That seems a little contradictory to everything I’ve learned since I married into a Minnesotan family 15+ years ago. I’ve eaten “tater tot hot dish” everywhere from the State Fair to Duluth. Plus, my wife collects cookbooks, and she’s got cookbooks with recipes for everything from the classic Lutheran church recipe to curried chicken tater tot hot dish
So, I’m not saying your stance isn’t valid, but the state of Minnesota begs to differ
My grandparents and dad were born in Minnesota and I now live in Iowa. Tater tots are a rather new and ghoulish addition to cooking in any shape or form and hot dish is a hell of a lot older than “flaked, pressed potato bits”.
I don’t know, the Wikipedia sources credit a Mankato church in the 1930’s as having the first hotdish recipe, and tater tots are documented as being invented in 1953, so tater tots have been around for well over half the history of hotdish.
I mean, of you go to the Wikipedia page for hotdish, its primary picture is a tater tot hotdish, and it specifically calls tater tot hotdish out as an example of “a traditional hotdish”
And as a matter of personal preference, I think that potatoes in general are a far tastier and often healthier form of starch than most noodles.
Tater tots are essentially just cylindered hash browns, which I’m sure are ancient. I don’t do these hot dishes but I use tater tots in breakfast burritos from time to time
According to Google they’re from the late 1800s. Don’t get me wrong, I love meat and potato burritos. But there are pockets of Midwesterners who think tater tots are a food group, when potatoes should really be considered closer to leather shoes on the “starvation/should i eat it chart”
I read somewhere it just needs cream of something; cream of chicken is commonly used in my wife’s family recipes, especially in wild rice or broccoli cheese hot dishes.
That said, I’m not a MN native; I just married into this goodness a decade and a half back.
Here’s Tim Walz’s Tater Tot Hot Dish recipe, but it’s not really the most traditional recipe (Walz’s recipe uses turkey instead of beef, doesn’t use canned cream of mushroom soup, and traditional tater tot hot dish doesn’t have much, if any, cheese)
That said, it looks great and has a bunch of positive reviews online. My Minnesotan wife is pretty excited to try it.
Hot dish is a version of casserole that is highly cherished in Minnesota (particularly tater tot hot dish)
If it’s got tater tots in it, it is NOT hot dish. Hot dish has noodles. Tots is a casserole thing.
That seems a little contradictory to everything I’ve learned since I married into a Minnesotan family 15+ years ago. I’ve eaten “tater tot hot dish” everywhere from the State Fair to Duluth. Plus, my wife collects cookbooks, and she’s got cookbooks with recipes for everything from the classic Lutheran church recipe to curried chicken tater tot hot dish
So, I’m not saying your stance isn’t valid, but the state of Minnesota begs to differ
My grandparents and dad were born in Minnesota and I now live in Iowa. Tater tots are a rather new and ghoulish addition to cooking in any shape or form and hot dish is a hell of a lot older than “flaked, pressed potato bits”.
I don’t know, the Wikipedia sources credit a Mankato church in the 1930’s as having the first hotdish recipe, and tater tots are documented as being invented in 1953, so tater tots have been around for well over half the history of hotdish.
I mean, of you go to the Wikipedia page for hotdish, its primary picture is a tater tot hotdish, and it specifically calls tater tot hotdish out as an example of “a traditional hotdish”
And as a matter of personal preference, I think that potatoes in general are a far tastier and often healthier form of starch than most noodles.
Tater tots are essentially just cylindered hash browns, which I’m sure are ancient. I don’t do these hot dishes but I use tater tots in breakfast burritos from time to time
According to Google they’re from the late 1800s. Don’t get me wrong, I love meat and potato burritos. But there are pockets of Midwesterners who think tater tots are a food group, when potatoes should really be considered closer to leather shoes on the “starvation/should i eat it chart”
The key ingredient is cream of mushroom soup. It’s not hot dish unless there’s cream of mushroom soup
Aka the Lutheran binder.
I read somewhere it just needs cream of something; cream of chicken is commonly used in my wife’s family recipes, especially in wild rice or broccoli cheese hot dishes.
That said, I’m not a MN native; I just married into this goodness a decade and a half back.
To be a true hot dish you need cream of mushroom soup. No matter what.
Love wild rice in everything though. Another true Midwest food
preach
Only required ingredient
Thanks! Going to find a recipe and give it a shot. Can’t turn down tater tots.
Here’s Tim Walz’s Tater Tot Hot Dish recipe, but it’s not really the most traditional recipe (Walz’s recipe uses turkey instead of beef, doesn’t use canned cream of mushroom soup, and traditional tater tot hot dish doesn’t have much, if any, cheese)
That said, it looks great and has a bunch of positive reviews online. My Minnesotan wife is pretty excited to try it.