American chop suey

wow... and here i thought american chop suey was something aramark, the dining hall providers at umass, made up. recommendation: never eat aramark american chop suey.

Goodness no. It's positively a real thing. My aunt used to even make it for major holidays.It isn't that good. And it certainly isn't pretty.

I grew up eating American Chop Suey. It was nice to read of not only this Bostonian classic dish, but all of the other many things that make Boston, and New England, so unique.

i love american chop suey, i jsut figuered that everybody eats it becasue even if it doesnt lok goood damn it tastes good...yet its jsut another plus of living in Mass

It isn't all that great, but its easy to make and cheaper on your budget.I'll eat it, but I won't eat the tomatoes. gross

In my family we called it "Gum Spidgeon"; no ideah why. Not shuah why; I think my fathah or brothah coined the phrase.

My grandparents moved to Florida back in the 60's from Boston and my grammy gave my mom the recipe for American chop suey. I love it!!! For some reason it tastes better the day after you cook it. Don't forget the salt!

I grew up in Boston, but moved Upstate NY in college. Out there they kept trying to feed me "Goolash"... which I ran about 10 miles from until a fellow Bostonian explained to me that it was just American Chop Suey. My NY friends still don't let me live it down.

Its always been American Chop Suey, but in my family we also called it Boulsey Whoo. I don't know why either. But American Chop Suey is the way to go on this one.

I had american Cop Suey as a kid growing up in Maine. It was always my favorite dish.At work I mentioned it to my co-workers who thought I was crazy when I told them about it. Today Sept 14 in the tower of Usairwaysmy co-worker Gail made the dish and brought it to work and everyone is raving how good it is. Try putting in peas and carrots as she did.

I remember my mother-in-law was out of tomato sauce one Sunday (stores were closed in Mass. way back then) so she used some Heinz ketchup along with the beef, onions, peppers & elbow macaroni. That was the start of a new low cost budget stretcher. And it was better than some of the stuff at the cafeteria at work too. After about a 15 year gap I found myself making it to stretch my food money and it really brought me back. She's gone now but this will always remind me of her Yankee ingenuity.

american chop suey kid....i luv it, my motha makes it once a month and we neva eat it on the first day, you gotta eat it afta its been refrija-ated.....then throw it in the frying pan with some butta, add salt and ya good ta go.....high pahk style baby

The first time I was making it for my husband (native Floridian), he just looked at me funny. He ate it, and he's definitely a fan now, but I think the concept baffles people who haven't grown up with it.

I grew up with American Chop Suey and never realised the rest of the country didn't eat this until I moved out of the Boston area. It's one of my fav's and my kids too!! I use tomato soup and stewed toms w/peppers and onions..it's a little sweeter than the tom sauce...but definately do not forget salt and pepper!!! It's also good with ground turkey and whole wheat pasta for those being healthier!!! I use the whole wheat w/ground beef, but it always HAS to be elbow mac.

Please Please Please!!!! I had the recipe for american chop suey and lost it. I know its not that hard to make but... everytime I make it, I cant get that american chop suey taste. Please does anyone have the recipe? I am from MA and could really use it...

Just take some ground beef and fry it up, add some garlic (mmmmmmm) and onions, then some tomato sauce. and cook some elbows too add the sauce to it and ur done

My mom used to make this all the time...it was my absolute favourite!!!...except she called it Chilli Mac.

It was one of the regular dishes on our school lunch menu where I grew up in NH.

We have American Chop Suey every once and awhile, and can rarely make enough to satisfy everybody (My mom got this hugeass frying pan just for this). What I know it as is a little different, though...we use Franco-American spaghetti (the canned stuff) and of course ground hamburger. "Wicked good" stuff either way.

I called my mom today because I was pondering the name "American Chop Suey". Why is it called that, I asked. She had no idea, but thought it was a New England thing. We moved away when I was a kid, and I never noticed that nobody knew what I was talking about. I guess I haven't made it in a long time. Well, I did make it tonight, and we did eat it tonight (leftovers are for Mommy, add a little more salt please!) As a transplanted Yankee in Texas, I'm proud to call this comfort food by it's proper name and my Texan children will grow up on it too.

I called my mom today because I was pondering the name "American Chop Suey". Why is it called that, I asked. She had no idea, but thought it was a New England thing. We moved away when I was a kid, and I never noticed that nobody knew what I was talking about. I guess I haven't made it in a long time. Well, I did make it tonight, and we did eat it tonight (leftovers are for Mommy, add a little more salt please!) As a transplanted Yankee in Texas, I'm proud to call this comfort food by it's proper name and my Texan children will grow up on it too.

i came out to california for school. i taught my roomates how to make it, and they love it haha

You should try a Garbage Plate

In my family we used "goolash" and "chop suey" interchangably, probably since I'm in the Pioneer Valley halfway between NY and Boston.

As simple as ACS is, it's downright fancy compared to its possible ancestor, Elbows n Tomatoes, a dish favored by some Italian families I know. It would be interesting to list all the dishes like E-n-T that date to pre-Vatican II Fridays (or to when people couldn't afford meat all the time).

In the Detroit suburbs where I grew up my Mom made this all the time, but we called it goulash.

I love American chop suey....grew up in maine and mom use to make it quite often.Moved to Arizona and told a few people and they thought i was nuts....didnt know what it was they say goolash but to me its american chop suey.Going to make it tonight.but it is better the next day.Yummy!!!!!

I remember reading this book when I was little... Confused the hell out of me, because they kept talking about chop suey, but by what they were saying it was definitely not good old American Chop Suey (one of my favorites). Never figured out exactly what they were talking about, but I think regular chop suey is Chinese food.

Im still looking for the recipe for american chop suey. I dont really think the original chop suey had garlic in it. I do know it had onions and celery. I would love to make it for my husband, where he isnt from new england and has never had it. Can anyone help? Thanks

ok..here it is. depending on how close to payday you are either 1/2lb or 1lb of hamburgh. Break up hamburgh as you fry in very large pan. add to hamburgh as frying 1/2 onion chopped plus about a cup of chopped celery. Keep cooking till all red has gone from meat and celery and onion are cooked. Add 1lb can of either tomatoes or stewed tomatoes some ground pepper and salt. You can also add about a quarter cup of ketsup if you like that taste. Let all this simmer uncovered while you cook your macaroni. When macaroni is done, drain and add to meat mixture, turn off stove and let sit allow flavors to mix. Always better the second day and delicious served with texas toast or garlic bread.

My God don't you people know what good is ? And try the following American Chop Suey recipie. Kick ass to die for!Growing up in the hill towns of MA. Grandmothers and moms cooked and cooked gooood as Andy Taylor use to say.I cook all the time, everything from soup to stuffed shrimp however I don't measure many ingredients, but judge you're needs.Start out browning some 93% ground beef,and don't drain that little bit of fat and juice from the meat.You're using 93% beef,that's quality and it will ad such flavor! After beef is cooked ad small diced onion,green pepper,can diced or sliced stewed tomatoes with juice,salt, fresh ground pepper ad other spices if you wish. cover and simmer until veggies are the consistency you like.Meantime cook elbow mac.drain,rinse back in the pot ad beef mixture stir and serve.Don't want mixture soupy just nicely mixed maybe a salad or crusty bread but you will want seconds!For 2 people 1lb.93% ground beef,1 med onion+green pepper med. dice ea.1 14 oz.can stewed tomatoes w/juice spices to taste salt,ground pepper,crushed red pepper,parsley.1 cup uncooked elbows, after cooking will be double in size.

I call it goulash and i always use garlic try it with some crumbled up fried bacon its not original chop suey but it gives it that salt taste that American chop suey needs. mix the bacon in once its all done put in refigerator until the next day rewarm and it um um good! I have also made the meat mixture (without the macaroni) and frozen it for later use quick easy and delicious.

This was always a staple in my house growing up in Mansfield, and when I moved away from Mass., my friends were baffled by the idea. For them, "chop suey" meant something you'd find in a Chinese restaurant! ACS is definitely a New England tradition, always bettah the day aftah! A friend of mine from Texas found this site and has been reading it faithfully to figure out just what the heck I'm talking about. Thanks so much for the entire site - it's a wicked pissa, boy gawd! Go Pats!

JUST MADE AMERICAN CHOP SUEY TONIGHTFRY PEPPERS AND ONIONS A LITTLE GARLICREMOVE FRY BURGER ADD TOMATOE SAUCE COOK 2HOURS TOGETHER GREAT COMFORT FOOD

I love american chop suey. The school used to serve it but that stuff was not edable. Bahn and raised in Boston heya.

I believe the Pennsylvania translation of this word is "Johnny Marzetti". Can anyone confirm?

for those of you who call it "american chop suey" don't forget that chop suey was invented in america, just like most of the food you find in a chinese restaurant. and you certainly won't find these things in china!

Only in Boston is ground beef called "hamburg."

damn this is a boston thing. thats just what i heard it called all the time growing up in charlestown I had no idea. no wonder everyone out here in the midwest is like american chop what? hamburger helper?

hi i grew up in maine and mom cooked american chop suey she used green peppers onions and 2 cans campbells tomato soup and a can of tomatoes she fried the hamb in butter and drained it i use now a little tobasco to spice it up. jsut dont add the can of tomatoes till last so it will not be dry. its funny im here cause im cooking it for my handicapped son tonight lol

Supposedly, Johnny Marzetti is a casserole created in the 1920s by the owner of the Marzetti Restaurant in Columbus, Ohio. It's made from meat, pasta and either tomato sauce, soup or juice.So, yes Greg, basically the same thing as American Chop Suey.I just made it tonight, although I call it 'baked spaghetti' and my husband calls it 'Johnny Marzetti.' Someone asked me what the heck it was so I did a little googling and found this conversation.

French rolls - a possible explaination is that the Chinese serving French rolls in Chinatown were from Southeast Asia, either from Vietnam or heavily influenced by it. French rolls (with curry, with pho, as part of a quick lunch) are remnants of French colonization of Indochina, modern day Vietnam. There are also other mixes such as Japanese curry, Hong Kong style English breakfast, Chinese bakeries serving Western-style cakes, Asian influenced ice cream (green tea, ginger, red bean), etc.

Yeah, we too used to eat the stuff...but in our family we called it "slungonian"...don't know where that name came from, but me & my sisters always know, to this day, if one of us is having "slungonian" we know exactly what that means.Ginny

Jeezum Crow, I can't tell you how thrilled I am by this website. I'm from New Hampshire, where I grew up eating American Chop Suey at least three times a week all through elementary and middle school. When you eat it that often, it kind of loses the romance, if you know what I'm talking about. When I was a tike I thought it was something that everyone ate, the whole world around. Later, after reading some book or other on New England, I learned that it was a dish local to NH and Maine. Apparently Boston, too, I now discover. I'm in Italy right now, and I'm dying for a dish of that stuff (I have visions of the little bowl floating atop a leaf of iceberg lettuce at Timonleon's Restaurant up to Keene), but oddly enough (given the ingredients), you can't find anything to touch it here. The place is full of hotshot chefs, but they can't satisfy the simple tastes of a New Hampshireman.

I grew up in the worcester area and had this for school lunch I loved it my Mother couldn't understand how I liked this since we were Italian! This wasn't a real sauce! We live in Florida now and I have tried to make it according to memory it hasn't worked. I will try a couple of these recipes to see if it comes close to my Shrewsbury Lunch Menu.Thanks for the memories and a fun site

My grandmother used to make what she called Chop Suey and it went like this.one package of ground beef (you can never have too much)three cans of tomato soup (must be campbells)one onion and salt and peppercook your ground beef with onion and boil spaegetti noodlesnow take a casserole dish and layer your spaegetti meat and soup alternativley until you fill your dish and bake at 300 c for a half an hour uncovered and 15 covered.This is delicious and also tastes the best the next day even cold

Thanks to all the good recipes I finally got it right, I used "Just Mike's" recipe, left out the green pepper browned the meat in butter and enjoyed!My daughter and son stopped over while we were eating and tasted it--- just as they remembered it. I am sure I will be making it again and again. Thanks for bringing back the memories.

American Chop Suey! a Mainers staple for sure. I don't remember if we had it as a child at home with 13 kids but we did have it in school. The recipe (I just finished eating two bowls of) went like this, brown 1 lb. ground beef/hamburg w/ 1 chopped onion, add a can of tomato paste a can of campbells tomato soup and a can of stewed tomatoes, let simmer while elbow macaroni is cooking, drain macaroni and return to pot, add hamburg tomato mix and stir, (I always leave out the salt because we add it to our own taste and I also add butter to my bowl)I never used stewed tomatoes until my mother-in-law made her's but she left out the soup so to appease my husband I added the tomatoes and still add the soup) My youngest son moved to AZ and his gf never heard of it so I had to go there and make it for him and give her the recipe. ENJOY

my mother used to make it and i didnt understand why we didnt just have pasta with maranara. its so much better

I just made this for a neighbor's family and while they thought it was delicious, they were confused with the name! I grew in MA but live in PA now. He said they call it goulash here. I use homemade sauce and hamburger. I recently switched to whole wheat elbows. It is better the next day!!!