Overdoing it with a certain ingredient is just one of the many crimes against
casserole that many of us are guilty of. Here are all the reasons why no one is
cheering for your casserole at the office potluck.
Casseroles are an absolute favorite. What's not to like about creamy sauce and chunks of meat
and vegetables? The dish is bursting with fresh flavors which makes it a fulfilling
meal to enjoy. But it's easy to forget one seemingly mundane element that can cost you
a near-perfect casserole: Greasing your baking dish. Yup. It's a simple mistake anyone can make,
from a rookie home cook to a five-star restaurant chef on a time crunch.
You have to grease your casserole dish, especially if you want your
food to be presentable. Not only does grease prevent food from sticking to the bottom,
but it also allows you to easily — and neatly — remove each slice. Several items commonly found
in the kitchen like shortening, ghee, butter, and cooking oil are good candidates. However,
keep in mind that each ingredient yields different results. For instance, cooking
spray is best for low-fat recipes, whereas butter can transfer its flavor to the food.
Once you've selected your grease, it's time to slap it on your baking dish. Make
sure you apply it to the entire surface, then sprinkle flour over the greased area.
It's all sugar, spice, and
everything nice until you make a mistake with salt while cooking. Overdoing it with salt can quickly
overpower the other flavors in your casserole. Conversely, using too little can make it bland,
so it's best to stick to the recipe measurements instead of winging it. If you have already added
too much salt, don't worry as a handful of kitchen remedies can rectify the mistake.
"Oh, thank god!"
One way is by adding an acidic element like lemon juice or vinegar to counterbalance the
salty flavor. However, vinegar can easily clash with other ingredients,
so an alternative such as tomato or tomato paste is a good way to tone down
the salt. The second way is to add sugar to your casserole. Although sugar is not
typically part of the ingredient list, it can be used to tweak salty flavors.
You can also serve the dish with a condiment like sour cream or add dairy products like
heavy cream or cheese. Cheddar or Gouda are typically used in casseroles, so you can add a
bit more to neutralize the salt. You can also add raw potatoes to absorb the excess salt,
leaving you with a well-balanced casserole that'll have you begging for another bite.
Every baked meal needs adequate time in the oven to achieve the desired golden-brown
perfection you're aiming for. Preheating your oven ensures that food is cooking
at the right temperature. If you don't bring it to temperature ahead of time,
chances are that you'll need to leave the dish in for longer than what's stated in
the recipe. It's also beneficial to use a food thermometer to check your oven's temperature.
Sometimes, this extra step might be the difference
between the world's best casserole and an average-tasting meal. Generally,
it's a requirement to make food that is evenly baked throughout. This means no
vegetables or chunks of meat are overcooked, cold, or underdone, and nothing smells burnt.
Fluctuations in temperature occur in ovens that haven't been preheated since it takes time for
the appliance to reach the desired heat. The oven goes through a cycle of high and low temperatures
as it stabilizes to the dial you have set. So the longer you preheat, the more accurate the actual
temperature you'll be baking at. If you're not in the mood to eat a soggy undercooked or burnt mess,
then give your oven a chance to preheat as you prepare your favorite casserole recipe.
Cheese lovers stand by the belief that every cook should do their duty by putting
cheese in everything. But the reality is you can't. No matter how much you might want to,
you can't toss just any old cheese you feel like into a casserole.
For starters, you'll want to consider the other ingredients you're putting
in the dish and what flavors you're seeking. There are specific cheeses
that work best with certain items and the overall profile of the dish.
"American cheese! Cheddar cheese! Pizza cheese!"
Cheese brings a salty, fatty, and acidic component to any dish you add it to. You
can add aged cheese like Parmigiano-Reggiano, Pecorino Romano, cheddar, or Gouda for added
complexity. If you're looking for a fresher taste, you can add crème fraîche or a tangy
Boursin. If you're into the gooey kind of cheese that will melt in your mouth
with the perfect amount of stretchiness, then you're better off picking mozzarella,
Jack, Swiss, raclette, and Fontina. Moreover, remember that hard cheeses need to be grated,
whereas soft and semi-soft styles should be diced before being added to the casserole.
For casseroles, your choices pan out to three baking dishes: metal or aluminum, glass,
and ceramic. Of the three, a metal baking dish is the poorest choice. It comes down to the fact
that metal is a conductor, which means that it heats up and cools down fast. On the other hand,
glass and ceramic pans are good insulators. They tend to heat up slowly and take their sweet time
cooling down. Ergo, they are good options for keeping your food warm for a more extended period.
It's hard to beat a plate of hot piping food, especially if it has cheese. Similarly,
a casserole is best enjoyed straight out of the oven with steam wafting
through the kitchen attracting hungry diners. However, you can't have that outcome if you
make your casserole in a metal pan, since the material snatches the opportunity of
eating a hot meal. As the metal pan cools down, so does your delicious casserole.
Opening your oven door just because you are curious about how the food is doing
or simply can't wait until it's finished isn't going to make it cook any faster. If anything,
it slows down the cooking process and could even ruin your casserole. The oven temperature can
drop up to 50% when you open the door. This makes it fundamental to wait until you reach
the minimum cooking time stated in the recipe or you might end up having to bake it far longer.
All the heat that was concentrated inside the oven working its magic to give you a
perfectly delicious casserole now has a chance to escape. Furthermore, your oven has to work
hard to get back to the desired temperature, starting the tedious process all over again.
Be aware your senses can be a great resource
to determine whether or not your baked goods or casseroles are done.
"I smell something burning."
"Oh, darn!"
If your kitchen smells wonderful and the air is pleasantly rich with the
aroma of a delicious casserole, then it's almost ready. You can also turn on the
oven light to take a peek and use visual cues to estimate how much time is left.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and we like to see it in the form of uniformly
cut vegetables. Aesthetics aside, there's more than one reason to cut your vegetables evenly.
Doing so is not only crucial to the success of a dish but also ensures a better taste by
allowing them to properly cook. There are a variety of different cutting techniques
that you can use to cut your veggies down to size. Whichever one you choose,
uniformly cut vegetables are likely to cook at the same rate.
Vegetables are a great way to add texture to your casserole. However,
imagine a carrot chunk in one bite and chewing on a minced piece in the next. This contrast of
textures and consistency isn't the kind of clash you want in your dish. The pleasure of eating a
delicious casserole is reduced if some bites are overcooked while others are raw and crunchy. So if
you're looking to make a finger-lickin' delicious casserole, chop up your veggies the same size.
This little bit of effort will go a long way in taking your dish to the next level.
There's no doubt that adding herbs to a dish infuses it with exquisite flavors. Don't we
all know someone with a secret ingredient — always an herb — that everyone wants to
discover? Wouldn't we all like to add some herbal magic to our recipes too?
However, knowing how to choose the right kind of herb for a particular dish is as essential
as adding it. Rosemary, oregano, basil, parsley, and bay leaves are all options
that go well with many casserole recipes. More importantly, we can't stress enough the
importance of using fresh herbs as much as possible because their flavor often
changes when they are dried, ultimately affecting the overall taste of the dish.
If you really want to add a fresh element to your casserole, growing your own herb garden is
definitely an option for a true farm-to-table experience. If that's not in the cards,
most grocery stores carry a selection of fresh herbs. Once you start using them,
you'll see they are a cheap and efficient route to making a dish stand out.
Unless you're making a vegetarian menu, meat is the heart of any
casserole. An experienced cook knows the little tricks that give a dish that extra kick of flavor.
While most people may not think it's essential, searing the meat before incorporating the other
ingredients will give your casserole an extra oomph that makes it stand out from the rest.
The most effective way to brown meat without losing its nutritional juices is to sear it
at a high temperature. Cooking it at a medium temperature results in a greater loss of meat
juice, whereas cooking it at too high of a temperature will cause the juices to burn,
losing all the rich flavors. It is imperative to get that balance just right,
in order to improve the taste of the casserole.
If you're cooking big batches of casserole and have a large amount of meat to brown,
avoid putting it in the pan all at once. Overcrowding it will make the meat too wet,
ultimately beating the purpose of this step. In addition, be sure to re-integrate the juices from
the meat that remain in the pan after searing, as they are the root of the overall flavor.
Whether you're baking a cheesy potato casserole, loaded baked potato casserole,
or any other recipe that uses the very versatile potato, you will have to first parboil them.
Perhaps you've skipped this step in the past, unsure of what parboiling really is. Well,
it's exactly what the name suggests: to partially boil something. Parboiling
potatoes is an essential step in baking them. Otherwise, it takes an excessive amount of time
to reach the desired softness and tenderness that is the mark of a quality-cooked potato.
If you use raw potatoes in your casserole, they will still cook in the oven,
but the result will be different than if you boiled them first. Since they are already
partially cooked when parboiled, the oven simply works to make them soft and moist.
So if you desire a crunchy potato crust, parboiling your spuds is the way to go.
You'll see why it's so important when you don't and end up taking a bite of overcooked vegetables
and undercooked potatoes. Plus, parboiling actually speeds up the total cooking time,
allowing your potatoes to cook in the same time frame as the other vegetables in your casserole.
There's nothing more tedious than having to measure out all of your ingredients. However,
precision in baking is fundamental.
"There is no room for error!"
It takes a little effort to measure everything,
but if you don't get it right, you can wave goodbye to a perfectly cooked casserole.
For instance, if you were to add the wrong quantity of thickener
by overdoing the flour-to-water ratio, you get a pasty texture and the flour will leave
behind a weird taste that could ruin the casserole's entire flavor. Not to mention,
it will be a sticky mess. Moreover, flour overuse can cause your casserole to be hard and dry,
making it inedible. Imagine it all going to waste.
To avoid these outcomes, it's recommended to use graduated dry measuring cups designed
to be filled and leveled to the brim when measuring dry ingredients. On the other hand,
liquid measuring cups are labeled with volume marks. Getting your ingredients and proportions
right is the best way to cook or bake any dish while avoiding a culinary disaster.