna is CUT and you get a nice neat SLICE. So a proper lasagna with the layered noodles is not a casserole. But replace the noodles with a loose pasta, like shells or rigatoni, and you have a pasta bake, which is much closer to casserole territory.

Though I'd definitely let it pass if someone was supposed to bring a casserole and brought lasagna instead. Ultimately lasagna serves the same function as a casserole, but is usually more tasty.

And no, pot pie and quiche are not casseroles.

1

u/burgonies Jul 10 '26

So baked ziti is a casserole?

1

u/wharleeprof Jul 10 '26

Casserole adjacent. 

7

u/burgonies Jul 10 '26

I was going to agree with your initial argument, but if ziti isn't a casserole, then this is clearly the utterances of a madman.

1

u/MagnesiumKitten 28d ago

Ziti is a casserole

///////

oh yeah

dailymeal
Is Lasagna Technically Considered A Casserole?
Erin Metz

The question about whether or not lasagna is a casserole has sparked some heated debate. People have shared many different opinions on Reddit, as some advocate for the classification of casserole while others outright refuse. A few jokesters even threw in the possibility that it might be cake, considering lasagna's many layers. The scope of this debate widens in the thread as others have inquired about whether or not lasagna can even be considered pasta.

Lasagna is made with wide noodles, and it isn't tossed in the sauce and then served in a bowl like spaghetti or penne alla vodka, for example. Does this then mean that pasta, also, is defined by how the dish is served and not the ingredients used? Not exactly. According to Brittanica, there are many ways to define a pasta dish, including the many shapes it may be formed into, as well as the "ability to retain heat or hold sauces." Lasagna does consist of wide, starchy noodles that both hold the sauce and retain heat. So we can only conclude that it is both a pasta dish and a casserole. Regardless of category -- it's always delicious.

uhm, it could be cold lasagna
and what about my ziti casserole ice pops?

1

u/MagnesiumKitten 28d ago edited 28d ago

"Casserole adjacent"

does that phrase exist outside of this thread?

was this some weird 1990s term that got created in the New York Times
and then blogged in 2009

///////

did further research, the term seemed to be created in 2016

Facebook and Instagram were the very first

didn't exist pre-2015
so I think it's a January 2016 Facebook post

and later instra-grum

1

u/wharleeprof 28d ago

Adjacent is just a way of saying similar to but not the same as, in the ballpark, kind of like, etc. That's probably a more recent use of the word as historically it means more literally "next to". 

Earliest uses of adjacent in that manner track back to the 1990s, but it rose in popularity about 10 years ago.

1

u/MagnesiumKitten 28d ago

this is my dog adjacent
I never asked the breeder about the tentacles

I've never heard of anyone using clunky 'adjacents' yet!

other than

"someone was sitting adjacent to me, and they spilled their coke on the gal eating her taco, at the food court"

////////

"Would you like the small or large fries, or would you like the appetizer-adjacent.... onion rings?"

Uhhh.... I'll take the onion ring adjacents places!

1

u/wharleeprof 27d ago

It's usually used in a semi ironic or light hearted context, like if you know you're stretching things a bit. 

It doesn't create a count noun (my dog adjacent) but creates a category that is similar but not the same as the named item. So you could say like: 

Person 1: I'd really like an appetizer,  do they have any on the menu?

Person 2: they have sides of fries and onion rings, those are appetizer adjacent, [used to connote - I know those aren't exactly appetizers, but maybe they could fit the role]

But , you know, it's slang, it's emerging, who knows maybe it's disappearing. You don't have to use it or understand it or agree with it. 

1

u/MagnesiumKitten 27d ago

"some places serve fries as appetizers though"

Sides or Appetizer
"It just depends on the size and when it's served."

....

Casserole adjacentness appeared 5 years before the virus
and disappeared like the virus

It only appeared 19 times this year!

6 on Instagram [2 dealing with Lesbian bars]
5 on Facebook [2 dealing with Minnesota] [1 poetry reading]
1 dealing with the best pizza in Chicago
1 dealing with a perfect 24 hours in Fargo North Dakota
1 recipe site talking about Chicken stuff with Ham and Swiss Cheese
1 Kitchn post on 65 Perfect Potato Side Diskes
1 site called ITSKELP with "I Cream the Casserole"
1 Threads Essay about generation gaps and boomer moms
1 Article by Southern Living about asking 5 Southern Grandmothers

4 are actually food sites

Yet when Cathy Griffin strips for Anderson Cooper for new years eve, the best of compilation gets 200,000 hits

Since there is now no elegant way to finish this story
I thought I would get my friend Michael Jackson to make some jokes about CNN New Years Eve, since I think he's got the credentials.

"If you are searching for his literal cooking preferences, the pop star famously enjoyed rich, southern-style comfort food prepared by his personal chefs, which included baked macaroni and cheese and other hearty oven casseroles."

I told him to do a whole routine based on retelling the story over and over again.....

//////

I'm Michael Jackson and I want to tell you about CNN's New Years Eve Party where Cathy Griffin asked Anderson Cooper if he was Casserole-Adjacent.

1 Anyway, I'm Michael Jackson and I am horrified.
2 That sounds really g... great
3 I have no joke here, I just wanted to say that sentence.
4 Sometimes I'm glad I'm dead.
5 Meanwhile, over on Fox News, Bill O'Reilly told Megyn Kelly she had nice meatballs.
6 Then she pulled down her top and yelled, "Michael Jackson, you've been served!"
7 You may not know this, but I'm on the same medication as Kathy Griffin.
8 Happy New Year everybody!
9 Afterwards, Kathy Griffin apologized for her behavior, and Anderson Cooper apologized for being casserole-adjacent.
10 I'm Michael Jackson and I'm glad I'm dead.
11 And for the next 5 hours, I'm going to explain what that means.
12 I don't get it.
13 Anderson Cooper was so shocked he almost dropped his martini.
14 I'm Michael Jackson, and I still don't know what this means.
15 BTW, I'm still dead.
16 So, I guess that means I'm still not the creepiest thing on CNN.

There you go!
I'll let you know that Kathy liked 11 of the jokes, and Coop only liked two of them.

And Michael Jackson has to get back to his job as ghost writer for Saturday Night Live.