Mrs. Miller's Amish Tuna Casserole

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Recipes using tuna on Amish365 have been few and far between over the years.  But one of our readers recently asked for a tuna supper dish, so here is one.  Most Amish cookbooks, by the way, have several recipes using tuna....casserole type, usually, with noodles and other additions. 

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• 🍲 Tuna Casserole Ingredients
• 📋 Instructions
• 🐟 More Amish Fish Recipes
• 🖨️ Full Recipe

Tuna, historically, has not been used a lot in Amish kitchens just because, well, most Amish kitchens are in the Midwest USA and tuna is a seafood.  But in post WW II America as convenience foods became more accessible and even Amish-owned grocery stores began carrying tuna, tuna gradually found its way into Amish kitchens.

So, today's featured recipe comes to us from the Amish settlement in Rexford, Montana where simple, scratch-made foods or canned items are a necessity.  Winters are long in Rexford, so the Amish will stock up on grocery canned foods to get through the winter. 

Find a stack of tuna cans in the local Amish-owned market would not be unusual. This is a dish that has potatoes and tuna and cheese and, yeah, a very hearty dish that my mom really enjoyed making. If you are looking for an easy tuna casserole recipe, this is it! When I was a kid, she made a lot of tuna dishes like this Amish tuna casserole.

Canned tuna is popular in Amish homes as is salmon, but in the Montana Amish settlements, fresh caught salmon is the rule rather than the exception!

Preheat the oven to 375. You can use a 2-quart casserole to get this Amish tuna casserole ready.

If you don't have a two-quart casserole dish, you can just use a regular rectangular glass baking dish. At this step in the recipe, I prefer using fresh mushrooms, but you can use cream of mushroom soup instead. It'll make the casserole a little "soupier", but that's fine. Cream of celery soup works well too if you don't have mushroom on hand. Or even cream of chicken soup (gives "chicken of the sea" more literal meaning!). Cans of cream of mushroom soup are almost as common in an Amish pantry as tuna! If you are watching sodium, though, skip the soup and just go with fresh mushrooms.

My preference is a solid white albacore tuna, but you can use any ol' kind you want. Drain the tuna before adding. For the final step on the bread crumbs, make sure you melt butter, maybe a tablespoon butter or a couple tablespoons and moisten the crumbs.

Bury everything in cheddar cheese. Unlike many casseroles of this type, this is not a tuna noodle casserole, but you could add some egg noodles if you wanted. There are just so many variations to this recipe: top with crushed Ritz crackers. Roll tuna in parmesan cheese. Add frozen peas, chopped onions, sea salt, spices, and anything other ingredients you want to the mixture before you bake!

This recipe is thrown together using staples that most Amish have in their kitchens. Tuna is a good source of protein and why you do often find it in Amish homes. Beats having to always raid the ground beef supply.

My parents halved the recipe and left out the peppers and pepper, so you can tweak this according to your taste, but, it's a nice easy supper! Any leftovers can be stored in an airtight container and stored in the refrigerator. Then just take out of the fridge and pop in microwave for a minute or two to warm back up.

This pairs well with a salad, vegetable, or some garlic bread on the side. If you are watching calories, tuna can often be a more viable meat.

🍲 Tuna Casserole Ingredients

• 6 medium potatoes, sliced
• 1 can mushrooms (or soup)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 1 /2 cups flaked tuna
• 1 /2 cup grated cheese
• 2 tablespoon chopped, grated pepper
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• 1 cup buttered bread crumbs

📋 Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Arrange ingredients in alternate layers in a casserole.
3. Pour the milk over contents and sprinkle crumbs over the top.
4. Bake for one hour.

🐟 More Amish Fish Recipes

Baked Maple Salmon

Emma Lapp's Salmon Patties

Lunchpail Tuna

🖨️ Full Recipe