Breakfast Casseroles

[domestic goddess]

Happy New Year! I have a question about breakfast casseroles; specifically, the ones you prepare the night before and hold overnight in the fridge, before baking. What purpose does the several hour holding period in the fridge serve? Besides the obvious one of letting you prepare it ahead of time and bake it the next morning. Is it really necessary, or can you just put the thing together and bake it? I have some with instructions to bake immediately, without holding it for hours in the refrigerator, and others with instructions only to hold it in the fridge. I can't really tell what the difference in the recipe might be to cause this, or what happens in that time to make it necessary. If anyone knows, please teach me!

[Simplemind]

If it is bread, egg and milk based it gives the bread time to soak up the eggs and milk.

[domestic goddess]

It's meat, potatoes and egg. Do the potatoes make a difference?

[herbgeek]

If there's no bread, you can cook it right away. Potatoes aren't going to soak up anything- certainly not like bread will.

I just did a breakfast casserole with hash browns, some sauteed onion and pepper and cooked sausage with eggs and cheese holding it all together, and baked individual servings in a muffin tin. There are only 2 of us, and a full casserole doesn't get eaten, so this is a good alternative for us. I freeze the extras.

[domestic goddess]

That's a good idea, herbgeek. I make them in a casserole dish, but dsil eats on them all day, so there is nothing left. If I make them in muffin tins, I can freeze them, and there will be something for other mornings.