Hotdish

Hotdish is any of a variety of baked, casserole dishes popular in the Midwestern United States, and especially in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, northern Iowa, and western Wisconsin. It consists of a starch, a meat, and a canned vegetable, mixed together with canned soup, which serves as a binding ingredient.

Hotdishes are filling, convenient, easy to make, and well-suited for family reunions, church suppers, and potlucks, where they may be paired with pan-baked cookies known as bars.

Ingredients

Typical ingredients in hotdish are potatoes, ground beef, green beans, and corn, with canned soup added for flavor and as a sauce. Potatoes may be in the form of tater tots, hash browns, potato chips, or shoe string potatoes. The dish is usually seasoned lightly with salt and pepper, and it may be eaten with ketchup as a condiment. Another popular hotdish is made with Kraft macaroni and cheese or plain noodles, canned tuna, and peas, with canned soup (usually cream of mushroom) for binding.

Cream of mushroom soup is so ubiquitous in hotdish that it is often referred to in such recipes as "Lutheran Binder," referring to hotdish's position as a staple of Lutheran church cookbooks. The soup is considered a defining ingredient by some commentators. [Mohr, H. (1987). "How to Talk Minnesotan". New York: Penguin Books.]

Popular Culture

Hotdish frequently appears, along with other sterotypical Minnesotan dishes such as lutefisk, in "A Prairie Home Companion", on National Public Radio. Hotdish is also described in Howard Mohr's book, "How to Talk Minnesotan". [Mohr, H. (1987). "How to Talk Minnesotan". New York: Penguin Books.] Hotdish is an integral part of the book, "Hotdish to Die For", a collection of six culinary mystery short stories in which the weapon of choice is hotdish. [Dennis, P. (1999). "Hotdish to Die For". Minneapolis, MN: Penury Press.]

ee also

*Midwestern cuisine
*Green bean casserole
*Comfort food

References

External links

* [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0820/is_n221/ai_17911055 Article on Minnesota Hotdish]
* [http://flakmag.com/misc/hotdish.html Flak Magazine: Hotdish On A Stick]