H B, I am glad your eaters enjoyed a favorite of my family. :-)

Me too. That meal goes way back with my family. I still eat whatever I want and I am 82. Hope it continues. Enjoy whatever foods you like. We know we all do not like the same things.

Sue

I would guess that the soup over mashed potatoes started during the depression as a way to stretch a meal to feed everyone and fill them up.

A lot of my families recipes are over rice. Gumbo over rice. Red beans and rice. Chicken and rice soup. If it wasn't rice, it was grits.

I never met my grandparents on my Dad's side. They lived on a farm. They died before I was born, but Dad used to talk about having a chicken for Sunday dinner and it had to feed 10 kids plus the parents.

"Enjoy whatever foods you like. We know we all do not like the same things."

Boy, ain't that the truth!! There are foods I like and seek out that others would consider garbage or at least never bring into their home, let alone consume :-) It all comes down to what we grew up with and what we are used to and how we have developed our palates!

Really though it is not soup, over mashed potatoes. It should not be that runny or usually nothing else in it, maybe a slice or two of carrot if you want, but adding other things makes it something else. Probably good, but not the original chicken and noodles. Yes, there should be chicken pieces in it too plus salt and pepper to your taste. This is making me hungry.

Sue

Sunday dinner growing up was chuck roast cooked with potato halves and carrots. It was always served with rice. Two starches and nothing green in sight!

Marilyn, that sounds like what we called chicken and dumplings. Dumplings were kinda a cross between biscuits and pie crust, cut into strips and dropped into the chicken broth. Always served with biscuits.

Yes, I heard the depression stories too - it's fascinating how people were able to make things stretch, how creative they were - and I remember them saying it was difficult but they didn't feel as if they were missing too much - tougher, less needy back then IMO.

I think I get a lot of my grocery shopping and cooking 'stretches' come from them and the stories.

Speaking of foods that seem odd or strange to each of us (and continuing with the OP's question about noodles and mashed potatoes served together)... Can anyone share older or newer recipes/foods you've not tried, and sounded a bit strange to you? I love to try all cuisines!

I remember both my parents eating calf brains (depression era meal) and my dad hated it, my mom loved it - saying it was in the preparation and cooking. Never tried it myself.

Also, Suet Pudding... I ran across a recipe for it in my ancient Joy of Cooking and thought, oh gross, as it's made from animal fat. My mom said her mom made it and it was silky and divine. I don't know if I would try that one!

DH is very 'southern' and asked me to make him soup beans and ham hocks like his mom made. I thought of those hazy jars of pigs feet and wanted to be ill... but I found ham hocks, and an old recipe calling for layers of flavor and 2 days of cooking. It was amazing and I make large batches every winter - but use ham on the bone now.

Anyone else care to share?

2manydiversions, My mom and dad used to make liver and onions. I like it, but hubby doesn't. You want calves liver, floured and fried,in a small amount of oil. Don't overcook. You will finish later. Slice onions into rounds and cook in the same pan as the liver. When onions are soft, add the liver back into the pan and cook until just barely done. Season with salt and pepper.

Does your husband like oyster dressing?

I'm going to bite the bullet and make your calves liver... My mom said it was great, but the odor kept me from eating it... my palate has matured since since I was a kid!

No, DH won't touch oysters... I love them! Oyster soup is a fav but I rarely make it now due to his peculiarities! I got stuck with a newer dressing last year (cornbread in it, and I felt it was too dry). Still looking for a good, moist, flavorful dressing.

My MIL made the best suet pudding years ago. She served it warm with a homemade Carmel sauce. She had a large steamer that had a divided insert that fit on top and of course a cover. I wasn't thinking of the animal fat back then, just how good it was! :) She only made it at Christmas.

watchmelol, care to share you spicy goat head chili recipe?

Sherry_7bAL our flat chicken and dumplings were similar but would only contain one egg with lots of flour and broth to add more liquid and a dollop of some kind of shortening or lard. This was mixed together and then rolled out, never dried, cut into fairly wide strips and then cooked in the chicken broth, seasoned with salt and pepper. That was the difference between noodles and our dumplings. I like both flat and the biscuit type. We only had the flat when I was at home. Of course chunks of chicken in the broth too. I should be making noodles as eggs are pretty cheap right now. Jumbo ones are only $.89 a dozen at Meijer. Maybe over the weekend I will. Have them in the freezer to use. My daughter's hens are not laying too well right now, so no home grown eggs. I too love liver and onions!

Sue

Anyone know where you can purchase suet? I've honestly never looked for it.

Liver and onions, chicken livers, steak and kidney pie, suet puddings, real mincemeat (contains both suet and meat!), kippered herring, finnan haddie, oysters in all forms, goat and lamb curry......all of these were common foods growing up. Can you tell my folks were British?? Lol!

Can you tell my folks were British?? Lol! Kippered herring, yup! Lamb stew is rich, but a delightful weakness for us on cold winter nights with soda bread! Mmmm, anything curry! What is finnan haddie?

So, is chicken liver or calves liver the preference for anyone?

You can request it from the butcher....they trim it off the meat as excess fat. I always request extra suet when I do a rib roast as they trim it too much for my liking and I need the extra drippings to make Yorkshire pudding.

Finnan haddie is smoked haddock. We always had it poached in milk :-) Hard to find outside of specialty groceries but I have progressed to smoked black cod/sablefish prepared the same way....at about triple the price!!

They sell suet at the hardware stores along with birdseed.

My grandparents served a lot of chicken and noodles with mashed potatoes. They lived on a farm and worked hard. One can hardly serve cucumber sandwiches and tea to someone coming in from the field. My grandpa made a wonderful pink applesauce hot from the stove. It was pink, but I don't know if that was from the type of apples he chose. My grandma always put a chicken heart in the gravy, and my cousins thought it was some kind of prize to find it (blech).

Here's a recipe for egg noodles:

2 c flour

1/2 t salt

2 egg yolks

1 egg

1/3 c water

1 T olive oil

6 c chicken broth

In a small bowl, combine the flour and salt. Gradually add the eggs, one at a time, and
water and oil. Stir to form a stiff
dough. Turn dough on a well-floured
surface. Knead 8-10 times. Divide dough in half and roll each portion to
1/8” thickness. Fold dough over into
thirds or quarters and cut into strips.
Allow noodles to dry for an hour or so before dropping into boiling
broth. Cook the noodles for 5-7 minutes
or until tender. Broth may be thickened
by adding a mixture of flour and water, if necessary.

ilovecomputers - you brought back a great memory for me, finding the chicken heart (or liver) in the bowl of noodles! awww, makes me think of Mom and Dad and no matter how little money we had there was always a good meal on the table. Dad was a carpenter and work was slow during the winter if at all.

If You want to cheat on dumplings you can use Jiffy Biscuit mix in the small pkg. I used to mix it per pkg directions and drop by tablespoons into simmering broth with chicken. Simmer covered for 20 minutes.......nice and light! You can get suet at any meat market.

ilovecomputers, One can hardly serve cucumber sandwiches and tea to someone coming in from the field. ROFLMAO! No, one cannot ; - )

The pink comes from not removing all the peel from the apples (red, obviously!) when cooking down : - ) One can also add 'red hots' to the apples which makes them pink and gives a spicy cinnamon flavor.

Sadly I don't have a butcher other than the typical Kroger or Food City. I'll ask. Last time I asked them to break down a chicken for me (ran out of time to do it myself) they chopped it up randomly, and I'm thinking they used a chainsaw...

I like steak and kidney pie, but don’t know how to make it. Used to eat pickled pigs feet as a kid but don’t think I could take the consistency now. Yes, out of necessity people used to eat nose to tail...one side of my family ate a lot of fish. There’s a recipe for basically sherried fish guts....I can’t eat that either but again, it depends what one grew up with. I love sushi, and fish collars (grilled). Too weenie to eat the eyes. Gardengal,,,my Dad is British and talks about having fried bread (basically fried in bacon fat) at breakfast (which was after working for several hours on the farm), along with fried tomatoes, sausage, etc. one had to be very clever to manage off the ration coupons. My Dad loves a Chinese dish which is fermented fish sautéed with sausage, hom yu. It was hard to find a restaurant that would fix it, as it stinks...

Okay, I just bookmarked this whole thread! I have got to try everything on it.

Oyster Dressing

1 cup chopped celery

1 cup chopped onions

Giblets from turkey

1 container of oysters

1 pan cornbread

4 slices stale bread

2 to 4 eggs

poultry seasoning to taste

Simmer giblets and neck in water until tender. Remove to cool. Add chopped onion and celery to pan and add water if needed. Cook until onion is clear and celery is tender. Crumble cornbread and bread in large bowl. Add celery and onion with cooking water. Drain oysters, reserving liquid, check for shells and chop. Add to bowl. Add eggs. Add poultry seasoning to taste. Add neck, tail meat and gizzard from giblets. (rest is for gravy). Add up to 1/2 of drippings from turkey. Mixture should be very soupy. Pour into greased pan and bake at 350* until firm and brown.

If you make this and only add the oysters after everything else, it will be oyster free. I have a grandson that is allergic to oysters and a DIL that won't touch them. If you don't have enough drippings, you can use chicken stock.

This is not a real recipe. It is how I tried to write it down from trying to duplicate my grandmother Fitch's. She was from Grand Bay, Alabama.

Thank you for the oyster dressing recipe.. wonder how long this might take to bake (I could just keep it warm I suppose). Is the oyster taste very noticeable? I'd think they'd add moisture to this and would like to keep them in. I can sneak in items like sardines that DH doesn't know is there!

2manydiversions, yes they make it moist. If you don’t want as strong of an oyster taste, don’t use the juice from the oysters. It takes about 45 minutes to cook. This always varies for me because it depends on how much of everything I use. I taste as I go. I know you shouldn’t eat raw eggs, but it hasn’t killed me yet!

;-) here's another "starch on starch" -- we made oyster dressing one year, and had leftovers, so heated it up, added hot sauce, and put into bulkie rolls for lunch...it was delicious!

HB, that sounds great!

Just got back here. 2manydiversions Thank you for your response. It is easy to misread one's intent on the net. Peace.

Sorry I don't have a recipe. I don't live rural but goat head chili appears at most chili cook offs around here. The ones I've had are a more loose , not thick chili with beans.

Lucille glad to see another calamari liker here. There is nothing better than a perfectly grilled calamari steak on a toasted buttered french roll. The fried rings on a sandwich like a shrimp po boy are OK, but I prefer the steak on a sandwich.

Oh some of these take me but to my childhood... I also grew up in the depression and we ate so many of these things or go hungry! My dad loved fried brains and I think they were wrapped in something called apron...and if I remember right, it was the lining of the stomach, but I did not eat it. We also had liver and onions and I love that, tongue, suet pudding, pigs feet, head cheese, and all parts of whatever they raised and butchered. Mom always said they ate everything but the "onk".

watchmelol, we don't much get good fresh seafood here, sadly. Our fish is usually good, but has been hit/miss lately. You must live in an area that does - you're so fortunate! I love seafood anything... but then, I love pretty much any food, any cuisine!

H B, I second your oyster dressing on rolls for a quick lunch - that sounds great!

Is anyone else's stomach growling?

phoggie, funny how much of that is considered a high end delicacy - offal. It's all food : - )

Speaking of starch on starch: My sister in law took some dressing she took home on Thanksgiving, mixed in an egg, but breadcrumbs around it, fried it up and ate it on bread.

The chicken & noodles over mashed potatoes is something I've never heard of before, I live one state away from you Marilyn Sue! It does sound good, though, and I haven't eaten yet. I happen to have a little chicken N dumplings in the freezer that I may have to eat now. ( :

"They sell suet at the hardware stores along with birdseed."

This is not the same at all and I wouldn't recommend using it for any recipe that calls for suet. It is heavily processed and has any number of preservatives and often seed or dried fruit. Suet is fresh beef or mutton fat that comes from around the kidneys or loins. It doesn't keep store for any length of time unless frozen, just like any other fresh meat.

Fried bread (usually fried in bacon grease) is/was a standard fare of the British working class and was an essential part of the "fry up" English breakfast :-) Or sometimes just the entire meal if served with baked beans. Thankfully, we had a toaster and mom only fried bread if she was making croûtons.

2manydiversions, Do you live anywhere near a Publix? Their Florida pink shrimp (frozen) is good. It is from around Key West and is flash frozen on the boat. You can get it at Costco sometimes also.

I don't have a whole chicken right now, but I have a lot of homemade chicken stock and boneless chicken breasts. Do y'all think that would work for the chicken and noodles. I have plenty of potatoes for the mashed potatoes. Or should I wait and get a chicken tomorrow?

I do like using chicken that has the bone in for my broth. What is the difference between stock and broth. My broth is just that, chicken simmered in water, salt and pepper for the seasoning. The meat will be fine since you like white meat, I say go for it. If you have too much broth, add more noodles, not till it is a globby mess! Ha, ha.

Sue

Sherry_7bAL, yes we have one here, I've never been inside - thank you! The shrimp at the grocery is not good, and I'll take it frozen if need be.

Yes, I've done that many times.. if you've got homemade stock you've got bone flavor/gelatin so you're good to go! Just toss in those breasts and simmer away! They do need to simmer (bring to a low boil first) for quite a while to be very tender.

Stock is basically broth with the gelatin from bones simmering in it. For stock I usually toss in a few cooking onions (yellow), some whole celery, a carrot, and leftover chicken bones with the raw meat that's still on it... but if no leftover bones I'll cook chicken with bone, remove after the stock is done, and use for salads or other dishes. ETA: salt and pepper too.

Marilyn, that is exactly what I call stock or broth. It is opposite of what I have been reading. To me, broth is chicken and water simmered, then toss the bones. Stock is chicken, onions, celery, carrots,and maybe garlic. Strain and toss the stuff. It is the same whether I make chicken, turkey, beef, or venison. Lately, the cooking channels have it exactly the opposite.

From Kitchn.com:

The Primary Difference Between Stock & Broth

Often stocks and broths both start off the same way: scraps of vegetable, meat, and bone are slowly simmered to extract as much flavor as possible. But there is technically a difference between the two.

Broth: Technically speaking, broth is any liquid that has had meat cooked in it. Of course, now broth really is a catch-all for any flavored cooking liquid, including broths made by simmering fish, vegetables, or even legumes.

Stock: Stock, however, always involves bones, simmered for a long time to extract their gelatin and flavor. The thick, often-gelatinous nature of stocks is only possible when bones are present. Roasting the bones makes for a richer, more deeply colored stock, but it's not essential to the process.

(I don't roast my bones before making stock)

Yes, that is what I always considered stock!

I think in common usage stock and broth are used interchangeably.

I wouldn't consider kitchn.com an authoritative site in any event.

Elmer, they typically are for most people. In French and many other cuisines that's the commonly known difference between stock and broth—the use of bones. I used the link above for convenience, I'm not familiar with that site. Nor am I or anyone the stock/broth police, and whatever one calls it is up to them.

Okay, I made chicken and noodles over mashed potatoes a few days ago and it was very good. I used bengardening's Easy Homemade Egg Noodles since they only made a small amount. I am going to try it again. I am going to use a whole chicken next time instead of just the chicken breasts.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/5022824/egg-noodlessorry-long?n=12

Note to self, Roll noodles thinner, much, much thinner! LOL. I don't make pasta, although I would like to try. The noodles were good and if I can learn how to do it correctly, that would be great. I make stroganoff quite often and probably would more if I didn't have to remember to buy the egg noodles at the store.

ETA: I just printed ilovecomputers recipe above also. Will try it too.

Hi Sherry_7bAL, I'm glad you enjoyed the 'new/old' recipe you found. RE: egg noodles... I used to hand mix, roll out with a rolling pin (yes, uber-thin!) and hand cut, then carefully unroll - what a chore! I finally broke down and bought this Atlas Wellness pasta machine just for that dish... I also followed the recipe and well written directions from the very first review (Amazon screen name UpperDown) for making pasta dough in a food processor. This particular pasta machine leaves no traces of metals on pasta (I had another that did, cheaper). My recipe differs only in that I add a wee bit more salt to the dough for some dishes.

Now I make spaghetti pasta (haven't bought it since!), as well as pasta for the chicken and noodles (setting 9, using the thinnest cutter) as well as fettuccine for beef stroganoff, shrimp fettuccine, and other dishes... I also make lasagna and stuffed ravioli now. It's easy and fast, and there's a huge difference in taste and texture. Sometimes I add a little semolina flour for bite, and sometimes I mix in fresh herbs. Sometimes I brown my flour as the first reviewer mentions in the comments section. Never did I think I'd make all our pasta, or try new pastas, but the food processor technique is fast and easy, and the pasta machine takes very little time. I tend to make double/triple batches, freezing mine after it's dried, tossing however much I need frozen into boiling water.

Happy cooking!

Sherry...I am glad you tried them. I always use the thighs because I think it gives so much more flavor than the breast meat does.