Picture this: a golden, bubbling casserole dish, loaded with shredded potatoes, mountains of melted cheese, and a crispy cornflake crust so irresistible that people fight over the corner pieces. Sounds incredible, right? Now imagine calling this heavenly creation “funeral potatoes.” The name alone is enough to make you wonder what’s going on. Yet this dish has sparked fierce regional loyalty, countless family recipe wars, and even international recognition at the Olympics. What started as a simple comfort food became a cultural phenomenon that reveals surprising truths about American regional identity, religious community traditions, and the power of a really good casserole.
From Wisconsin church basements to Utah potlucks, this cheesy creation has traveled far beyond its mysterious origins. The debate over who truly invented it continues to simmer as hotly as the dish itself.
The Dish That Nobody Can Trace
The precise origins of this dish remain obscure. Despite extensive research by food historians and folklorists, nobody can definitively pinpoint where funeral potatoes first appeared or who created them. Conventional wisdom holds that nobody really knows who created this dish. According to research from the University of Utah’s American West Center, the term “funeral potatoes” first appeared in community cookbooks in the 1970s, though the dish itself predates this naming convention by at least two decades. What we do know is that the casserole combines elements from various culinary traditions.
Some have pointed out that the American South has a similar dish. Or these potatoes might be a budget mix of the French potatoes au gratin. The mystery deepens when you consider that recipes for cheesy potato casseroles existed across multiple regions simultaneously, each community claiming the dish as their own invention. The exact origins of Funeral Potatoes are somewhat unclear, but many food historians attribute their creation to the Relief Society. However, their roots likely trace back to the settlement of the Midwest by Scandinavian and German immigrants.
How Utah’s Relief Society Made It Famous
The dish has been associated with members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) because of its popularity among members of the church. According to Epicurious, the dish “emerged in Utah’s Mormon community during the late 19th century”. The Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is given credit for serving funeral potatoes at luncheons, and the dish turned into a phenomenon. This women’s organization, founded in 1842, became instrumental in spreading the recipe throughout LDS communities.
According to NPR, the LDS Relief Society served the dish for organization functions, and it spread within the community. Recipes can be found in multiple Relief Society cookbooks dating to the early 20th century. The Relief Society’s mission centered on caring for community members during difficult times, including providing meals to grieving families. The long-lasting ingredients of funeral potatoes are almost always inside a Mormon’s pantry – a holdover from the Church’s post-Depression push for maintaining a three-month food supply at all times. So they’re ready to be cooked into a dish at a moment’s notice upon hearing of a community member’s passing.
The Midwest Connection That Nobody Talks About
Funeral potatoes is a potato-based hotdish or casserole, similar to au gratin potatoes, popular in the American Intermountain West and Midwest. Yet the Midwest’s role in funeral potatoes history often gets overshadowed by the Utah Mormon connection. Elsewhere in the US, particularly the Midwest and South, the same essential dish goes by hash brown casserole, cheesy hash browns, or party potatoes, among other names for this common concoction of cheese and potato. Midwesterners have been making nearly identical casseroles for generations, often calling them “cheesy potatoes” or “party potatoes” instead.
The casserole remained a prominent Mormon dish and a Utah favorite, but how it made its way to Midwest states is a mystery (I’m just thankful it did). It’s also possible that funeral potatoes were invented in the Midwest. Until March 2023, funeral potatoes are part of a museum exhibit in Iowa per the Deseret News. Wisconsin families have their own long traditions with the dish. With Mother’s Day around the corner, naturally I’m thinking a lot about my mom and her great Midwestern cooking. Hardy potato dishes are very Midwestern and my mom served our Wisconsin family one we called “hash brown casserole.”
Why The Name Sounds So Morbid
It is called “funeral” potatoes because it is commonly served as a side dish during traditional after-funeral dinners, but it is also served at potlucks and other social gatherings, sometimes under different names. The name comes from the Mormon practice of serving the dish at receptions after funerals, especially those planned by a woman’s group called the Relief Society. The label reflects practical tradition rather than anything sinister. The name reflects practical community traditions rather than any connection to death itself.
In April 2018, Walmart advertised frozen funeral potatoes, sold in a plastic bag for heating. Some customers found the name bewildering if not ghoulish, taking to social media to express their confusion – and meeting with staunch defenders of their beloved dish. The confusion is understandable for those unfamiliar with the tradition. Funeral potatoes may not make sense to everyone, but they make a lot of sense to Mormons and Midwesterners, who are as proud of their dish as they are aware that it confuses everyone else.
The Mid-Century Convenience Food Revolution
By the mid-20th century recipes called for convenience foods. Casseroles became a household staple in the mid-20th century when convenience foods like frozen potatoes and canned soups gained popularity. The timing wasn’t coincidental. Post-war America embraced processed foods as symbols of modernity and efficiency. Suddenly, housewives could assemble elaborate-looking dishes in a fraction of the time.
Their cuisine went from wholesome farm food to the processed, Crocker-esque diet many middle-class Americans were turning to at that time. Once a people who made everything from scratch, they became a people who put ready-made foods into other ready-made foods: canned soup on instant rice, Sprite in sherbet, and, of course, Corn Flakes on potatoes. It’s not clear when exactly funeral potatoes were invented, but they boomed in popularity during the mid-1900s, per NPR. It was a time known for reliance on convenience foods due to a busy lifestyle and also because these kinds of foods were affordable. Because of its reliance on calorie-laden inexpensive convenience foods often stored by members of the church, the dish could be produced quickly, cheaply, and in large amounts, making it a common choice for occasions where large numbers were expected.
Regional Recipe Variations That Spark Arguments
You see, funeral potatoes are popular in the West, Midwest and the South. The recipe is basically the same, but people in these regions disagree on two fundamental elements of the dish: Do you use shredded potatoes or cubed potatoes? And do you top with potato chips or cornflakes? These debates can get surprisingly heated at family gatherings. If you’re a funeral potato purist (the type to stick to the historical origins of the dish), it’s best to use cheddar cheese and cubed potatoes – lest you stray from tradition.
As funeral potatoes gained popularity beyond Utah, regional adaptations emerged while maintaining the dish’s comforting essence: Midwest version: Adds diced ham or cooked sausage for heartier meal · Southwest twist: Incorporates green chilies and Monterey Jack cheese · Lighter alternative: Uses Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, reduced-fat cheese · Vegan adaptation: Plant-based cheese, coconut cream soup substitute Some have pushed the boundaries by rejecting cornflakes and instead turning to Panko breadcrumbs or crushed Ritz crackers. Others have taken this classic casserole in even more wild directions, adding bacon or mushrooms or frozen peas.
The Real Reason Midwesterners Claim Ownership
The name comes from a long-standing tradition in the South and Midwest. This comforting casserole was often brought to funeral luncheons or shared with grieving families. Midwestern food culture has always revolved around casseroles for practical reasons. These states experienced harsh winters where hearty, filling dishes made from pantry staples became essential survival foods. If you’ve ever made or received funeral potatoes, you probably know it’s not just a casserole dish of the greater Midwest and other outposts of American culture, but occasionally an expression of overwhelming emotions where they’re traditionally kept suppressed.
While I’ll always associate these potatoes with my Midwestern roots, they are actually a staple Mormon dish and extremely popular in Utah. No one knows exactly how this dish came to be, but sources agree that it was most likely popularized by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a staple food to bring to funerals. The Midwest connection runs deeper than simple geography. Funeral potatoes have strong ties to the American Midwest and Mormon communities, where they became known as a go-to comfort food for feeding large groups.
