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Casseroles and Aircraft: Friend or Foe?

Wikepedia defines a casserole as originating from the French word for saucepan. It is described as 'a large, deep dish used both in the oven and as a serving vessel. The word is also used for the food cooked and served in such a vessel, with the cookware itself called a casserole dish or casserole pan'.

Casseroles in the United States or continental Europe usually consist of pieces of meat or fish, various chopped vegetables, a starchy binder such as flour, potato, pasta or rice or other grain, and, often, a crunchy or cheesy topping. The moisture needed for reheating is partially released from the meat and vegetables during the cooking process, but additional liquids can be added to the casserole ingredients in the form of gravies, of stock, of wine, of beer or vegetable juice when all the ingredients are assembled. Casseroles are usually cooked slowly in the oven, often uncovered.

Casseroles are so encompassing in the food world. You can have a casserole for virtually every course of a meal.

You can have bite- size chicken pot pie for an appetizer; as a side dish baked in one pan and cut into individual serving such as a Root Vegetable Gratin . . .or as an entrée baked into a rich and wonderful crust such as a Timballo di Pasta alla Carbonara.

How about a breakfast meal of Eggs en Cocotte, also known as coddled eggs, or baked eggs?

Casseroles are also made as a dessert including everything from cobblers or a custard bread pudding to a Berry Clafoutis.

If you think about it, even some stews can be classified as a casserole, but generally a stew is simmered with direct heat, cooking for a long period of time to tenderize the meat and vegetables because of the direct heat.

A casserole is baked in the oven and cooked or reheatedwithout direct contact from a burner or flame.

Generally all the ingredients are cooked to a an almost raw crisp doneness, then combined, and the cooking process finished in the final bake or reheating process.

Ingredients that require different cooking times must be cooked sufficiently so that when they come together they will all have had just the right amount of time and won't turn to mush when reheated.

Let's begin with the positive side of serving casseroles on board the aircraft

Casseroles are perfect for aircraft service because by nature they are moist will not dry out as rapidly during the heating process. They will hold their heat for the time it takes for service and plating because they are dense and solid. They can be fully prepared in advance and easily placed into the aircraft oven to heat without fear of quickly overcooking.

Many casseroles can be frozen into individual servings as well as bulk for easy storage in transport - especially great if you need to travel self-contained or require food to be front loaded.

Because they may contain an entire meal in one container, portioning is as simple as removing it from the oven and serving. No fuss and no mess. Service is much quicker. And the presentation may actually be the visual appeal of the golden brown, crust or the gooey sauce or melted cheese bubbling up to the surface.

When the casserole is an appetizer, side dish or dessert, it too makes for a simpler service. A casserole can be customized to accommodate each passenger or flight crew's preferences, yet look similar enough that you won’t call attention to their specific likes and dislikes when everyone is eating "the same”.

They are the perfect pop up meal or quick fix meal when catering goes wrong and can be prepared from shelf stable pantry items; toss the ingredients together, place in oven proof dish and bake. And if frozen for long haul or front loading, they will become a solid block of frozen material, and will act as an ice block to keep other foods cold!

The most recognized casserole around the world is Lasagna, but there is also Moussaka, Shepherd's Pie, Gratins, Timballo, Stratas, Hotpots, Cousoulet’s, and Carbonnades.

A casserole can be prepared as an individual serving or multiple servings which would require cutting into a portion and then plated, whereas the single serving casseroles can be served in the baking dish.

I thought it might be fun to look at a few varieties of casseroles that would work beautifully for the aircraft.

A 'Gratin' is simply a baked dish with a lightly browned crust of cheese, breadcrumbs, breads, biscuits, crust or en croute. Many casseroles fall into this category.

Although a Timballo is a classic dish originating from Sicily, Italy, these dishes might also fall into the gratin category because of the toppings.

Stratas are so delicious !!!! . . . one of my personal favorites because of the custard like filling texture. Unfortunately, many people may not have heard them referred to as a Strata, but, have had them simply referred to as a casserole. The secret to the texture is layers of bread, bread crumbs - any kind from a rich brioche to a crusty French to a Ciabatta to good old sliced white bread. The thing that makes Stratas so amazing is the bread. Unlike quiches and frittatas, the base of the Strata is bread cubes that are layers between savory fillings and left to soak in a custardy egg mixture for a couple of hours or overnight. Again, perfect for aviation as it can be prepared ahead and cooked on board in time for serving.

At Tastefully Yours, we do a French Bread Praline Pecan French Toast that is prepared and sent uncooked in individual casseroles and the third crew member can bake on board for the smell and aroma filling the cabin. A Strata is generally savory. The process of layering bread, filling and covering it with the egg mixture makes the Strata perfectly light and a lot like a savory version of bread pudding. It's nothing short of amazing.

Another category that works really well on board the aircraft are pot pies. As a casserole, they can be biscuit topped, puff pastry topped, bread topped or even potato crusted as we see in Shepherd’s Pie. A pot pie is a deep dish pie which has a creamy gravy base with meat or seafood and vegetables topped with a crust of some type. Dumplings or drop biscuits placed closely together can form the crust, but pot pies do have a crust of some type, but may not have a bottom crust.

Tastefully Yours Lobster Pot Pie has a white wine béchamel filled with chunks of lobster meat, diced potato, asparagus and wild mushrooms served it a single portion oven casserole . . .

There are other foods we can loosely categorize into the casserole food group because of the preparation are:

These last few items I have mentioned must be causing you to wonder about my putting them into this category, but, I do so because of the things you need to be more cautious about when serving on board. Notice they all are stuffed, have fillings, they are heated in the oven, they can be a meal or can be any of the courses served on board.

So now to the negative side of casseroles on board your aircraft

• Because casseroles have numerous components, they also have more opportunity for cross contamination during the cooking and preparation process, know your food source and their in house hygiene practices.

• These stuffed items, as basically all casseroles are . . . are the perfect breeding ground for the growth of bacteria- dense and moist and a relatively longer heating time, therefore the time in the temperature danger zone is longer.

• An internal temperature of 165 F must be reached to kill the bacteria, the core of the food must be piping steaming hot!

• There is more opportunity for this food category to cause an allergic reaction since you can’t see all the hidden elements in the dish- especially when covered with a flakey delicious crust. Gluten allergies, onion, garlic allergies, etc are hidden from view. Make sure that you ask what the ingredient are in each finished product. This is the perfect opportunity to have a dish customized so the passenger with the allergy is singled out with a different meal as changes can be made during production. Know your reputable food source.

• The transport of raw or uncooked eggs can be dangerous. May sure that the cold chain of the food is intact! Request raw items to be sent with ice packs and if unsure, have the casserole cooked to be reheated on board.

• If a casserole is prepared incorrectly, the center can end up a watery mushy mess from overcooking of ingredients prior to combining.

• As the casserole is assembled all ingredients should be cold and not warm - remember how bacteria like warm and moist foods.

If you are alert to the foes associated with casseroles and take precautions they can be an aircrafts very best of friends. Enjoy this season's perfect comfort food.

About Paula Kraft . . .

Paula Kraft is the founding partner of the DaVinci Inflight Training Institute located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and the founder/president of Tastefully Yours Catering, an aviation specific caterer, located in Atlanta, Georgia for over 35 years.

Paula is active with many aviation and catering-related groups including the International Caterers Association, the International Inflight Food Service Association and is a board member of Women in Corporate Aviation. She is the past chair of the NBAA Flight Attendant Committee Caterer’s Working Group for 15 years perfecting unique catering training sessions for NBAA conferences and events. Currently, she serves on the NBAA Flight Attendant Advisory Committee and is a member of the Training and Safety Subcommittee. Paula was a founding member of the Steering committee for the creation of a European Flight Attendant Committee and conference and serves as a subject matter expert to the board of International Standard for Business Aircraft Handlers (IS-BAH).

After founding Tastefully Yours Catering, she has been offering culinary and food safety related training to the general aviation community. With a strong dedication to improving catering safety, risk mitigation and safe food handling, she developed and introduced the concept of “catering safety management systems”. As a certified food safety instructor, Paula offers catering SMS and culinary classes for all aviation professionals.

Paula’s first-hand experience, business acumen, research, and relationships make her an industry expert - one which allows her to share information that will help raise the professional training level for flight attendants today that will reduce the risk of food-related concerns tomorrow.

From Paula . . .

I have coordinated training programs and clinics for NBAA and EBAA conference attendees for over 10 years, created mentoring programs for caterers and flight attendants to broaden their aviation culinary skills, and to assist them in adapting to the unique challenges and constraints found in catering for general aviation. I recognize the need for training and have worked closely with flight departments, flight crews, schedulers and customer service reps at the FBOs to ensure that catering specific training provides information and skills necessary to reduce risk while assisting them in their job duties that include safe food handling, catering security, accurate transmission of food orders, and safe food production, packaging and delivery.

I fell into aviation catering quite by accident. I was the in-house caterer and bakery supplier for Macy’s department stores in Atlanta when catering was ordered for a Macy’s customer which was soon to change my life. After the client enjoyed the catering provided, I was summoned to the client’s corporate office to provide several of the items delivered through Macy’s to the executive dining room. Within a week, I was providing food for the flight department and my first order was for the President of a foreign country (as I was too be told soon after).

So, here I am, some 35 years later, still loving every minute of every day in aviation catering.