Farmer's Casserole Recipe - 100K Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is the key to making a good casserole? ›

In general, you'll want to bake a casserole covered with aluminum foil for most of the cooking time. Covering the casserole helps lock in moisture and prevents it from drying out. If you don't cover the casserole or uncover it too soon, the casserole will dry out.

Make-ahead meals (especially baked casseroles) are terrific because you can completely assemble them in advance and bake them just before serving. They're the ultimate comfort food as they come bubbling hot and delicious straight from the oven to the table to the delight of family and friends.

Soft vegetables like broccoli can be quickly par-cooked (aka blanched). If you are using hard vegetables like potatoes or carrots or other hardy root vegetables, you'll want to par-cook for longer. Often a quick 2-5 minutes in the microwave will just give them that great head-start.

Let's talk anatomy: A standard dinner casserole usually includes a protein, a starch, a vegetable, a sauce (or other binding ingredient), and cheese. But making a casserole is not an exact science, and you can definitely break away from this formula. Check out some fun side-dish casseroles and desserts below!

In the United States, a casserole or hot dish is typically a baked food with three main components: pieces of meat (such as chicken or ground meat) or fish (such as tuna) or other protein (such as beans or tofu), various chopped or canned vegetables (such as green beans or peas), and a starchy binder (such as flour, ...

What Should I Bake In a Metal Baking Pan? We hate to say it – we've got nothing against glass, we promise! – but metal does an overall better job than glass of baking almost everything except for acidic desserts. It bakes evenly because it heats up so quickly.

The time a casserole takes to cook will vary from 2-2½ hours for chuck, blade and thick flank, up to 4 hours for shin, leg and neck. Pork cuts for braising and casseroling normally take 1½ hours, and lamb much the same.

You don't have to brown the meat, but you should do it anyway. However, you don't have to brown all of the meat. Browning is done to fully develop the meaty flavours, and if you put too much meat into the pan it will release too much moisture and not brown at all.

Try different herbs for added flavour: sage or lemon thyme work wonderfully well. For a meatier casserole, add chopped sausage or pancetta when cooking the chicken. Stir wholegrain mustard through the casserole at the end of cooking (to taste); this is especially good if you have sausage in the casserole.

Do you cook the meat first for a casserole? ›

Always Cook Meat Before Adding

Don't add raw meat to a casserole. Cooking the meat before adding it, or using up leftover cooked meat in a casserole, is the way to go.

At this point, you can either bake it right away or refrigerate the casserole overnight and for up to 24 hours. During this time, the flavors mingle together and the bread has a chance to soak up some of the liquid and flavor.

recipes ask that you sauté onions before adding other ingredients when making soups, stews, or other dishes that contain lots of liquid (as opposed to something like a stir fry).

The extender/starch, a food ingredient that helps thicken a dish. – Dry bread crumbs; cooked, diced potatoes; pasta, rice, grits, or barley; cooked, mashed dry beans.

There are 3 main parts that make up a casserole: the starchy base, the filling, and the sauce. The base: The starchy base is the foundation of the casserole. It isn't going to be the most flavorful part of the dish, but it is what will make the casserole filling and satisfying.

A casserole dish is always oven-safe and can be ceramic, enameled cast iron or simply a 9 x 13-inch glass baking pan. It should be deep enough and wide enough to hold a good quantity of food; 3-quart sizes are popular but not the only option.