A large, deep dish used for cooking or a dish consisting of meat, vegetables, or other ingredients baked slowly in such a vessel.
From French casserole, diminutive of casse 'ladle, pan,' from Provençal cassa, from Late Latin cattia 'ladle.' The word entered English in the 18th century, initially referring to the cooking vessel before extending to the food cooked in it.
The casserole represents the democratization of cooking—it transformed elaborate French cuisine into accessible one-pot meals perfect for busy American households of the 1950s. The famous 'tuna noodle casserole' became a symbol of post-war convenience cooking, combining canned soup, pasta, and pantry staples into comfort food.
Casseroles became associated with domesticity and women's unpaid kitchen labor in mid-20th-century culture, often used to dismiss home cooking as 'less skilled' than professional culinary work.
Recognize casserole cooking as valid culinary technique with cultural and nutritional value. Avoid gendered framing like 'housewife cooking.'
Women food writers like Julia Child and Edna Lewis elevated cooking to art form; casserole traditions preserve cultural knowledge maintained by women.
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