If Your Parents Fed You This Casserole For Dinner, You Probably Grew Up In The '70s

Whether foodies of the 1970s were jamming out to Funkadelic and Crosby, Stills, & Nash (pre-Young), or catching the latest episode of "Sanford and Son," there's a good chance they were fueled by tuna noodle casserole. The retro comfort food of canned tuna fish dotted with peas and mushrooms, blanketed under a bubbly cheese topping, dominated dinner tables of '70s suburbia — and with its accessible, affordable, crowd-pleasing makeup, it's no mystery why.

The dish could feed a household on a dime, required little to no culinary technique, and just as little time. The whole recipe came together in around a half hour, made mostly from low-cost, long-lasting pantry staples plus a bag of veggies from the freezer. This warming, filling casserole could easily satiate a crowd (junior's having friends over to watch "Smokey and the Bandit" in the basement? Let's toss a tuna casserole in the oven), and leftovers held up well.

In the comments section of a YouTube video dedicated to the classic meal, longtime fans reminisce: "This was the first dish we were taught to make in Home Economics Class back in the ['70s], a little nostalgia for me," one viewer wrote. "Thanks for keeping recipes like this ... alive," added another. "It would be a shame for them to 'fade away.'"

The classic tuna noodle casserole that ruled the '70s typically featured boiled egg noodles and a combination of canned ingredients — canned cream of mushroom soup, canned tuna fish, canned mushrooms, and peas (canned or frozen). The dish was often topped with grated cheese and baked until golden brown. Some preparations also elevated their tuna casseroles with a crunchy addition: a layer of crushed potato chips on top. Here at Tasting Table, we enjoy adding fresh herbs for a dilly tuna casserole.

While the dish dominated home kitchens of 1970s Middle America, proto–tuna noodle casserole recipes pre-date the advent of staple ingredient Campbell's cream of mushroom soup. The earliest known printed recipe appears in "Sunset Magazine" in 1930; Campbell's canned cream of mushroom soup hit the market shortly thereafter in 1934, cementing the casserole as an accessible weeknight fixture. So popular was tuna noodle casserole, in fact, that by 1955, James Beard had written his own take on the recipe.

Over time, tuna noodle casserole accrued an especially devoted following in the Midwest — a region that famously champions the casserole in its many varied forms. Known as "hot dishes" in the 1950s, casseroles reigned during the Midwest's long winter months, and canned foods made out-of-season ingredients accessible.