Lately, I have been pondering what my ancestors ate. I'm a ponderer by nature, and with both the time and the inclination to wonder, and with the internet, I can get lost for hours. What prompted it, this time, was discovering a 1947 cookbook in my bookshelf. "The Gentle Art of Cookery" by Mrs. C.F. Leyel and Miss Olga Hartley, first published in 1925 and still in print, apparently a classic. I may do a post on it at some point but today I just wanted to mention that with old recipes, a cook was often expected to know more. And there are certain practical reasons for this; for one, stoves didn't have the same precision as modern ones, so you wouldn't expect to see oven temperatures and possibly not cooking times. And in this book, the recipes are written as paragraphs and they don't necessarily give ingredient quantities!

Last night, I realized there was a certain wisdom to this when I decided to make an old family favourite, and that's when it struck me that I rarely use the recipe anymore. And one reason is the usual disparity between old sizes and new, as well as Metric/Imperial measurements. The other reason is because this recipe lends itself well to winging it. Let's talk about that.

Winging it: The key parts of this recipe are noodles, tuna, and soup. Everything else is personal preference and you can make something pretty basic or dress it up as you wish. Now, to stay healthy, it's good to work in vegetables, like onions -- very good for our gut health. I used a small onion and a clove of garlic. Typically, we use carrots and peas, either from a can, fresh, or frozen. With fresh or frozen, boil them with the noodles. I had bought some nice mushrooms and decided to add those. I fried the garlic, onions, and mushrooms together, and didn't use the green pepper called for in the recipe.

The soup is important. With mushrooms in the casserole, I decided to substitute cream of chicken soup for the cream of mushroom that might make it too mushroomy -- delicious -- and I love the more golden colour. My mom might also substitute cream of celery or cream of broccoli soup, whatever she has on hand. You can use any creamy soup you desire. For a topping, Mom liked buttered croutons. I chose to use some grated cheddar and parmesan. Spice it as you wish.

Be creative, try something new. There are probably a thousand variations to this classic Tuna Casserole and it would be tragic if you always had it the same way.

Nanny's Tuna Casserole

Ingredients:

1-7 oz can of tuna, mashed (170 grams)
1-10 oz can of mixed vegetables or peas & carrots (284 mL)
1-10 oz can of mushroom soup (284 mL)
1 tablespoon onion (15 mL)
1 tablespoon green pepper (15 mL)
1 to 1-1/2 cups of noodles; cooked (250-375 mL)
salt and pepper
grated cheese

Choose a pot that's big enough to eventually hold everything, and bring the salted water to a boil. Add the noodles.
While the noodles are cooking, sautée the green pepper and onion lightly.
Drain the noodles.
Mix everything together in the noodle pot.
Grease the casserole dish.
Put everything in the casserole dish.
If it seems too dry for you, you can add a little milk at this point.
Add your topping and bake in a 350°F (180 C) for 25 minutes.

I put the water on for the noodles and started cutting mushrooms. Mushrooms? If you're thinking those aren't in the recipe, go back to the section on "winging it." By the way, that's a mushroom brush. Mushroom aren't washed; they're brushed clean.

Sautéeing the onion (from my garden) and garlic.

My favourite 10" x 6" (25 x 15 cm) casserole dish. As with most of my old recipes, there are no pan sizes given.

Use whatever sizes you have that are close, and don't sweat it. It takes a particular kind of talent to ruin tuna casserole. lol. By the way, back in the 1960's and 70's, they used to call this "cooking from cans."

Onion, garlic, and mushrooms. If I had green pepper, it would have gone in there too.

I drained the noodles and started adding everything. This is flaked tuna. If you use chunk, you will need to mash it a little. The soup is hidden underneath.

The contents of the frying pan are added. Just stir everything together and put it in the casserole dish.

(Now I have to be completely honest. If you can't wait for a topping, don't care if it's heated through, and just want to eat now, you can do that right out of this pot and don't have to dirty the casserole dish. That's how I did it when I was a student. )