Casserole or Stew?

Asked on 27 Jan 2021 by Simon01

Sorry if this is an obvious one, but can you explain the difference between a stew and a casserole. Is it that the stew has more liquid and vegetables which are cooked in the liquiod like soup?

Many thanks.

Eileen

Lindsey, Food Editor replied

Hello Eileen,

Delia included this in her Complete Cookery Course which will answer your question.

Best wishes

Lindsey

Simon01 replied

Oh right. I'll dig them out. Thank you. Eileen

Lindsey, Food Editor replied

There is a link in my reply

Simon01 replied

Hello Lindsey, I've checked all 3 of Delias's books but they don't address my question.. However, I found lots of other nuggets, and although Book 2 refers to "casseroles and stews" in the Index, it does not address the difference.

Lindsey, Food Editor replied

This is what Delia has written about Stews and Casseroles…

This info is here on line and also in the complete cookery course.

All best wishes

Lindsey

Stews, casseroles, ragouts, hotpots, carbonnades, navarins… there are any number of names for what is essentially the same method of cooking meat.

All of them spring from that momentous (though unrecorded) moment in history when someone discovered that they could protect their meat from the fierce direct heat of a fire by insulating it in a clay pot. The advantages were soon obvious, I’m sure: the pot could also contain liquid and vegetables and flavouring which the meat could absorb, and the longer slower cooking made the meat more tender, no matter what part of the animal it came from. Nothing has really changed today, except perhaps for the clay pot, now replaced by decorative oven-to-table casseroles.

We tend to lump together all recipes that are cooked in a pot and call them casseroles. But strictly speaking, there is a difference. Stewing is done on the top of a cooker with heat being applied directly to the underneath of the pot; while casseroling takes place inside the oven with heat circulating all around the pot. In both cases the meat is cut up fairly small and cooked in a liquid (stock, wine, water, cider or whatever).

Simon01 replied

Hi, cannot find that reference in my books, but thanks for this Lindsey and it was not what I thought. So a stew is done on top of the stove and the casserole is cooked in the oven!! I thought it was to do with the balance of liquid and/or vegetables. I love casseroles, but I've always disliked stews and maybe it's the cooking method that reminds me of soup.

Thanks again.

Regards.

Eileen