Goulash at our house was elbow macaroni, onions, ground meat, and tomato sauce. Not goulash at all!

Goulash in DH's family was a can of tuna fish in a cream sauce with American cheese, served over sliced bread torn into pieces. Now that's not goulash either! I thought it sounded gross, but it's actually pretty tasty, quick, cheap, and easy to make, and we almost always have the ingredients on hand. It's great when we don't have anything else in the house, and don't feel like going to the store.

Goulash must have been 60s slang for "whatever is on hand thrown together." My mother's version was onion, tomato sauce, green peppers, okra and ground beef on either rice or elbow noodles. Sometimes she'd add saurkraut to it. It was very acidic/sour and altogether awful.

I understand true Hungarian goulash can be very tasty. Unfrotunately, anytime I hear "goulash" now, I equate it with what my mother made, so I don't know if I'll ever get up the nerve to try the real deal or not.

What my mother called goulash and my aunt called American Chop Suey - was the same recipe that barnmom's mother made, and it's neither.

In Maine it is called America Chop Suey, for whatever reason, and I love it.

dlynn, my mom called it cream tuna on toast but she didnÂt put cheese in it. We didnÂt have it often my dad didnÂt like anything that wasnÂt meat and potatoes.

Claudia

It wasn't until my high school years that I realized that what my mother presented to us as chow mein bore no resemblence to any dish served in a Chinese restaurant. Our town or the neighboring ones didn't have any Chinese restaurants anyway.

Chow mein was leftover diced roast pork and pork gravy mixed with a can of overcooked "chow mein vegetables". It was served over white rice, topped with a chopped hard boiled egg and crunchy thin chow mein noodles that came in a can attached to the vegetables. We added bottled soy sauce at the table.

What my mothr made as Spanish Rice was better to my taste than what is served in most Mexican restaurant. I still make it and my DH loves it as much as I do.

Ah, Ruthanna, I remember that "chow mein" well. Orange can, wasn't it? And my mother would serve this weird pineapple, cheese and mayonaise "salad" with it.

No wonder I learned to cook young.

momj47,
barnmom's mother's recipe was known by both those names at my house as well. Mom usually called it American Chop Suey but I think she sometimes called it goulash (maybe it wasn't mom, but somebody in my family called it goulash). Maybe it's a regional thing? (I'm from VT).

My Mom made the same "goulash". It is one of my favorite dishes that I make often for my kids also. We now call it "Stuff" because goulash is something completely different here in Germany.
My Mom also made what she called "hash" with leftover roast beef, potatoes, carrots and brown gravy. I serve it either over rice or noodles.
Lisa

My mom's Chicken à La King was always made with tinned tuna.

SharonCb

I can't remember any odd names from my childhood, but I used to make something that my kids called Chicken Yucky Stuff. What's even stranger is that they liked it. I can't remember what the recipe was. It fell off my cooking repertoire a long time ago.

Yes, Grandma made the same "goulash" that Barnmom had, and I think it was very widely called that here. I didn't even know about "real" goulash until I was grown, married, and trying to expand my cooking experience.

She also made something called Sh*t on a Shingle which was really creamed chipped beef on toast, and she made "slumgullion" which was basically everything that was in the refrigerator.

Chop Suey is still round steak, cooked until tender in the pressure cooker with a can of LaChoy chop suey vegetables, thicken the broth that results and serve it over rice with those crunchy canned chow mein noodles. Not like anything oriental I ever ate, that's for sure.

Annie

My Dad used to make a dish called "Slum Gullion". It was a sort of stew with carrots, potatoes, onions and whatever meat was available plus whatever was leftover in the fridge. He's serve it with a hunk of bread. To me it was very bland. Mom used to make American Chop Suey, ground beef, peppers, onions, cooked macaroni and tomato sauce. I still make it occaisionally. Mom also made Stroganoff: ground beef, cream of mushroom soup and onions over egg noodles. I never cared much for it.

My mom made a hamburger-cheese-noodle-bake casserole that as kids we called "that stuff." Even though I can say H-C-N-Bake now when referring to it, in my head it is still "that stuff." This is the recipe with cream cheese, sour cream, and green onions layered with cooked noodles and ground beef/onions simmered in tomato sauce. Fifty years later our whole family still loves it.

My mom made spaghetti goulash that was pasta, meat, onions, tomato juice - baked in a cast iron dutch oven. Great for kids.
Lisa - my mom made the same hash, but with a ton of black pepper.
Annie - my husband loves sh*t on a shingle. One of his favorite comfort foods.

Donna

Wow, I thought my mom was the only one that made "ghoulash" with ground beef, tomato sauce and noodles! I can't rightly say thatI've ever had real ghoulash!

She also made the "clean out the fridge" dish that some of your mom's galled "slumgullion", but she called it "slum-golie". don't ask me why....

Linda

I think the Goulash was mid western for what easterners called American chop sui.
My dad made slumgullion out of leftover potroast with some gravy, lots of good chedder and I think catsup...I have the recipe in his hand...I need to look it up.
My mother never EVER made tuna noodle casserole...never!!
And then there was "Liver Jallop"...which was liver cut into strips, fried with bacon and onions, fat drained off and add a pile of shredded carrots...lots of carrots....then tomato juice to cover all, simmer until the carrots are well cooked and serve over mashed potatoes......and I love it!
Linda C

The first time I went to a friend's house for Goulash, I was so surprised to have the hamburger/noodle dish - it was good but I expected a stew like "Hungarian Goulash". Her dessert that night was "Chocolate Pudding Cake" and that was a surprise too (but also really good). It was a slice of Sara Lee Poundcake with warm chocolate pudding right from the pot poured over it and then some whipped cream on top. Heavenly.

My mom called her Chicken Fricasee "Fricken Chicken".

My friend calls the big pot of food that she makes when she cleaned out all the leftovers from the fridge "mungdungus".

This has been a fun read! The comment that made me smile the most is Sharon's Chicken Ala King made with tuna - that is hysterical!

I'm sensing a trend. My mom called what we had Goulash, and yes...exactly the same as Eileen's except my mom used tomato juice instead of tomato sauce, but pretty darn close.... Elbow macaroni, hamburger, onions and tomato juice. I make it every blue moon and still call it goulash.

Duane

My grandmother was raised in California's Central Valley in a small farming town. She was the youngest girl in a family of 7 children. She arrived here at the age of 1 in 1904 when the family moved from Missouri. Perhaps that explains the name "goulash."

Her dumplings for chick and dumplings were what I've seen here referred to as "sliders." Is that a Midwestern term?

The name didn't come from Mom but the neighbors little kids. We did an emergancy babysitting of some 4 and 5 year olds while thier Mom and Dad stayed at Grandfathers wake. My mom had made chicken Paprikash. Brendan took one bit of it and said "This is yucky". Now I make Yucky Chicken and Brendan loves it. Of course he is about 26 now.

Well Dad you to make a chipped beef dish called Sh*t on a shingle...Oh! Or maybe that is the REAL name, LOL.

I had friends in Texas who just said SOS for short. I think they used hamburger instead of dried beef. My mom used to make both versions but wouldn't have used that name when I was a kid.

My great aunt made my favorite chocolate cake (the recipe that uses buttermilk) which she always called "Dirty Wet Cake". When mom used the recipe for a church cookbook, she just couldn't seem to call it that and renamed it.

I think our moms learned to cook goulash from the same person. Ours was exactly like the one described here.

However, my best friend's mom's version of "chicken enchiladas" was the most inaptly named dish I grew up with. There were no tomatoes anywhere near her enchiladas. Nope, she made them by rolling canned chicken into flour tortillas, dumping two cans of cream of chicken soup on top and sprinkling with cheese. Such a gloppy, floury, nasty mess was never seen. Her family ate it without complaint until they had chicken enchiladas at our house one night. (Which weren't the height of authenticity either, but a fair sight better than the glop fest!) After that, I never heard of chicken enchiladas being served there again.

The kid still asks for goulash whenever she's home and needs comfort food. Yup, burger, elbow mac, chopped tomatoes, onion and green pepper. My mom always added a can of corn, some worcestershire and oregano. And shredded cheddar cheese on top.

DH made SOS when I met him...his was basically hamburger gravy over mashed potatoes. He also made what he called Sloppy Garys...hamburger, onions, ketchup and a can of pork and beans over toast. euw.

lol, I told him I was posting about SOS and he said, "Oooooo, we should have that for dinner tonight!" At least he didn't want Sloppy Garys.

Now, see, I could have dealt with the goulash my mother made if she had just left the okra (and occasional sauerkraut) out of it.

Good ol' SOS. My dad loved it and made it fairly often. According to him, that's what they called it in the military during WWII and the name stuck. Not sure if that's really true or not, but it would make sense.

Linda, my mom made tuna noodle caserole exactly once. None of us would eat it. If we kids wouldn't eat something, she'd make us sit there until we did (or she'd try anyway), but if my dad wouldn't eat something, we kind of got of easier. Turns out my dad and I share a intense dislike for mushy-textured fish and cheese in the same dish.

The other misnamed thing we had was bread pudding. Basically it consisted of whatever cereal, bread, spices, fruits or other add-ins available made into a very solid mass with the density of plutonium. You just cut a chunk out and ate it like a brownie. There was no sauce involved at all. It was always a crap shoot because sometimes it was terrible and sometimes it was quite good. There was definitely nothing "pudding" about it, though.

American Chop Suey was on the school lunch menu often. I loved it and still do. DH's Dad called it goulash. I still like ever couple of years. My Dad had a lady friend that made Tuna Noodle Casserole, tuna, crm of mushroom soup a can of milk, elbows and potato chips crumbled on top. I dislike it baked but it's not too bad before baking.

I have 2 dishes that my mother & aunts prepared that were not even close to being what their names implied.

The names were French-Canadian. One dish was called "Poteau Chinois" which translates to "Chinese Pie." It was actually what I later discovered most people call Sheperd's Pie - a baked 3 layer casserole with browned ground beef & onion on the bottom, creamed corn over that, and topped with mashed potatoes sprinkled with paprika. There is nothing Chinese about it!

The other was called "Queue De Moutons" which translates to "Pig Tails." This was stuffed cabbage - a seasoned ground beef & rice mixture rolled in cabbage and simmered in a tomato sauce. No pork, no tails!

We also had "American Chop Suey" which was elbow macaroni mixed with a ground beef and tomato sauce. I grew up in northern NH.

I've heard that story about SOS beginning in the Army. Probably true because I worked for the Army and the cafeteria had SOS over biscuits every morning for breakfast. I think it was made with ground beef and I thought it was pretty good.

My Mother would pour a glass of milk, add a beaten egg, some sugar and a drop of vanilla to it, stir it up and tell me to drink it because it was a milkshake. I believed her until jr hight school. I don't know how I could stand it, but I thought it was good.

Goulash at our house was like most of the others...elbow mac, tomato sauce, ground beef and aromatic veggies...and if my mom thought she could get away with a can of nasty yellow mushrooms...

GAG!

My kids like Chili Mac..that's what we call it with macaroni, ground beef, aromatic veggies, can of pinto or kidney beans, cheddar and tomato based "sauce" or BBQ sauce..

I was born in Maine, and my Grandmother's version of "American Chop Suey" was similar to others posted in that she fried up hamburger with onions and celery...except that instead of tomato sauce or tomatoes, she used (gag!) a can of Campbells Tomato Soup and if she was feeling fancy, we'd have it over pasta shells instead of elbow macaroni.

My mother's version used Ragu spaghetti sauce, but was otherwise the same.

Years ago, I remembered how much I loved my Grandmother's version as a kid and bought a can of soup to make it. Oh, gross. :P

Ha! We did the canned Chung King Chicken Chow Mein with the can of crispy noodles on top for camping trips, along with Dinty Moore beef stew. For us kids, they were treats because my mother rarely bought canned food, finding it too expensive.

Goulash in our house was browned hamburger (or bizarrely, chicken hearts) with onions and celery in a brown sauce over noodles.

My mother also made a horror she called "Chicken (or turkey) Tetrazzini" out of leftover chicken carcass scraps, frozen peas and a basic, unembellished (and generally undercooked, so it tasted pasty) white sauce. This was served on spaghetti. I have found recipes for Tetrazzini on line, and most have additions like white wine, Parmesan or other cheese, parsley, chix broth, various herbs etc. Probably quite good, but I simply cannot make myself try them.

My husband's mother used to make something called, "Junk Soup" when the containers of leftovers got to be too numerous. I do something similar, but he assures me that my results are far more palatable.

hey, I know that raw egg milkshake! My dad used to think it was the thing to give us when we were sick. (Hint: do not give this is a child who had the flu and a stong gag reflex.) My dad was in the Navy, but I bet it was the same for all branches. DH says they called it SOS in the Air Force, too. My sister used to serve it over rice. She clearly is not a textural eater. Much as I like SOS, I could never choke hers down.

Oh, man, junk soup. Or "refrigerator soup" as it was called at our house. There was never any telling what would show up in the soup. :P She even put pickles in it one time. That was not a popular choice.

Goulash with ground beef, tomatoes, elbow macaroni etc. And our family Dr. was Hungarian--but my mom's many talents didn't include cooking. She also made some weird concoction of cooked green peppers, ground beef and rice she called "gumbo". She'd had real gumbo in New Orleans, but whatever.

She also made some really dreadful concoction with dried codfish that came in a little wooden box, which she mixed with bread soaked in milk, and then fried the stuff and called it "croquettes". I still don't know why she did this--she didn't like it, my dad refused to eat it, and I slipped mine to the dog. I should ask her.

Ken was a Navy cook on a mine sweeper in the 50's. One of the recipes he used to make was S.O.S. which was hamburger in cream gravy and he also made Foreskins on Toast which was dried chipped beef in cream gravy.

Okay, where's Jessy?

I love that drink with a raw egg. I used to beat my egg and sugar with a hand mixer until it was really frothy and then add the milk. I actually tried it again this year and it was still good. Haven't made it for the kids, yet. I wonder if they would like it.
My Dad also called it SOS. He was in the Air Force and they made it over toast, hence the Shingle. LOL My Mom made it with hamburger and usually served it over biscuits. Yummy.
This is a great post.
Lisa