Is it the name of the ovenproof dish? Is it a one-pot meal baked in the oven? Is it a meal started on the stovetop and finished in the oven? Or is it a simmering supper cooked on the stovetop?

Just as automobiles are going hybrid, the meaning of the word casserole in the culinary world is being reinvented and rediscovered for today's quick fix requirements and healthier touches.

Civilizations have been combining and cooking meats and vegetables together over an open fire for decades, the original one-pot meal. Sometime, however, in the 1870s, John Ayto in "An A-Z of Food and Drink" defined the word "casserole" as "a dish of meat, vegetable, and stock or other liquid, cooked slowly in the oven in a closed pot."

Fashionable retailers at the time, following the wave of this new trend, probably started selling these closed pots by referring to them as "a casserole."

The casserole really came into its own during the Great Depression, because it was easy on the budget by using low-cost extenders like potatoes, pasta or rice with only a little need for meat as a flavoring agent.

At the mention of the word casserole, was your first thought Tuna Noodle Casserole? Campbell Soup Co. invented canned mushroom soup around the beginning of the 1900s and advertised it as an easy sauce for a quick fix casserole with another relatively new item, canned tuna.

At that time, canned tuna was not an easy sell. Although Campbell Soup Co. did not invent the recipe, Tuna Noodle Casserole is synonymous with Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup, just as the Thanksgiving Green Bean Casserole topped with tiny fried onion rings.

On to the 1950s, when casseroles and kitchen matters in general became extremely popular. Featured in women's magazines and in cookbooks like Pyrex Prize Recipes (copyright 1953, Corning Glass Works, Corning, NY), casserole recipes offered new ways to use leftovers. Sunday chicken dinner became Monday-Night Meat Pie featuring a lime green Pyrex baking dish, or there were clever creations featuring hot dogs, such as Frankfurter-Corn Bread Shortcake, or ground beef in meatloaf "Meal-In-A-Dish," both featuring Pyrex casserole dishes.

What makes today's casseroles different? They are quicker because of new convenience products, such as no-cook lasagna noodles, and healthier because of seasonal fresh produce and vegetarian selections. Because the world is getting smaller, we also can purchase previously hard-to-find ethnic ingredients in most supermarkets for Moroccan Tagines, Mexican Chicken Enchiladas or Italian baked pastas with store-bought Puttanesca sauce and kalamata olives.

Pat Ernst Dugan is a private chef, educator and food/recipe writer. E-mail her at foodlyyours@aol.com or send comments and questions to be forwarded to: Foodly Yours, Star-Gazette, Attn: Features Department, 201 Baldwin St., P.O. Box 285, Elmira, NY 14902.