On 3/15/2013 9:55 PM, Nancy2 wrote:
> On Mar 15, 6:29 pm, jmcquown > wrote:
>> On 3/15/2013 7:15 PM, sf wrote:> On Fri, 15 Mar 2013 18:50:15 -0400, jmcquown >
>>> wrote:
>>
>>>> I do love flipping through these old cookbooks from the 'Recipes on
>>>> Parade' series, circa the 1960's. In the recent chili thread there was
>>>> discussion of chili-mac and beefaroni-type dishes. I chuckled when I
>>>> read the ingredients in this. (Recipe courtesy of Mrs. June Stoddard,
>>>> Erie Army Depot, Port Clinton, Ohio. Hoo-yeah, you just know this is a
>>>> Midwest USA thing!)
>>
>>>> Beef and Noodle Casserole
>>
>>> That turned my stomach just to read the ingredients. It wasn't a
>>> midwest thing where I lived and I left Michigan in 1965.
>>
>> Of course I mentioned the midwest because it does seem to be casserole
>> (hot dish) country. I can't say I ever ate a lot of casseroles even
>> though Mom was from Ohio.
>>
>> Jill
>
> Hot dish is mostly a Minnesota term, as far as I can tell. Here in
> Iowa, we have casseroles, but not real often any more. The 60s were
> the peak for "one dish meals," or casseroles, because of the huge
> influx of mothers joining the workforce and the need to fix something
> reasonably quick, nutritious and filling for the family's dinner. At
> least, that is what I recall. I was a newly-married working woman in
> 1962.

A quick search of the phrase 'hot dish' using Google Ngram viewer
casts some light on the origins of the phrase as it is commonly used
in Minnesota today. Roughly a hundred years ago, the concept of
providing schoolchildren with a hot food at lunch took hold. This was
particularly espoused for Midwestern rural schools, since rural kids
often walked quite a distance to and from school. School
superintendents noted in their reports that kids given a "hot dish" to
eat at lunch performed better at school. Their recommendations
included detailed instructions as to the amount and type of cooking
equipment for each school, instructions for cooking and serving the
"hot dish" in the classroom, and even simple recipes for hot one-dish
foods to serve to the students. These weren't all casseroles, but
included simple warm desserts and hot drinks, too.

Over time the phrase "hot lunch" replaced "hot dish" for school
lunches prepared for and served to students, but apparently the
original term as a description of a simple one-dish meal stuck in the
Midwest, to a greater or lesser degree.