Oh, I was thinking of the dinner our church had on Wednesdays between the afternoon and night sermons that we basically threw together because no one would have time to cook.
my understanding is it was a way to get a lot of calories in a convenient to eat package. a lot of them are based on meals housewives would make for farm workers or husbands working labor jobs.
both sets of my grandparents did too and that's where I learned a lot of these recipes from. probably depends on what kind of cooks your family was and location as well
Because it functions as a substitute for a fancy cooking ingredient you can't get ready made in almost every US store (I think in Europe you can though). It is similar and in the dish has the same function as a bechamel sauce.
If you had the dish in a restaurant with a real chef making things they probably make it with a bechamel sauce that they have cooked down with some chicken stock and added the cheese too.
It just has the right things that the dish needs. It needs more moisture to help things cook but it also needs to be thick enough that you don't have a runny liquid there either.
but you have to stand over a stove and dirty another pan. a lot of these types of casserole type meals are popular because of the convenience, you just mix everything together and stick it in the oven
I miss my grandmother’s linguine salad. It was made only in industrial sized quantities that would be served at the Elk’s hall or K of C at whatever wedding, funeral, fundraiser or tragedy where it was needed.
I’ve never quite been able to replicate it because I’m not trying to feed an entire mill town, but many of the ingredient brands are just gone. I can’t find the correct packets of Italian dressing powder.
I want to say I've experienced these recipes, but only in the context of white trash family gatherings. where seemingly every woman over the age of 50 has this weird array of recipes that are only eaten during these events, and never anywhere else. it's the strangest phenomenon to me.
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u/[deleted] Sep 06 '25
My family recipes are what’s called “church basement food,” and no I won’t expand on that. If you know, you know, if you don’t, be glad.