My family never made this, but it was a once a week school lunch offering in Massachusetts. I don't have fond memories.

We called that goulosh.
My mom made it with ground beef, macaroni, condensed tomato soup and italian style seasonings. Of course she also tossed in diced veggies with the meat.

I like to make a variety using ground beef, macaroni (some fun shape), bit of BBQ sauce(enough to make it saucy), can of kidney beans and lots of cheddar cheese. ~if it was just me eating it, I like green peppers and onion in it too.

Nina,
My DH's Grandma made it one afternoon while him & I we were at the beach in Westport & she called out to us come in for "American Chop Suey". I've never made, but this link was most like I remember.

My recommendation, is not to try this one though..

Lucy

Here is a link that might be useful: don't try it!

Isn't also called "slumgullion" too? It's a widely varying recipe depending on whose mom was at the skillet and what was on hand, I bet. We had something similar with ground meat, canned tomatoes, onions, and cheese.

Here is a link that might be useful: Slumgullion

Lucy, that is the basis for what my mom served us growing up.
I don't serve it to my kids..but the BBQ one with beans is well received around here..even by hubby..who isn't much of a Mushy pasta eater. LOL

Growing up, we called it Hamburger Stew and it came in a few different versions depending on what was around.

Always fried hamburger, chopped onions and garlic powder as a base.

Then it was either tomato sauce and elbow macaroni or large egg noodles
or
Campbell's Golden Mushroom Soup ( do they still make that?) and diced potatoes or large egg noodles.

We loved it!

Sigh

I grew up in Maine and loved American Chop Suey as a kid - truth be told, I still do.

Anyway I tried many of the variations listed above and it was never quite "right" until I got a copy of Marjorie Standish's cookbook Cooking Downeast. She wrote the food colum for the Portland Press Herald for many years and is well known up in northern New England as the "expert" on the recipes from that region. Her's is EXACTLY as I remember it. Here it is retyped verbatim from her cookbook.....

America Chop Suey

Saute about 3 slices onion in 3 tablespoons margarine. When onion is soft, add 1 1/2 pounds hamburg and cook over a medium heat until the red color has left. Add salt and pepper to this.

In the meantime, cook elbow macaroni. Put about 1 1/2 quarts water in a covered pan. Bring to a boil. Add salt. Add 1 1/2 cups dry elbow macaroni. Stir and bring to a full, rolling boil on high heat. Stir constantly and boil for 2 minutes on high. Then cover the pan. Remove from heat. Allow to stand for 10 minutes. (No boiling over when done in this manner) At the end of 10 minutes, remove cover, stir and put in colander to drain.

Back to hamburg, add 2 cans of tomato soup, undiluted, mix well. Add drained, cooked elbow macaroni. NO OTHER SEASONING IS NEEDED. Turn into 2-quart casserole. Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes or until bubbly. Sprinkle top with parmesan cheese if desired.

Hope that brings back great memories for your DH!

Alexa

Correction to the info on Marjorie Standish - she wrote for the Maine Sunday Telegram NOT the Portland Press Herald......

HEre is a link to the cookbook.....

Here is a link that might be useful: Cooking Downeast

I grew up in the midwest and my Mom called that "hotdish" I LOVED it when I was growing up - have never made it as an adult.

Terri,
I had that dish so many years ago,what I recall most, is the taste of tomato soup drenched over elbow pasta. Polish meals was her expertise, but the American Chop Suey, what can I say, it's left DH & I with us w/some chuckles.

DH said, that all the grandkids would be at her Westport home aka "Camp Baba" & be they would be there for most of the summer. She needed quick & inexpensive meals for them, & that was one of them. Maybe she made it super quick before the other ingredients had a chance to bloom.

I love American Chop Suey. My grandmothers (one from Portland, ME, the other from Boston) and mother made it all the time, and it's still a favorite with my family. My DD and grandson will be visiting this weekend, guess it's time for the next generation. You can order it at diners and small cafes all over northern New England - usually comes with a chopped kitchen salad and bread and butter.

I make mine with ground beef (or soy crumbles for my vegetarian SIL), browned and drained. I also chop and saute an onion. I add a good pasta sauce, not soup. Taste matters, even with this. I cook up a box (or half box) of elbow macaroni, depending on how I want the pasta/sauce ratio.

Once everything is hot, I mix them together and sprinkle a little cheese on for taste and color. I usually serve a salad and bread and butter, too (I know, very creative!).

My aunt would always write and tell us in her letters when she and her friends at the senior center would get together for lunch - American Chop Suey, salad and Congo squares.

My Mom called it 'creole beef' ... yuck ! I called it something not to be said within hearing of said parent :)

This is cute! I'm glad that I started this thread. And Lucy, I love your titling the link "don't try it", that cracked me up.

This has all be jogging my better half's memory & he says that his mom's version was probably the precursor to his father's meat pasta sauce.

Chopped onion, celery & garlic sauteed, meat browned then drained & added to veggies. Some crushed tomatoes, some salt, a pound of cooked elbows.

Quick, inexpensive & enough to feed a family of 5- three of them growing boys.

Alexa- my husband would LOVE that book! I think it's going in his Christmas stocking.

The really funny thing is that I never had any variation of this! Except for the pasta & meat sauce kind.

Nina

Huh, I just made this Monday night for supper. Instead of tomatoe soup I put in canned/stewed tomatoes some spaghetti sauce so that the sauce will actually stick to the noodles, a minced garlic clove, some green pepper if I feel like it. DM and MIL used to make it the way Marjorie Standish did and it's very blah. We call my version Spaghettilash in this household cause it tastes more like spaghetti but without the spaghetti noodles that DH loathes.

Terri, we always called it goulash too. Ours was a quick supper that started with a pan full of browned hamburger sprinkled with garlic powder, add a chopped onion and saute until onion is soft, add a quart of home canned tomatoes, a box of cooked macaroni and salt and pepper. When we were really strapped it was just macaroni and tomatoes! Grandma never had canned tomato soup, ever, so we got plain old home canned tomatoes. My brother always sprinkled his with sugar for some reason. I didn't think it was so bad, it was better than the mountain oysters we always had when we butchered!

Annie

I'm from the mid-west (Ohio) and they call it Johnny Marzetti there, but I'd never had until my DH & I were terribly sick with the flu when my French-Canadian MIL was visiting us at our home in New England and made a very bland version of American chop suey. DH said it was comfort food from his childhood, and all I remember is that it was the only thing that stayed in our tummies (for which we were grateful).

Following that, I searched the web and talked to my family in Ohio and his in New England and here's the hybrid recipe that we make for weekend suppers:

1.5 lbs. ground round
1 large vidalia sweet onion, chopped
1 small green bell pepper, finely chopped
1/2 small sweet red bell pepper, finely chopped
1/3 cup finely diced celery
1/4 cup finely shredded, then chopped, carrots
vegetable oil
salt pepper to taste
2 28 oz. cans diced tomatoes in their juices
2 individual sized packets of sugar in the raw (or equivalent)
a small pinch of cinnamon

Saute veggies in a bit of oil in a pot that will hold all of the sauce ingredients, then add the meat and brown - add remaining ingredients and cook until all is tender and
tasty (it will be soupy, not thick).

Cook a box of Ronzoni Ziti 2 per package directions and serve with the American Chop Suey on top of it. This pasta shape holds up to the slurpy consistency of the sauce.

A nice crusty loaf of garlic bread goes a long way in making this a great Saturday night supper, but omit it if you have the flu :0)

seagrass

Like Annie we call it goulash around here. We always have to make it with my home canned tomatoes, it doesn't taste the same with store bought tomatoes or tomato soup. It is my favorite dinner, I also make macaroni and cheese whith half of the macaroni, so a carb loaded meal. I would say that this is my favorite meal, even though DH is not a fan:)

Stacie

We called that goulosh.

We call it goulosh too. I never really cared for it although it was good when it was minus 20 outside. Warms the soul as Grama used to say. But it's one of the those kind of dishes that can hide leftovers and I always wondered what the heck was in it!

My Mom made Chop Suey too but served it over chow mein noodles that came in a can. I loved the noodles but again, you could not really ID anything in the meat topping so I was suspicious.

I don't make either of these dishes and have not tasted them in YEARS!

Michelle

I grew up in northern New Jersey. My mother and grandmother and my friends mothers all made American chop Suey....and I loved the way my mother made it.
And they made it pretty much like seagrass describes...but with the addition of cubes of "rat cheese"....which was likely a colby or perhaps a mild chedder.
Then I moved to Iowa and someone invited me over for "Goulsah"...and I was imagining a wonderful Hungarian dish, heavy on the paprika...maybe with sour cream...
Amd there is was...American chop Suey!!
And then another friend said they called that Jo Marsetti....and another said that it was Johnny Marzetti and it was from New Jersey where Johnny Marzetti lived??!!
The one thing I do know, any Minnesota or Lutheran "hot dish" was not so tasty...but in my experience was more like the tuna and canned soup thing.
Now...my way of making "that stuff"..
I brown some meat ( not a lot...this is about macaroni and not meat) and add a chopped onion and about half a chopped green pepper, salt and pepper and when the meat is no longer pink and the onions and peppers are soft, put it into a 8 by 11 casserole dish....add a can of stewed tomatoes...and 8 oz of cooked elbow macaroni, and fold in 8 oz of diced cheese.
Bake until it bubbles and the cheese is melted.
Love the stuff!!

I grew up and live in Boston. We always had American Chop Suey.

Ground beef, onions, peppers sauted. Add elbow macaroni and bottled pasta sauce - that's they way mom made it. I made it once in a great while for a 'comfort food' night. Add a few more spices, but otherwise keep it very simple.

Funny, I never Macaroni and Cheese until I went to college, but we did have American Chop Suey.

OMG! That's Slumgum! We used to crack up at the name that's what my Mom called it! She was from Maryland by way of S.C. and V.A. and my Dad was from Mass. I grew up in AZ. Never knew that it was a real dish! I never had it anywhere else, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It is exactly like all the others!
How cool is that? I never thought to ask her where it came from, and there is no one to ask now. Too fun. But I ain't eatin' it. Sue

DW is from NYC. She makes this dish with sautéed onions, browned ground beef, cooked elbows, plain canned tomato sauce, and salt and pepper to taste. She tops it with shredded cheddar and calls it Schoolosh. I'm not crazy about it for dinner, but nuked the next day for lunch it's really good.

Being a New Jersey girl, I had the same experience as LindaC - I was invited to a friend's house (in upstate NY) for Goulash and was expecting some fabulous Hungarian paprikash thing with some sour cream thrown in at the end to finish things off, and I got American Chop Suey. No complaints, but a BIG surprise for me! The other surprise that night was she had chocolate pudding cake for dessert - and that was a slice of Sara Lee poundcake with hot chocolate pudding poured over it - gosh it was delish :) No complaints about that either, just surprise.

Call it by whatever name you will but this was the dish that Hamburger Helper was based on.

I'll never understand why anyone would need a boxed mix to make this simple and easy dish but.....just look at the grocery shelves....packed with Hamburger Helper a million ways! Now that is a YUCK!

OMG Chase, you are right ... LOL !!

Isn't it strange? I do not ever remember having this dish growing up in the South - not from my mom's kitchen or any other mom I knew.

I can see how this morphed into Hamburger Helper - lol!

Called it goulosh / goulash here as well though partner from Newfoundland calls it hamburger stew.

I am from the Midwest and it was always goulosh to me. Made with browned hamburger, onions and home canned tomatoes and I don't remember what the spices were.
I had almost forgotten about it but I did like the stuff and just for fun might make some again and see if I still feel the same.
Nice to reminisce!
Lois

I made it last night for dinner and served it just like momj47 suggested. On the side, there was chopped iceberg, cucumbers and tomatoes with Good Seasons Ialian dressing and hot dinner rolls with salted butter.

OMG it was HEAVEN!

Even the picky kids liked it and ate every morsel.

Alexa

OMG thanks for the memory! I haven't made American Chop Suey in years. I know what I'm making this weekend!

Blast from the past.

When we were kids and came home early from school on a "snow day" we always knew there'd be some American Chop Suey waiting for us. I never knew it was a New England thing and not a national thing.

I always make it as Seagrass described, but without the peppers and sometimes leaving out carrots if I'm out of them.

My kids call it pasta with meat sauce. I still make it often, but this thread opened up a flood of memories...love it. I'm all nostalgic now...LOL

Well I turned over the kitchen to my better half last night & let him make this for dinner. It was quite good but not exactly as he remembered it. Basically elbows in a really meaty red sauce.

He sauteed garlic & onions, added in the ground beef (we were out of garlic powder- my spice cab really needs an inventory), a can of peeled tomatoes & a can of tomato paste. A smidge of salt. Topped it with shredded mozzarella that we mixed in to each bowl so it melted through. Bill is sure that his mother never used tomato soup and if there was cheese added it would have been pre-grated Kraft (no...just no).

Chase- I said the exact same thing last night! That this must be what Hamburger Helper is...but why would you buy something like that when this was just as easy?

Mind you we never had Hamburger Helper or even American Chop Suey by any of it's numerous names growing up. My mom only made Italian food ;-). We never even kept bottled sauce in the house.

But last night's dinner was definitely comfort food, quick & easy & even met the 3 year old's seal of...well if not apprival then tolerance. He ate all of his dinner, anyway.

I'm enjoying reading about everyone's memories and the different names & variations. I've been passing it all on to my better half.

Nina

Mom used to make it but called it baked macaroni... But her 'secret' was to add a bit of cinnamon...

Rita

Wow, and I thought growing up and living in Maine I could take lobster for granted. Huh. I have been eating the macaroni, hamburg, sauce concoction since I was very little. I thought everyone ate it. I like to add green pepper and onion to the hamburg and then mix it all in one big pan. Add a little parm, a side salad, and some broiled english muffins topped with garlic powder, butter and cheese and you have yourself a meal, I have eaten forever. Guess I took the name literally and thought it meant everyone in america ate it. Wow. I think I may put it on next weeks dinner menu.

This sounds like what my MIL called BBQ. She left the elbow mac on the side though because some family members refused to eat anything with tomato in it. That way they could eat plain mac for dinner! One thing I distinctly remember about my MILs BBQ (and still have nightmares about) is the grease. She never drained her meat, and bought the cheapest meat she could find. I swear there was a 1 inch layer of grease sitting on top of it. Do you all drain the grease?

Buy the way, I have to admit I could never figure out why she called this BBQ.

indicanoe- funny thing about lobster. My husband's mother always had beer when she had lobtser because growing up it was the trash fish, the cheap one that the fisherman couldn't sell so they kept it for their families. She was always amused to see people making a big deal out of a lobster dinner because in her family it was an everyday, informal thing.

Jcrowley- BBQ makes about as much sense as calling it American Chop Suey I guess. My husband said that he can't remember if the meat was drained but he suspected that it wasn't. He did drain ours. I've got a nice container of it for lunch today.

Rita- cinnamon? Hmmm...

Nina