i’m not a casserole expert but i think you need both filling and binder. Like a cheese egg quiche would not be a casserole but a cheese egg broccoli quiche would because cheese and eggs are both binders. So like with a chocolate mousse, it’s something else unless there’s chocolate chunks or nuts in that mousse. An open-faced bagel with shmear, is it one of those shmears that includes solids or is it just a smooth even shmear?

i didn’t grow up in a house of pedants no how could you tell