Jordan Independent - Casserole or hotdish? - Comments

To my ma the dish was called

mittens — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 12:01:38 -0600

To my ma the dish was called BBQ hamburger. Pretty simple and straightforward but I know on "Roseanne" they were called loose meat sandwiches and I've also eaten Tendermaid sandwiches which are basically the same thing.

As far as the casserole.hot dish debate; hot dish is made at home, casseroles are given to grieving families after a death.

I think the Maid-Rites are

Ray Sandey — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 11:54:56 -0600

I think the Maid-Rites are also termed loose-meat sandwiches. They are a bit different than your typical sloppy joe.

Yes, i've heard of

ReneeF — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 11:13:07 -0600

Yes, i've heard of sandwiches being called Taverns. My Nanna (who lives in N. Iowa) made "taverns" once for a family reunion. She browned hamburger and ground pork and combined that mixture with onions and something else (can't quite remember the entire recipe) and served it on a bun. My mom (also originally fom N. Iowa) calls such sandwiches Made-Rites. They are usually browned hamburger mixed with ketchup, mustard and chili powder and served on a bun (tastes great with a pickle!).

As for the casserole/hot dish debate ... i think a hot dish is a main dish/meal, i.e. tator tot hot dish and a casserole is a side dish, i.e. green bean casserole. Is there room for both terms in our culinary vocabulary?

Do I look fat in my picture?

Mathias Baden — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 09:37:58 -0600

Do I look fat in my picture? If I had hotdish around all the time, I'd definitely be fatter -- I could eat the stuff all day long. By the way, your tease is taken with a grain of salt ...

(Mathias Baden is the editor of the Jordan Independent. He can be reached at editor@jordannews.com.)

My mother mixed chicken

jennyjean4 — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 09:07:15 -0600

My mother mixed chicken gumbo soup with burger and served it in a bun. She called this a tavern. There has to be someone out there that has heard of this term for a sandwich. I'll admit that the definition of tavern is "an establishment where liquors are sold to be drunk on the premises", but in So. Dak. we also use it as a name for a sandwich that was probably served at such establishments. Can't someone back me up on this?

Creme of Mushroom or Tomato

Ray Sandey — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 23:24:03 -0600

Creme of Mushroom or Tomato soup/sauce.

I think a casserole has to be baked. But a hotdish can be baked or just mixed hot.

We grew up hotdish. We only heard of casserole in books or on tv.

Tavern is where we go to have a few beers after supper.

A tavern is where we go

Macktastic miguel 0 — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 23:02:47 -0600

A tavern is where we go after eating a couple of sloppy joes. And, can it be hotdish if it doesn't contain creme of mushroom soup?

It appears that a

bigbobbob — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 16:32:10 -0600

It appears that a 'transposition' of some words might have happened in the initial submission to this topic. The submission reads 'newspaper editor's fat dictionary'. I submit this could easily have read 'fat newspaper editor's dictionary'. Error does creep in and makes one wonder, which is the more accurate?

This is, of necessity, an Anonymous Submission.

The fact that the dictionary

Brandon — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 15:25:54 -0600

The fact that the dictionary doesn’t even list hotdish as a word clearly proves my point. A hot dish is one of two things: it’s either an old-school slang name for a pretty girl, or it’s a dish that is hot (like, say, what a dish might feel like after you cook a casserole in it).

The most telling sign, to me, is the basic "how does it sound" test. For example, it obviously sounds better to say "tater tot casserole" than it does to say "tater tot hotdish." The spuds have it – case closed.

I know people who refer to soda as Coke, even if it is orange soda. They also throw salt shakers instead of passing them around the table. And I've never heard of a "tavern" as a sloppy joe.

Casserole - I grew up in

jennyjean4 — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 15:15:50 -0600

Casserole - I grew up in South Dakota and we called any noodle-based baked dish a casserole.

Here are a couple other food names that change depending on where you're from:

Soda or Pop or Coke
(people in the south call any kind of soda/pop a Coke, which I think is very confusing)

Taverns or Sloppy Joes or Barbeques

Casserole or hotdish?

Mathias Baden — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 13:03:11 -0600

Hard-working, fun-loving staff writer Brandon Otte and I have had an ongoing discussion (read: stubborn disagreement) about hotdish. He says it's casserole. We need your help to decide.