Retro Recipe: American Chop Suey

4-13-2007 @10:46PM Rowan said... This is just the kind of thing my mother used to make when I was a kid. I always thought I hated vegetables...everything was mixed together with some form of Campbell's soup and then baked for an hour.

I'm glad I grew up and left the Midwest. The rest of the world seems to be a bit more experimental.
Did your mom ever make Tuna Noodle Casserole? That was my mom's "specialty".
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4-30-2007 @9:54AM Michele said... I grew up in an italian/french family in Boston. My mother would make a dish she called casserole. She would first start with cooking ground beef, onion and sometimes a green pepper together, She would then a 1 1/2 cans of crushed italian tomatoes. Once the tomato/beef mixture was cooked, she would put a small amount in the bottom of a large oven proof bowl. She would then a half a pound of cooked elbow macaroni, and then, add a layer of american cheese over the macaroni. She would then add another layer of the tomato/beef mixture, the rest of the elbow macaroni, another layer of cheese, topped by the remainder of the tomato/beef mixture. She would then bake it in a 350 oven for about 20 minutes or until the top browned. It was delicious comfort food and still is for me.
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1-31-2006 @11:46AM Beth said... Sounds like my mother's goulash, except you put in Mozz. cheese and bake it as well. She adds green pepper and some other spices as well. Nothing fancy, but very good comfort food.
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1-31-2006 @11:58AM B said... I remember learning a legand about where the dish came from. According to the story, it was created by a Chinese-american cook working at a logging camp in the Pacific Northwest. He created it by mixing together whatever ingredients he had at hand. I'm sure this story is a complete fabrication, but I still like the idea. And we used to use cheddar cheese, I don't remember canned tomato soup though.
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1-31-2006 @12:05PM Hawk said... Wow, last night I was cooking and my boyfriend was saying, "Hey, my mom used to make American Chop Suey, it was really awesome!" Pretty much just randomly... maybe it had to do with his relating her 'spaghetti gravy' recipe. It's not gravy, it's sauce! *midwesterner*

and I'm like, scoff scoff scoff, chop suey is not food!

But this looks tasty and e-z and comfort-food-y.
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1-31-2006 @1:21PM suburban misfit said... My mom used to make this, but we called it "Beefy Macaroni".
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1-31-2006 @2:00PM DanGarion said... Replace the tomato soup with cut up whole canned tomatos and it sounds like goulash to me...
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1-31-2006 @2:06PM SJ said... My mom made this quite often and now it's my daughter's all-time favorite dinner.
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1-31-2006 @4:15PM extramsg said... This is very similar to what my Dad always called goulash as well, "Grandma's Goulash" in fact. He still makes it.
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1-31-2006 @11:25PM transiit said... Well, scratch yet one more thing off the list of dishes I'd hoped (well, perhaps wished....) that was actually original to my mother.

As she passed away 6 years ago after 20 years of fighting full-on multiple sclerosis, I've been trying to recreate the recipes of my youth. Seems nearly every time that it turns out she got it off the back of some can or box.

So being too dumb to ever look these things up, here's the info I managed to scavenge from my grandmother:

Her version (be careful, she lived in Colorado, so this is definitely high-altitude-tuned. I think I've still got her hand-written version of this somewhere):

American Chop Suey
cook 1 cup of dry elbow macaroni until tender -- cook on med with no cover
on and they won't overflow onto stove.
cook diced celery & diced onion in canola oil (about 1/3 cup) on med-low
heat till they start to wilt and soften some.
about 6 sticks celery, a couple of fairly large onions.
add 1lb hamburger to celery & onions and let it start to brown - mix so they won't burn, when the hamburger is no longer red, add 10oz can of tomato puree, 2 8oz cans of tomato sauce, 1 small can (4oz) mushroom stems & pieces., undrained.
for flavor, add salt, parsley flakes, light shake of oregano, and light shake of thyme.
drain macaroni, add to mix * place in greased pan in oven, bake at 350 for about 60-75minutes.

My version (adjusted for near-sea-level conditions):
1 cup cooked macaroni.
6 sticks diced celery
2-3 medium-large diced white onion
1lb ground beef
1 10oz can tomato puree
2 8oz cans tomato sauce
1 can (4oz) mushroom stems and pieces (undrained)
salt.
parsley flakes.
oregeno.
thyme.

In the spirit of my mother's methods, I use the electric skillet. One of the few pieces of her cookware I managed to inherit.

sweat celery and onion in oil (canola, vegetable, etc. Don't get exotic, and don't worry too much about smoke points)

add ground beef to celery/onion mix & brown.

add tomato puree, sauce & mushrooms

throw in macaroni.

Turn down heat and simmer for a good while.


-transiit

(off to go be depressed that the one real contribution my mother might've made to this dish was rechristening it "American Slop Chewy" (it's a phonetic joke.))
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2-03-2006 @5:12PM yelena said... this seems to me to be the predecessor of things like hamburger helper.
i make something kinda like this but with a bit of a taco twist. i take cooked macaroni, top it with taco beef ( lean ground beef cooked with taco seasonig and sometimes some onions and green pepper) and then cover the whole thing with shredded mexican cheese "blend". i like to keep the whole thing layered not mixed, i think it makes it more fun to eat. besides when the cheese layer on top melts from the heat of the meat and pasta it is delightfully stringy when you eat it.
oh, and you must eat it with a spoon not a fork, a fork is just too light weight and messy for this dish.
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