Customer Reviews

Crazy for Casseroles: 275 All-American Hot-Dish Classics (Non)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I hate to disagree with the glowing reviews for this book but since I relied on the other reviews I had read to buy this book, I thought maybe a differing view would be useful. I am a seasoned cook and can say that this is one of the most poorly written cookbooks I have ever cooked from. I have made 3 recipes thus far. All have had major proportion issues and have lacked flavor. Even corrections I made as I went based on previous experiences could not save these recipes. If you like food that is basic in flavor (kinda like standard cafeteria fare) then you will probably like this book. If you like flavor in your food, then I suggest not buying this one.

Homey fare, from Texas Hash Casserole, to Portland Oyster and Bacon Pie, and Michigan Baked Fish Casserole, Villas' (The French Country Kitchen") collection of one-dish meals takes us across the country from breakfast (Weekend Egg and Feta Cheese, Plantation Grits and Cheddar) to dessert (Raspberry and Blueberry Crunch, Florida Key Lime Pudding). All the old favorites are here - Yankee Hot Pot, Sally Lunn Casserole Bread, Tuna Noodle - plus some new-fangled favorites like Minnesota Quail with Wild Rice and Raisins, and some local curiosities like New Hampshire Turnip, Beet and Hazelnut Soufflé (Villas even makes this sound good). But New England holds it own with Cheddar, Onion and Walnut Pie, Indian Pudding, Yankee Oyster Pie and Vermont Walnut Casserole Bread. Eggs, butter and cream abound as does macaroni and cheese in various combinations. Succulent meat dishes are also well represented, from Georgia Chicken and Peanut Bake and Country Captain, to Spiced Lamb Chops and Radicchio Casserole, Baked Spareribs with Apples and Prunes, Nevada Basque Chicken, and Venison and Wild Mushroom Bake.

Villas sprinkles this well-rounded, all-American comfort-food collection with tips on everything from freezing to condiment brands and baking dish equivalents. Recipe prefaces provide background history and cooking suggestions. Useful for entertaining as well as everyday, this book will see plenty of use in any kitchen.

James Villas has written a book which may succeed in single-handedly succeed in reviving an interest in the great American casserole. I'm not entirely sure what the trendy term `old school' means, exactly, especially as I have mostly seen it in connection with motorcycles, but I am certain that Jim Villas is an `old school' culinary writer and that casseroles are an `old school' kind of food.

Jim Villas, although much younger, belongs to the James Beard school of culinary writing, along with his Beard protégés Barbara Kafka and Marian Cunningham. As he recounts in this book, the American casserole, based on several different European precursors, clearly reached it's apotheosis after World War II and went into eclipse in the late seventies and eighties with the scorning of canned and otherwise processed ingredients.

That the casserole is making a comeback is also clear from both this book and from it's starring role in a recent episode of Alton Brown's very trendy `Good Eats' Food Network show.

In the introduction to the book, Villas eschews some of the less savory casserole ingredients of yore such as canned meats and vegetables, frozen chives, dried parsley flakes, processed cheeses, liquid smoke, MSG, crushed potato chips or canned fruit cocktail. He is not entirely born again, since he does embrace some traditional casserole roles and ingredients such as canned soups, frozen vegetables, dried noodles, bread stuffings, and leftovers. In fact, some themes are so close to the `Good Eats' episode that I suspect Alton Brown may have used this book as a reference for his show.

The book opens with a very worthy introduction on casserole `hardware' materials and sizes plus advice on freezing casseroles. The casserole pantry repeats the theme of a reasonable use of prepackaged ingredients, citing Campbell's condensed cream of chicken, cream of mushroom, and cream of celery soups as essential. Some recipes even state that he tried to create the casserole with a homemade replacement for the Campbell's product and found the home brewed substitute wanting.

The names of casserole types are a feast for the crossword puzzle addict. There are quiches, stratas, scrambles, pilafs, pies, perloos, surprises, suppers, shroupes, royales, supremes, puddings, bakes, gratins, souffles, cobblers, crisps, crunches, and delights. Some of these names such as quiches, pilafs, and souffles indicate that the author may be coloring outside the lines a bit here and there, but I do not find this a criticism of the book. It adds to the value of the book as a source of good one-dish meals centered on the American classic. The author also seem to color outside the lines a bit when he includes some of his own recipes, but as Jim Villas has recently acquired the status of a classic American writer, I will give him a pass to contribute classic recipes himself.

This is one of my favorite kinds of cookbooks, as it makes it easy to find a recipe to fit a particular need. Anyone who shares that attitude about cookbooks will do well to purchase a copy of this book.

This is a lovely, cheerfully written cookbook, and only one recipe I have prepared from it has been any good. The rest are boring and flavorless. I love casseroles, but I've finally given up on this book.

Update 11/12/2007: OK, so I didn't give up. I just made the San Antonio Chili Casserole. Sounded good: chili with a cornbread topping. Did he leave out ingredients for the cornbread or what? Butter and eggs and nothing else? Added some buttermilk, and although the chili wasn't terrible -- standard beans (lots of beans) and ground beef -- the recipe had to be tweaked too much to call it a success. Get some Junior League or community church cookbook if you want these recipes -- anything!

Update 01/26/2009: OK, because I am a masochist (and apparently a sadist to my family), I tried one more recipe (Mamie's Ham and Black-Eyed Pea Supper), and I now plan to permanently delete anything by Mr. Villas from my recipe file. You have been warned.

Villas is right, it is American, this casserole. It defines regional cooking and it has its own jargon: stratas, perloos, shroups. royales, supremes, gratins, souffles, cobblers, crisps, delights, etc.

So if you don't know all of them, this is the fun of exploring this great comfort food area that we all grew up with. These are the dishes that people have always served and offered up to new neighborhood moveins to potlucks to you name it.

There are simply too many just great recipes here among the 275 to pick only a few. So simply pointing out a few more than a few greats: I agree with Villas that "Craig's Chicken Spaghetti" is a casserole masterpiece; Lizzie's Low Country Chicken Bog; Chicken And Sausage Casserole; Michigan Baked Fish Casserole; Paper Bag Chicken Casserole; Ann Arbor Venison and Wild Mushroom Bake; Yukon Gold Potato and Goat Cheese Casserole; New Hampshire Turnip, Beet and Hazelnut Casserole; Midwestern Wild Plum Jelly Rice Pudding; Peach, Raspberry and Almond Brown Betty; Chilled Seafood, Mango and Rice Casserole.

This is supplemented with good primer on essentials of casserole making and its equipment, techniques, and pantry essential list.

Although void of any photos, the sidebar descriptions which accompany each recipe are enough to get the salivation going and out come the casseroles and one is off.

Beaut of a casserole companion.

Although it requires some extra time to assemble, I always have plenty leftover to eat on next day. Also, I can freeze them. It is worth of extra labor. We really LOVE Blue Plate Beef and Cheese Noodle and Classic Tuna Noodle Casserole. Those really surprised our guests! Villas really made this close to perfect ones. I enjoyed his details on how he adjusted specific foods and the recipes' history. I like one straight way to a best casserole than trying on many recipes people giving or I find thru magazines. This book is one! Strongly recommend this one!

I also like the big book of casseroles by Maryana Vollstedt. The recipes give ingredients that I have on hand. They are mostly from stratch, not canned ones. Comparing to both book, Crazy about Casseroles is more like Classic, International, and Historic ones while the The Big Book of Casseroles is more on from stratch and similar ingredients on other recipes. I love both books, anyway!!

To me, the whole point of a casserole is "quick and easy," so I want recipes where I just dump things into the casserole dish and put them in the oven. But, like many other casserole and "hot dish" cookbooks, most of the recipes in this book require you to do a tremendous amount of cooking and prep before you put the stuff in the casserole dish -- and, since the ingredients are already cooked, why do they need an hour of baking time? Answer: so they can be called "casseroles" or "one-dish meals". Most of these things could be stirred together and served right after the stove-top cooking process (maybe with minor adjustments), without wasting another hour in the oven. I would also add that many of these casseroles are loaded with butter and are too fattening for me. I took this book out of the library and photocopied about a dozen things -- that was it.

I'm a single girl with very little baking experience, and I took this cookbook out of the library because I like cooking large portions that I can eat throughout the week. I like the idea of making casseroles for that purpose.

While the book is great to read and all the descriptions sound mouth-watering, it's hard to find a recipe that isn't loaded down with butter, cream, cheese, and/or eggs. Even the non-meat recipes are extremely fatty. Tonight I made the Monterey Celery, Almond, and Water Chestnut Bake on page 67. Not knowing enough about baking to be comfortable substituting lower fat ingredients without worrying that it would ruin the dish, following the recipe I used an entire stick of butter, three-quarters of a cup of half & half, and a half cup of Parmesan cheese. I was hoping it would turn out to be a very rewarding bunch of fat and that I'd be so happy I made it. However, tasting the casserole, it's not bad, but it's overly buttery and creamy. I ate one serving of it just now and feel kind of gross, which is not how I like to feel after eating a home-cooked meal. So it's a shame that not only does this recipe involve tons of butter and cream, but it's way more than is needed in the first place.

Another issue I have with this book is that nearly every recipe is complex and involves several phases of cooking before you even get to the casserole dish.

Based on a couple of the other negative reviews, it seems many of the recipes fall into these traps. I'd say the book is worth taking out of the library, or even purchasing, if you want casserole recipes for buffets, potlucks, or other special occasions. It's especially helpful if you're a skilled baker and are just looking for some new inspiration as there are casseroles in here involving a number of different meats, seafoods, vegetables, fruits, and grains. But if you're looking for a practical cookbook of things you can make any day of the week, look elsewhere.

Most of these casseroles require a lot of prep work in the beginning and then after already cooking it you put it in a casserole dish and put in the oven for another 1 to 1 1/2. After spending 45 minutes to cook the rice and then another 20 softening the vegetables and then frying the chicken you could just serve it as is rather than now putting it all in a casserole dish and baking it for 60-90 minutes. I'm making casseroles to beat the clock not fight against it.

The author self-admits he does not watch calories so many of these recipes are full of full-fat sour cream, butter, milk, mayonnaise, cheese, etc. You would just have to make your changes based upon your dietary needs.

I think many might find the food combinations a little bizarre. Pimentos, mushrooms, tuna and boiled eggs. I did make the Chicken Divan with almonds and we ate it before it even made it to the casserole dish. I had to cook the broccoli first, then make the sauce so I just needed to take 10 minutes more to cook the chicken slices rather than pouring it all in a casserole dish and waiting another 35 minutes. How strange to have a casserole book where everything gets cooked before it gets put in the casserole dish.

I would pass on this one, try Bake until Bubbly: The Ultimate Casserole Cookbook instead.

A broad range of recipes written with a facile hand -- well-written with a little background information on each recipe. The layout is a bit loud but doesn't interfere with the information.

There are different sections for various types of casseroles and some unusual but not exotic ingredients and combinations. No apologies are made for store-bought pastry crusts nor use of condensed soups. The tone is worldy but down-to-earth. I'd recently read by Mr. Villas and was impressed enough with that cookbook to purchase this one and I'm not at all disappointed. A friendly, knowledgeable voice throughout. Excellent cookbook overall. Lean but thorough with no waste whatsoever. No outlandish recipes. Highly recommended.