How A Post-War Economic Boom Made Tuna Casserole An American Staple

When I was a child, whenever my mother began pulling out cans from the pantry along with a bag of egg noodles, I instantly knew what we were having for dinner: tuna casserole. While it wasn't my favorite, I grew to like it and now have a nostalgic fondness for the slippery noodles, earthy cream of mushroom soup, briny tuna, and crunchy potato chip topping. When my mother made it, she was following a long line of other home cooks (and working mothers) stretching back to the 1930s.

While the first known appearance of a tuna casserole recipe in print was in 1930 in a West Coast publication called Sunset Magazine, this dish is indelibly associated with the 1950s. Thanks to a post-World War II economic boom that brought convenience foods and new electric appliances into American households, tuna casserole became a go-to recipe for many families. While many women left their jobs following the end of the war, a lot of others remained in the labor force. Tuna casserole was fast and easy for women juggling both work and childrearing to make. But you have to go back a bit to understand how they got there.

Before tuna casserole, there was cod à la béchamel, which dates back to at least the 1840s and includes flaked white fish, and creamy béchamel sauce, also known in the U.S. as white sauce. It was often topped with toasted bread cut into whimsical shapes. By the 1930s, canned tuna had replaced the cod and Campbell's cream of mushroom soup, the béchamel. Tuna casserole rose in popularity during the war years because the ingredients were still readily available while many other foods weren't due to rationing.

The recipe not only stuck around afterward but became a staple in the 1950s because it was a dish that didn't require much in the way of culinary skills and could be made quickly using modern convenience foods and baked in an electric oven. 

And if all this talk of tuna casserole has gotten you craving this comfort food, know that there's an easy way to prevent dry tuna casserole: cook the noodles separately before baking. You can also swap out the traditional casserole topping with corn chips for a more flavorful and extra crunchy eating experience.