Like Yankee shore dinner and mid-South meat and three, hot dish (sometimes written hotdish) is a misleadingly plain term for a rousing culinary phenomenon. In the upper Midwest, hot dish is never a side dish and never trivial; it is the deluxe casserole at a church social, Independence Day party, or fiftieth wedding anniversary. While others may bring beans, salad, pie, and cookies, it is the accomplished cooks who assume hot dish responsibilities. A full meal in a casserole, it includes meat (beef most likely), vegetables (usually canned), and starch in the form of rice, noodles, Tater Tots, and/or a topping of biscuits, cornflakes, or crumbled Ritz crackers. Cream of mushroom soup is a common denominator.
A phenomenon we have noted whenever hot dish is served is that it never is anonymous. That is Gail’s Tater Tot casserole or Brenda’s tuna bake or Linda’s pork roll supreme. Indeed, at almost any community potluck event, even less important foods are referred to by their creators’ names: Martha’s baked squash, Betty’s ambrosia salad, Jim’s bread and butter pickles.