I found a bunch of recipes by googling "recipe ground beef goulash".

My mom didn't call it that but my mother in law did and they were basically the same recipe. Mom, browned the beef with onions and celery, added canned tomatoes and salt and pepper. There was enough liquid that she added the macaroni, covered and simmered until the macaroni was done.

I've been searching all along and I think I may have found the one. This says it's from the 1970s. I'm betting the magic "seasoning" is the Worcestershire sauce. Do you think this is the 'old-fashioned' recipe he's looking for?

Easy Beef Goulash

That recipe on the link above is pretty much how I make it. Sometimes I use spicy V8 to give it a little kick!

Mine used mac, g.beef/onion, and tomato soup can.

Tomatoes are on my no-no list. Could I use the yellow tomatoes?

PM, that's what Grandma always called "goulash" here, she was raised in Maumee, Ohio and moved to Michigan, maybe it's regional, although she was taught to cook by a stepmother who was from Kentucky. Your link is very close to how we made it, with a couple of exceptions, probably because of personal taste.

Ours never had green pepper, it was mostly ground beef, onion, tomatoes, macaroni, salt and pepper. We seldom had tomato sauce so it could also contain that can of tomato soup like Renee, or catsup, depending on the juiciness of the tomatoes. Always Worchestershire, never garlic. If times were lean, it was just macaroni and tomatoes, which is how my Dad actually liked it best, along with lots of salt and black pepper. Elery is from Tennessee and he said his mother also served macaroni and tomatoes, and he still likes that.

Annie

Ours was ground beef, onions, green pepper and corn. Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder and oregano. A big can of tomatoes and enough water to swell up the macaroni. Top with some cheddar cheese. I still make it a time or two a year when extreme comfort food is needed.

My mom was Boston Irish so that expands the regional thing, lol.

I'm from New Jersey and we called it American Chop Suey....moved to Iowa and they called it goulash.
Ground beef, onions, green pepper canned tomatoes, elbow macaroni and sometimes cubes of Velveeta cheese stirred in as it was being served.
I needed to cook for about 60 kids one time....made goulash, added some oregano and called it "pizza casserole"....they loved it....goulash not so much! LOL!

I remember it as American Chop Suey too, though our family never made it.

Great! thanks for the input, everyone! To expand the region further, my friend is originally from Virginia, but his parents had relocated there from Texas! lol!

He's certain it contained peppers and he thinks it was made with tomato sauce. He doesn't remember cheese. Since some here say their 'goulash' also contained Worcestershire sauce, I'm even more convinced that may the missing key ingredient. I'll try that version for him! Thank you!!!

ETA: this reminds me of a casserole my mom occasionally made with leftover turkey! She'd cook macaroni and put it into a large crockery bowl with a rough-chopped can of whole tomatoes and chunks of turkey meat and chunks of cheddar cheese... then she'd bake it until the cheese was melty and serve it with homemade cornbread. Comfort food. :)

At our house, it was called 'More' but I don't know how it got that name. Probably one of us kids wanted a second helping, asking for 'more'.

I recall her making it in the early '60's' so the recipe predates the '70's.'

It was ground beef browned with onions and almost always green peppers. S & P. Mom used canned tomatoes, never tomato sauce. Garlic. Sometimes she added some chili powder to change it up a bit. And she always cooked the macaroni separately, stirred it into the cooked ground beef mixture and poured it into an enameled 9 x 13 pan and baked it in the oven. Topped it with sliced cheddar cheese (we never had American cheese in the house) and returned to the oven for the cheese to get bubbly. IMO, baking improves it.

I used to make it and sometimes I would go 'Italian' and add some oregano. I've also used tomato sauce instead of canned tomatoes and most always, I would be lazy and make it as a stovetop meal and not bake it off (even though it does benefit from that trip to the oven.) And, I've always cooked the pasta separately just because that is how Mom always made it.

I make Hamburger and Macaroni from Simply Recipes. It is the closest I've come to something similar that my grandmother used to make. It sounds close to what you are looking for. I don't know that my grandmother had a name for it, but I notice in the recipe heading, Elise says it is sometimes call Goulash or American Chop Suey. Btw, I delete the celery seeds, chili pepper flakes, and fresh parsley because I know my grandmother never used anything so exotic! :-)

In the 1940's we didn't make "casseroles". We had casserole dishes usually called baking dishes. For American Chop suey, there was no "recipe" but it was loosley based on how things came. The way I learned to make it was to take a pound of "chop meat" and brown it with "some" onion and "some" green pepper, add a little salt and pepper. Dump in a box of Mueller's elbow macaroni and a large can of tomatoes and a can of tomato juice. I think the can was about 12 oz. Simmer until the macaroni is cooked.

There were several "jalop" meals at my house. There was liver jalop, beef liver cut into skinny strips ( the thought was, I guess, if you cut it small you wouldn't notice it was liver and liver didn't take ration stamps...of took fewer than real meat) brown in some bacon grease with a cut up onion, add lots and lots of shredded carrot....fill the pan, salt and pepper and tomato juice to cover all, put a lid on and simmer until the carrots were cooked to mush. Serve over mashed potatoes.
And Chicken glop....fry up some chopped onion in butter, add 2 big spoons full of flour and a cup of water with a chicken boullion cube....cook until thick, add a cup of milk and the rest of the roast chicken....serve over Bisquick biscuits.
Also beef ragout. in a deep fry pan layer bacon, skinny slices of round steak, sliced onion, sliced carrots and sliced potato, salt and pepper each layer, add a cup of water and cover and simmer 40 minutes.

My mom made this pretty much the same way Martha Scott describes. Always cooked in the pan on top of the range, not baked, and no cheese. I would probably have liked it better with cheese. And she was from upstate NY and they called it goulash, too. I was surprised when I found out what goulash really is.

ha! I grew up in a family where favorite meals were things like liver, kidney stew, creamed chipped beef on mashed potatoes, and spaghetti w/ my mom's sauce and my dad's homemade horseradish-mustard pickles on the side. lol! :)

PM, I still like liver and creamed chipped beef, although we served it on toasted bread, one of Grandma's ways to use up stale bread! We had pickles on the side for nearly everything, sometimes a "snack" was a slice of homemade bread with freshly churned butter and Grandma's Bread and Butter pickles. We thought that was why it was called Bread and Butter pickles, because you made sandwiches of them with bread and butter. No meat, no cheese, no eggs, just pickles, LOL.

Elery refuses to eat goulash, although he'll eat just the macaroni and tomatoes. I used to make it for the kids regularly, they both liked it, but we never baked it, we never added cheese (as I don't really care much for cheese), and I always cooked it until it thickened a little and the macaroni soaked in some of the tomato mixture. If I were in a hurry, the macaroni got cooked first, then everything was added and we ate it in bowls like soup. Since I'm not a fan of "red sauce" either, I'm kind of glad I don't make it any more, but it was a fast, cheap and easy meal when I was working full time and had kids at home. Kids who regularly brought friends home for supper because I was the only Mom who cooked!

Annie

My parents canned and pickled lots of things -- always including bread & butter pickles! We'd often have them as a snack with cheese and crackers.

Now I want chipped beef! lol! I rarely see it available in stores around here. I never see beef kidney or liver available at all anymore. :(

I agree, American Chop Suey.

You can get it at restaurants in Maine. It usually served with a "chopped kitchen salad" and bread and butter.

It's still a favorite here, with the grandchildren. And I can make it with fake meat, my vegetarian SIL really likes it.

I saute onions in olive oil, and then brown the ground beef, add spaghetti sauce, and cooked elbow macaroni.

You can dress it up or dress it down. Very useful recipe

Not sure what we called it but always in the rotation. One with the elbows and another fancy one with egg noodles. (fancy, lol). My parents cooked with cans to stretch and feed a family of 6. My Dad would ride his bike up to the butcher for ground beef. (a fixie bike, haha). OldBlue we called it. One speed, no brakes, he painted it and built from other parts. Rode it to work and was sooo made fun of. Flat terrain. Same blue as our station wagon. No one rode a bike to work in the 60's.

Anywho, i remember a ground beef with some onion, some tomato cans or a jar... it was quick ish. Noodles and stock. In a lidded stock pot on the stove. Any veg we had on hand from the freezer. Macaroni went it dry or egg noodles with enough stock to cook. Mom always had sour cream back then so she would put in a heap tbsp at the end of cooking to the table. About the time cooking magazines were popular...and advertising. (when horrid cans of soup became popular)...cream of mushroom whatever. Never called Goulosh but sometimes stroganoff.

I loved at so young peas and limas so that went in...corn and summer squash from the summer harvest. (hated string beans)

I suppose it was the early crock pot meal. Fed an army and then some...

I think your few noted recipes above will solve the need.

We always had worchestershire. And OldBay.

Mom and Dad always called it goulash. They recipe that is close to it and best is in American's Test Kitchen and they call it Chop Suey. I made it for the grandkids and they loved it. I just called it Hamburger Macaroni.

My grandmother, an immigrant from Russia made it with stewing beef, potatoes, carrots, onions and tomato paste or ketchup. It was like a stew.

I never heard of ground beef goulash until I was an adult.

I think this is what the original poster was referring to:

Macaroni Beef Saute

4 servings 2
servings
1 pound ½
pound ground beef
1 cup ½
cup uncooked elbow macaroni
(~ 4 cups in a 1 pound box)
1/2 cup ¼
cup chopped onion
½ cup ¼
cup chopped green pepper
1 clove ½
clove garlic, minced
½ cup ¼
cup vegetable oil (which I never use)
24 ounces 12
ounces tomato juice
1 teaspoon ½
teaspoon salt (reduced from what
would be 1-1/2 or ¾ tsp)
¼ teaspoon 1/8
teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons 1
teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (which
I usually reduce slightly)

Original instructions from Betty Crocker’s Dinner for Two,
1964 edition:
Saute beef, macaroni, onion, green pepper, and garlic in hot
oil until macaroni turns slightly yellow.
Drain off excess fat. Add tomato
juice and seasonings; bring to boil.
Cover and simmer 20 minutes.
Uncover and simmer for several more minutes, or until sauce is reduced
to desired consistency.

Instead of cooking the macaroni in the oil, I omit the oil, and saute the ground beef just long enough to render some fat, and then cook the onion, green pepper, and garlic in that. Then add the macaroni and remaining ingredients, and continue on as directed.

My mother loved when I cooked this during her visits, as it is what her mother had prepared for dinner every Monday, laundry day in the early 1900s. I think cooking the macaroni in the tomato juice is the flavor key.

To me, goulash has paprika in it, and stew beef, served over noodles.

No paprika in American chop suey. A wonderful, inexpensive, filling meal, and leftovers.

My version is called Skillet Macaroni and was obtained from an ad for Hunt's Tomato Sauce in Redbook Magazine about 45-50 years ago.

1 lb Ground Beef

1/2 cup Chopped Green Pepper

2 8 oz. cans Tomato Sauce

1 1/2 Tbsp Worchestershire Sauce

1 Tsp Salt

1/2 cup Chopped Onion

2 cups Uncooked Macaroni

1 cup Water

1/4 tsp Pepper

Brown ground beef, remove from pan. Add onion and green pepper and cook until limp. Add macaroni and brown slightly. Return ground beef to the pan and add rest of ingredients. Cook on low heat for 25 minutes or until done. Serve with grated parmesan cheese.

I often add mushrooms and oregano.

I have never used a recipe for this but my kids loved it and it was filling and they could have 2nds or 3rds. We called it homemade hamburger helper. I would rotate between making it Italian tasting or Mexican tasting with the herbs and spices. Mexican would get corn added because the kids liked it that way. I still make it about once a month for a cheap, quick meal.

kris_zone6, your recipe sounds closest to what my friend is describing.... he says theirs used tomato sauce, not tomatoes. :)

Any variation on this theme sounds good! and I'm pretty sure he'll add hot peppers to his now. lol!

momj47, a traditional/authentic goulash w/ stew beef and paprika is a favorite of his. There used to be a small family-run Bosnian restaurant near here and their goulash was traditional and excellent! It was his favorite restaurant and dish to order.

Do you mean Johnny Marzetti? That's a good dish, my Yankee husband LOVES that.

American Chop Suey

Here's the "official" word!!

Bon apetit

Alternative fact:

http://ohiothoughtsblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/johnny-marzetti-recipe-and-history.html

Thanks for that link seagrass! My mom would call any dish that she just threw together a bunch of stuff, a "goulash".

My mom used to make something like that with macaroni, ground beef, onions, tomatoes, ketchup, but without peppers. Called it 'Irish spaghetti,' which my Dad's Irish mother had made for him and called spaghetti. It had to have ketchup in it. It was good, but not as good as my mom's Italian spaghetti and meatballs! My Dad loved that too. A whole different thing. My Mom would get a bit proud when she said 'this is real spaghetti.' but had to admit that Irish mother-in-law taught her how to bake amazing bread. Which she served with served with the meatballs and sauce, always the night before she made the spaghetti with leftover meatballs and sauce. I so miss those days. Sorry I got a bit off-topic--nostalgia.

I've had fun reading about this topic. I grew up in Ohio, went to college in Columbus at Ohio State. Never remember eating "Johnny Marzetti" (or any kind of pasta except for macaroni salad) when I was growing up. Meat and potatoes were our fare. But then I married a guy from Massachusetts and moved here with him. We both had the flu really bad one week that his parents (of French Canadian descent) were visiting and his mother made this for us but called it America!n Chop Suey.

Doesn't matter what you call it, it's comfort food. Sure felt good in my tummy the first time I had it!

Seagrass, I'm in Michigan, of course, Ohio's next-door-neighbor, and I've never heard of Johnny Marzetti either. Our goulash never had cheese, but the only way I remember ever having cheese was grilled cheese sandwiches or a slice of cold cheese on bread, we never put it ON anything, so that may be why. I didn't even have pizza until I was a teen and was well into my 20s before I encountered lasagna.

Here American Chop Suey is some cheap beef, usually round, cut into small pieces, cooked until tender. I always did it in the pressure cooker. Add some soy sauce, thicken the liquid, dump in a can or two of chop suey vegetables (normally obtained from LaChoy, LOL), heat through. Serve with white rice and those crunchy chow mein noodles.

Annie

What you describe as American chop suey is an easy version of chop suey. Chop suey means something like bits and pieces....and American chop suey is an american meal of bits and pieces....probably should be chow mein as that is served over noodles.
I had not heard the story about Johnny Marzetti being an Ohio dish, but always knew it as sort of a more Italian version of American Chop Suey.
Wonder why cheese was never served in your family? In my memory there was always cheese in the refrigerator....and at the grocery store ( not the A and P) there was always a big wheel of yellow cheese on the counter and you could get a sliver to taste and if you liked, they would cut a wedge and wrap in butcher paper.
My mother even sometimes put cheese in Jello-salad!

I have to say I'm kind of confused about the whole "American" chop suey thing. Isn't that like saying "American hamburger" or something?

I grew up on what my mom called Goulash. Elbow macaroni, browned hamburger, onion, green pepper, tomato sauce mixed with Ketchup and ours had Kidney beans in it.

When I moved to New England they called it American Chopped Suey the only difference really was the lack of kidney beans. Same stuff different name.

In Minnesota it's a hotdish, Hamburger hotdish, macaroni hotdish, church supper hotdish or any number of variations. We had it at home, it was on the school lunch rotation and was one of the first dishes I started cooking for myself when I went on my own. It's still a favorite in comfort foods for me and seriously, what's there to not like? Meat, tomato, seasoning, it's a variation of baked ziti, spaghetti with meat sauce or any number of other dishes and it doesn't matter which name you give it. I've made it with beef roast, pork roast, turkey, chicken, sausage and more. You can use up leftovers and have a remake. It's fast, simple and economical. It can take on a Mexican flavor, Italian flavor, pizza flavor, Tex Mex, BBQ or any other flavor you like. There's no recipe needed, it's a throw-together, easy to increase or decrease size for the number of servings desired. It reheats great. Cheese is optional but for me, bacon is not. Eat it hot or cold, it's great both ways. Probably one of the most versatile dishes around.