from "The Betty Betz Teen-Age Cookbook" (Henry Holt, 1953)
IT SEEMS THAT in every ancient recipe box or ladies’ auxilary-style sisterly cookbook I find, there’s a recipe (or several) for tuna casserole. I didn’t grow up eating it, though I do remember having it once at a friend’s house. Unlike my mother, who taught herself to cook by following along with Julia Child and seemed a bit suspicious of convenience-food casseroles, my friend’s mom, Mrs. Marsh, swore that she couldn’t cook anything without a can of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup. Hmmm…
Kevin's Mom's Tuna Casserole (photo courtesy of Kevin Dorff)
That would no doubt be sweet music to the Campbell’s Soup folks, who likely invented the tuna casserole (for the purpose of selling Cream of Mushroom) in the 1930s or ’40s. According to the (completely fascinating) website The Food Timeline, the first recipe for tuna casserole appeared in a Campbell’s cookbook in 1941.
Photo courtesy of Robert Jones
It must have struck a chord, because post-World War II, the ladies auxiliary cookbooks that we love so here on TSP are rife with riffs on the original.
from "A Book of Favorite Recipes" Compiled by The Community Cooks of The Sisters of Christian Charity Motherhouse at Wilmette, Illinois (1967)
There’s Tuna Casserole, plain and simple; Tuna Noodle Casserole (the version I remember from my friend’s house); Company Tuna Bake (fancy!) and even Tuna Peanut Casserole (which, can I just say it, sounds disgusting, though I’ve included the recipe so you can judge for yourself).
from "A Book of Favorite Recipes" Compiled by The Community Cooks of The Sisters of Christian Charity Motherhouse at Wilmette, Illinois (1967)
My friend Kari, an inimitable writer, crafter, stylist and all around great sister-friend, swears by tuna casserole. For her and her husband, it’s serious comfort food. Sister that she is, she agreed to share her recipe.
Kari’s Old School Tuna Casserole (courtesy of Kari Chapin)
Kari says: “While you can class or health this up, I like it best the old fashioned way. This is a true comfort food for me. I tried it with wheat shells and fancier, healthier soups and without the gross fried onions, and let’s just say, I only want to eat this the ‘bad’ way. I’m pretty sure it’s not meant to be healthy.”
1 box of whatever pasta shape you like best for holding onto sauce–we go for small shell pasta
1 can Campbell’s cheddar cheese soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup (Cream of anything works really. Broccoli and cheddar soup is very good too.)
1 large can of chunk light tuna in water
1 bag of frozen peas (or 1 can of canned peas, if you prefer)
salt and pepper
For the topping some people like crumbled potato chips but I like French’s fried onion bits.Boil the noodles. Drain tuna.
Rinse peas (if you are using frozen) so they are not all clumped together.Put cooked noodles, drained tuna, soups and rinsed peas into a dutch oven. Mix it all up really well and salt and pepper to taste. Cover with fried onion bits. Or if you use chips, smash them up and sprinkle on top.
Bake in oven. I usually use a 2.5 quart dutch oven and bake it at 350 F for 1/2 hour or so.
Serve it up in bowls with more fried onions on top.
Enjoy.
Do you and your sisters partake of a tuna bake? We’d love to have the recipe.
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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Tuna Noodle Casserole was my favorite dish in second grade, so when our teacher asked us to bring in our favorite recipe to put together a cookbook as a mother’s day gift for our moms, I brought in her recipe for Tuna Noodle Casserole. When the mimeographed cookbook was published, my mother was humiliated that she had offered a recipe that required Campbell’s soup. By the way, she used cream of celery soup in her and alway toasted the bread crums first in butter in a frying pan. Very happy memories. Almost as good as Seven Layer Casserole from the Hunt’s Tomato Sauce “cookbook”
I varied between requesting Tuna Noodle Casserole and Ali’s Potato Bake (think ground beef, hash browns, cheddar cheese, and french fried onions) for my birthday meals. I was pretty easy to please.
I am so disturbed by this, but not so ill as to refrain from suggesting follow up posts . . . Green Bean Casserole, anyone? Perhaps a series on the wonders of canned soup? In my family, we dubbed our (wicked-ish) stepmother’s chicken-baked-for-hours-in-canned-cream-0f-whatever Famous Dry Chicken.
My mom was never able to persuade me to eat canned tuna; but I too collect old community cookbooks, and the decades of tuna casserole ritual – like the awesome examples you’ve posted here – almost make me feel guilty for not giving it a try. If it’s comfort food to more than a generation, there must be something special – right?
Funny, funny, funny. Just last week I had a free night to eat whatever I wanted because my husband wasn’t going to be home for dinner. (I even blogged about it.) Guess what I ultimately settled on — tuna casserole!!! I’m ashamed to admit I ate the whole casserole myself in just a couple meals (one of them breakfast).
Dan–so now I realize you’re not only the best brother in the world, but also the sweetest son? That is such a cute story, not that I would expect anything less from you.
Alison–I’m going to start looking for versions of Ali’s Bake for the next installment of the Campy Comfort Food Chronicles–I’m sure I’ve got about 12 versions lurking in my cookbook cabinet.
Michelle–I love that you have a (dark) food memory of your wicked stepmother. Very funny. And I promise not to make you eat casserole, ever again, though I’ve always kind of wanted to make Green Bean Casserole, since that was another all-American dish that totally escaped my Gourmet-magazine devotée mom.
Marilyn–I LOVE canned tuna, and only gave it up when I was trying to get pregnant the first time, out of health concerns. Every once in a while I special order some supposedly mercury free tuna, and indulge, or really treat myself with my ultimate tuna experience, a tuna melt, on rye, with swiss cheese. Now THAT’S comfort food. (And my mom, the gourmet, is now addicted to Subway tuna subs–so everything comes full circle, I suppose!)
Christine–You cannot leave that comment here without also sharing your recipe, whether here, or on your great blog. C’mon now. Get typing.
Oh, I didn’t bother leaving it because it’s the same as everyone else’s… First heated the obligatory can of mushroom soup, some milk, couple little cans of tuna, and I was out of peas so used frozen mixed Italian veggies, some pepper, dried parsley, dill, garlic powder, and onion powder. Then mixed with cooked noodles/pasta. I did use whole wheat (mix of noodles and macaroni — whatever was left in the packages). Topped with shredded cheese from a bag & Italian breadcrumbs out of the can. Dotted the top with Smart Balance (because I’m healthy like that).
I made too much to fit in one casserole dish so have a small one in the freezer. It will not be in there long.
Gotta say I LOVE tuna cassarole — even if I haven’t had it in decades, as my husband and daughter have an aversion to anything canned — where they got their taste buds, I don’t know!! ;-)
My grandmother was a proper Southern lady, English teacher and Methodist minister’s wife. Every holiday meal was an event that included several meats, many vegetables, home baked bread and home baked pies. Needless to say, after putting on the feast(s) every year she was exhausted and stressed out.
My mother, the rebel, the black sheep and the most educated of the family — having left the South for scandalous New York City and Columbia for grad school — decided she would remedy the situation and take over the preparation of Christmas Eve dinner. She, my mother, had sufficiently raised her consciousness that she no longer felt bound by traditional convention (she also probably burned her bra and voted for Shirley Chisholm…).
So…her main dish of choice…was tuna cassarole, or on alternating years hamburger cassarole…
I grew up with Tuna Cassarole as the meal I waited for Santa on, the meal where the whole family settled down together for a “long winter’s nap”…which may explain why I still love it so…for me, it is the ultimate comfort food.
…and my grandmother was better rested to prepare the still outrageous feast that was Christmas up until the year she turned 92…
I think I might have to make it very soon here in ridiculously health conscious Northern California.
Paige, I’ll revisit the tuna melt; determined to overcome canned-tuna thing. When we were kids a friend’s mom always forked the stuff over Kraft mac & cheese, and I never got over it. Also – just noticed that one of the above vintage recipes is from Wilmette, Illinois – my hometown!
I fixed tuna noodle casserole last night….and served it to my granddaughter…who we just found out is going to have a little sister next August, incidentally.
The beat goes on.
To make the image of tuna casserole worse, my grandmother called it tuna/pea wiggle. And it really did wiggle and jiggle. Uck.
When I was young and hungry I made tuna casserole with rice instead of noodles. Yummy!
Just stumbled on this site, but had to comment on the subject of tuna casserole, which I LOVE. Thought I’d have to give it up for good when I had to go gluten and dairy free a few years ago, but then found this recipe (the review is mine with my tweaks). Hallelujah! http://www.recipezaar.com/Wheat-Dairy-Free-Tuna-Casserole-With-Rice-Pasta-339474