In article >, Frogleg
> wrote:

> This was touched on peripherally in another thread, but I'm still
> wondering. How come so many casserole recipes include mostly cooked
> ingredients, and then specify a 45-minute to 1-1/2-hr cooking time?
> I mean, you got y'r condensed mushroom soup and y'r cooked, diced
> chicken, and y'r cooked noodles and y'r bread-crumb topping -- why
> does this take an hour in the oven? To evapotate the water in wet
> ingredients and make everything sort of glom together? To make the
> water soak up the starch ingredient and produce a thick 'sauce'? To
> keep the kitchen warm on cold winter evenings?

To heat it through and meld the delectable canned-goods flavors
together. I usually do my hotdishes for about 30 minutes at 350 deg F
for a 1-1/2 quart size casserole dish. Heating it through will take
longer is a large container. Shape of the container will affect the
time, too. Something baked in a 9" square dish will take less time to
heat through than the something in a container of the same volume but
deeper. My twenty cents worth.
--
-Barb, <www.jamlady.eboard.com> updated 1-31-04
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail;
a true friend will be sitting next to you saying, "Damn,that was fun!"