Ancestral Dish: Sludge? Stew? Slumgullion!
Posted: November 19, 2009 Filed under: Genealogy | Tags: Ancestral Dishes, Recipes 44 CommentsAn update, 28 November 2013: Slumgullion has almost as many devotees as Anything f’Thanksgiving! And so I give thanks today to all who have posted comments below about their family memories of this ultimate clean-the-refrigerator-out dish. The variations continue to intrigue me. I cannot say why my family’s Slumgullion recipe is the way it is, but on the other hand, maybe that’s what makes it Slumgullion.
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Yes, this workaday classic was going to be October’s Dish of the Month, but October ran away with us. Now here we are in November, when we’re all supposed to be arguing about the best way to roast the turkey.
Well, we can’t have Thanksgiving every day, my dears. On the other hand we could have slumgullion every day, if we dared.
What is slumgullion? If you’re Irish-American and you grew up in the pre-convenience food era, you probably already know.
Call it an everyday supper, if you’re feeling nice. (Which would be more than the Oxford English Dictionary can manage, but more on that later.)
My mother served slumgullion semi-regularly. There it would be in the skillet, a mess of ground beef, macaroni, and tomatoes. It couldn’t aspire to our holy trinity of beef goulash, spaghetti/meatballs and roast chicken. But it was one of those old dependables that my mom reached for (I think) on days when inspiration ran low.
Slumgullion is really just about browning an onion in oil in a skillet, adding a pound of ground beef and browning that with salt and pepper, then draining off the extra fat. Throw in a big can of tomatoes and their juice, plus water and elbow macaroni, and simmer it, covered, until the pasta cooks.
That’s all. It was Hamburger Helper before there was Hamburger Helper.
Kids, don’t try slumgullion at home.
I thought everybody had slumgullion. But then my Brownie troop took a field trip to the local gas utility’s office, which had a demo kitchen and gave cooking classes. (Really!)
The test-kitchen lady demonstrated “Skillet Beef and Macaroni.” I knew it was plain old slumgullion, and I told her so.
“Really, dear?” she said, wrinkling her brow. “I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
To this day, I’m convinced that the test-kitchen lady was a slumgullion girl who wanted to forget where she came from.
Where did slumgullion itself come from? Well, here goes. But hark, there be nastiness ahead.
The OED says the term originally had two meanings: First: “Any cheap, nasty, washy beverage.” Second: A term for various forms of sludge.
At one point, “slumgullion” denoted fish offal of any kind. It also has meant “the watery refuse, mixed with blood and oil, which drains from blubber.” (See? Nasty.)
Later, “slumgullion” was the name for the muddy deposits at a mining sluice. And finally, it came to mean “a kind of watery hash or stew,” which, under the circumstances, is a bit of a relief.
Slumgullion doesn’t get respect, and really doesn’t earn it. Try looking it up on the recipe collection sites. It has no standards, and codifying it in a recipe feels beside the point. I’m sure some folks out there can’t stand the way my mom made it, but that’s OK; I cannot believe what other people put into their slumgullion.
Corn. Celery. Green peppers. Red peppers. Spinach. Parmesan cheese. Cold spaghetti. Ground-up leftover meats of every kind.
In fact, slumgullion seems to have been a leftover dump for many families, which probably accounts for its awful name.
Still, I like to think of slumgullion every now and then, even if I never make it. We live in an age where cooking and menu planning can be so terribly status-conscious. It is hard not to feel a pang of nostalgia for something as completely unpretentious as slumgullion, the stew named after sludge.
Mmmmmmmm.
The Ancestral Archaeologist 
True Slumgullion in my polish/Czech family is nothing like all of those posted. It is made with a half a pound of ground veal that is ground with a half a pound of ground pork. Then mixed with a pound of ground round. Brown all meats together in skillet with salt and pepper. Drain off fat. Place half of browned meat in Dutch oven pot. Then one cup of cooked white rice. Spread evenly on meat. Top with half 16 oz tub of sour cream. Next spread rest of browned meat. Then another cup of cooked white rice and the other half of sour cream spread evenly on rice layer. Now top with 14 oz can of sauerkraut spread evenly into top. Pour in circular motion all the juices from the can. Bake one hour at 350 degrees. If you try this recipe you will like it. No tomato sauce or it will taste like cabbage rolls.
I’m wracking my brain trying to recall an actual recipe for my Pennsylvania Dutch (ie., German) grandmother’s slumgullion, but I know ground beef, green pepper, onion, a piece of salt pork for flavor and RICE were involved. There may have been a tomato base, but I can’t remember (she died 45 years ago, so it’s been a while since I’ve had it.) Yours is the only other account I’ve seen that calls for rice, and I almost want to weep with joy. I miss her so much. Thanks for sharing your version of this important part of our collective food history. ❤
Our family folklore (which has no histirical basis that I’ve ever seen) relates that our ancestor was a pony express rider, and that slumgullion was a stew made from whatever game and herbs picked up along the route , thrown into a pot and cooked up. As our family had irish origins, I’m pretty sure it was an irish stew variation. The macaroni, ground beef, tomato sauce version, was always goulash.pgullion-KY
Slumgullion is a dish that has what ever you have on hand thrown in to feed a hungry family. Don’t make fun of it. It was essential in the depression days to feed poor people. And after.
Well, I’d like to think of the humor in this piece as affectionate. I yield to none in my admiration of slumgullion, which is why I proudly told the Brownie Test Kitchen Cooking Lady what it really was when I was just a wee little thing. I also find it inspiring that people continue to share slumgullion memories, nine years after I first posted about it!
I learned this recipe from my college boyfriend’s Irish grandparents. Everyone loves it, especially kids. She explained that it was a cheap and easy dish to make for a big family during the depression. I thought it was a made up name in their family, until now. I have been making this dish for my own family. Instead of tomato sauce she used Campbell’s alphabet soup so it has vegetables and potatoes in it. It is so yummy!
Slumgullion stew done the old fashion way had beef, and beef broth, onions, potatoes,celery, carrots, tomatoes and red wine. That was the old Irish recipe, even looking at the old movie, it happened on 5th avenue, you can tell it has these things in them. I personally never heard of slumgullion stew having ground beef and macaroni ‘. That’s not how slumgullion stew was originally made.its an Irish Stew, that goes back for many years.
My mother grew up in southeast Iowa with depression era parents. Her mother made slumgullion on a regular basis, and so did she. My mom often talked about having very little when she and my father first got married. It was a cheap and easy meal for her to make at least once a week, or more. My mother’s version contained ground beef, macaroni, diced tomatoes and a few cans of pork n beans. I have yet to see a version that contained beans, and I wonder if this is something that my grandmother added to the mix.
I just made slumgullion yesterday with beans. We’re vegetarian, so we make it with a can of vegetarian chili. And we throw in a green pepper with the onion.
I think that’s the first vegetarian variation on the thread 🙂 I love that slumgullion makes the healthy transition!
DOES ANYONE KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT AN AUSTRIAN DUMPLING THAT HAD A BIT OF BREAD IN THE CENTER? MY HUSBND OFTEN TALKED ABOUT IT BEING BETTER THE NEXT DAY, SLICED AND FRIED WITH PORK GRAVY
Bebee, that kind of dumpling is also familiar to me from my grandmother’s family in Franconia (northern Bavaria). The one I remember was a potato dumpling; made of boiled potatoes, peeled, then mashed and mixed with eggs, salt, pepper (some also say a little nutmeg, although I don’t remember nutmeg). Cubes of bread — my family would use a firm peasant-type bread they called Bauernbrot — are fried in butter and you put them in the center of the dumpling mixture. They boiled them in plain water (not on top of a stew, the way American dumplings are cooked) and served them with roasted pork and gravy, or beef goulash and gravy. I found a recipe in a modern German cookbook that seems pretty close to what I remember — they’re a lot of work!
My mother made this quite often when I was growing up. She was of Norwegian Swedish descent growing up in Wisconsin. She also called it “whores Stew” which is not a name she learned at home, her mother would have gasped if that was said in her home. My mother and I make it the same way browned onion, ad and brown ground beef, salt pepper, and stewed tomatoes. We mix it with precooked elbow macaroni and cover with shredded cheddar cheese. Cook for 30 to 40 minutes and brown under the broiler. I cook the mixture in a large casserole dish so there are always leftovers.
I grew up calling this dish Johnny Marzetti. What my grandmother called Slumgullion is similar only instead of beef it was bacon and the tomatoes came from tomato juice that everything was cooked in after the bacon was cooked and the onions caramelized. Love both though!
My mother, from northeast Pennsylvania, made this same dish, but we called it “macaroni and tomatoes.” This was different from what we called “goulash”, which she made with a tomato sauce.
My name for hamburger tomatoes onion macaroni concoction is “American Chop Suey”. My husband and I grew up on it living miles apart ( Pennsylvania and West Virginia). Our moms would change this recipe by removing macaroni and use kidney beans. Then it would be called “Chili”. Amazingly they tasted the same.Over the last 50 years years I’ve “doctored” both recipes to the delight of my family.
Traditional Slumgullion is NOT gullosh!! It doses NOT contain tomatoes. It is “bastardized” Irish stew by adding elbow macaroni. I came from Wexford Ireland and, even though it is Irish-American, It is a favorite in restaurants throughout Ireland. I get disappointed when I see all these mis-representations of an Irish-American favorite!
You are right, the old recipe for slumgullion stew did not have ground beef or macaroni! It had chucks of beef, carrots, onions, celery, tomatoes, red wine, beef broth. It was a very good stew, and yes your right again, it is a Irish Stew.
Check out this use of the word Slumgollian from 1899. My Great Grandfather was on this ship, and my mother had never heard of the word until my Dad used it – which we are suspecting he got from his Grandfather. We never had a “slumgollian” recipe in the house, Slumgollian seemed to be our own family slang term for leftover casseroles and any sloppy, stewy, but “questionably edible” dish.
http://www.spanamwar.com/cityofpara.htm
Maybe y’all can help me…. My father taught me a dish made with a can of pork & beans, a can of kernel corn (drained) and sliced hotdogs. We made it amount but as a kid I loved it so made it often, I swear my Father called it Slumgullion, but then again, I swear there is another name. Any ideas??
I make mine with chunks of potatoes instead of the elbow macarroni as I have celiacs disease. We ate this everytime we went camping when we were kids.
Slumgullion is made with ground beef and stewed with diced potatoes, tomatoes and onions with a couple cans of ‘redskin’ kidney beans…yes, add some salt, pepper and a little water for broth…now that’s a meal that I call ‘comfort food’.
[…] Ancestral Dish? Sludge? Stew? Slumgullion? – The Ancestral Archaeologist […]
My friend, (from a large Irish family in Philadelphia), and I, (from the Midwest, of Norwegian/German descent), were watching a little-known ‘Christmas’ movie yesterday, and you could say that one of the ‘stars of the show’ was a pot of Slumgullion. This immediately sparked a discussion on the subject; a dish I grew up with and of which my friend had never heard. A google search landed me here, and I think your site is a perfect reintroduction for anyone who has ever had the dish, regardless of what they heard it called. (Turns out, my friend’s mother did make it, and it was referred to as Goop.)
FYI, the movie is from the 1940’s and is titled “It happened on 5th Avenue.” The plot centers around a group of squatters in a millionaire’s mansion in New York City at Christmastime. Without being a spoiler, I’ll just say that two of the main characters, who were married, but have long been separated, are brought back together when he walks into the home and smells Slumgullion cooking. He waxes eloquently about the dish, saying that his long-lost wife made the best Slumgullion in the county. Unbeknownst to him, it is she who is cooking the dish in the kitchen. It’s a fun movie, worth the watch… especially for Slumgullion fans ☺ Yes, Virginia, there really is a Slumgullion.
Connie
That’s exactly how I heard about the dish!!! GREAT holiday movie 🙂
Yes Connie, that was a very good movie, one of my favorites. I bought the movie and still watch it every so often.
We grew up with my mom making a dish she always called “Slumgullion”– never heard another soul say that word! I’ve looked online now and then for it, and always find tomatoes as part of the concoction…not ours…The only ingredients I recall are browned and crumbled ground beef, sliced potatoes and corn– all in one pan on top of the stove…Perhaps she’d grown up with tomatoes, but, since my sister NEVER ate tomatoes, perhaps she kept them out of her recipe– or, she just never had them when eating Slumgullion as a kid either– hard to know. Irish background, from Dublin and Cork…Salt and peppered while cooking…perhaps onions too– I always add onions when I fix it, but I don’t recall it back then…Yum for sure!
My mother made Slumgullion a lot while I was growing up. And when we said the name to people their response was usually “Slum what?” So I referred to it as Goulash to people outside the family. But when I made it this week my husband decided to research the name. All these years I thought my mother’s family made up the strange name. To find out it is an authentic Irish dish that goes way back gave me a renewed pride. I will always call it Slumgullion. We make ours in a roaster in the oven. I layer it with handfuls of ground beef and sliced celery, onions, carrots, potatoes and thin wedges of cabbage cover the top, sprinkle well with salt and pepper. Then pour a can of tomato sauce over the top. Let it bake for at least an hour and 1/2 at 350 and when it’s done it has made a wonderful hearty stew. All that is needed is a bread to accompany it.
One of my brothers forwarded this article to me. Another brother was a NYC firfighter and brought this recipe home from the firehouse in the early 1960s. It became an instant family favorite that I make for my grandkids these days. The only difference is that I brown the beef in bacon fat and I pre-cook the elbow macroni … no need to add water to the mixture. Note: I usually make hugh portions and freeze some in 2-cup individual containers.
huge … not hugh
Hi, Alice, thanks for the comment. I love hearing about all the different variations on Slumgullion. Makes the name all the more appropriate 🙂
Hi! This was always called American Chop Suey in Boston
Coming from a town of mostly Irish, and many a relatives with names like Doyle, Dorn, and O’Brian, our Mother (and God Rest Her Soul) made it, Ground Beef and Onion, Tomatoes, but no Macaroni, no it had to be sliced Potatoes. The 3 would be layered into an Pot/Pan starting with some of the Beef on the bottom. Then layers of Potato, Beef and Onion topped with Tomatoe, then Repeat, And repeat until the Pot is pretty much full, Then, top this with Crushed Corn Flakes (for a Crispy topping). One further note, if you use all of the tomatoe liquid it may end up more runny than desired. However, this whole concoction would go into the Oven and bake. If only I knew the time and temp. but what’s a ‘Guy’ to do?
Cooking never entered my life until after college, by then Fast Food was the rage and now, I long for the Old Traditional Dishes my Mother use to make.
If only I’d paid more attention to what was going on in the kitchen…
Whether this is True Slumgullion I do not know, but one name that does fit entirely is
‘Delicious’! Dad and a couple of the brothers covered it on their plates with ketchup.
This to me served only to mask the true flavor. But that’s what personal taste is all about.
They covered many of their foods in ketchup. So why not just drink the stuff on the side?
*I should add that the Tomatoes were (canned stewed) and then sliced into smaller size.
And the reason for the beef on the bottom is so that some of the oil/grease would stop it all from sticking to the pan. And being on of the chief dish washers as a kid, I appreciated that little fact!
350F for 45 minutes.
I am a 73 year old Okie and my mother cooked this dish pretty much the way you described it. It was easy, cheap and good. I am not sure where she came up with the recipe as she was from a farm family of mixed descent including Cherokee. The only thing I am sure of, it was not a traditional Cherokee dish.
I love all these names- I’m so impressed that I’ve been making this dish for +50 years (have yet to buy one of those horrible things called “hamburger helper”) My husband, who is of East European descent calls this creation “Shemoya” (have no idea how to spell it!) – I know it as Slumgullion, but my version has no tomatoes or macaroni – that’s another dish entirely!. I make it with ground beef, chopped onions & garlic and thicken the whole mess with some kind of sauce – maybe its cream of mushroom soup, or maybe its cornstarch thickened potato water jazzed up with beef stock flavoring. Usually we have this served over mashed potatoes, but it works with rice or pasta too. It is my favorite way to cook ground beef …………..
I grew up on slumgullion. But it was handed down from my Bohemian Great Grandmother. My mothers family was Irish and they never had it. Ours was made very similar to yours and I still make it today. It is a great staple in a hurry. Other than my family I have never heard it called slumgullion. Most people I know call it Goulash . So imagine my surprise when after being married 30 years a Hungarian friend of ours invited us to their camp for a dish of Slumgullion. And it was made just the way I had grown up with. And now I find your website and many others with recipes for it. I agree some of the additions don’t tempt me but I still like the basic form of it. Thanks for sharing.
Juanita my family was of Czech origin and we lived in a Slovenia area of Cleveland, Ohio and my grandma born in 1919 always called it slumguillion..my husband was Irish and never heard of it..later in life I heard it called Marcaroni Creole and after we moved to southeastern Ohio they served it at school and my kids called it Johnny Marzetti perhaps it’s suggested because of the Ohio based Marzetti Company. I always related to a Bohemian origin
My parents always called this Johnny Marzetti also. They were from Southeastern Ohio
I think depending on where you grew up, it’s called something else. I never grew up with this dish, but when I met my husband, his family called it Dog Food.
My grandmother (O’Brien) called it “Chalmayne” and made it similarly (it had to be Creamettes, but cooked separately). My mom pronounced it “CHALL-min” which always sounded like a mispronunciation of “Chow mein.” I never found that name anywhere else. My wife’s mother made it your way, but called it SM&B. We still make it a couple times a month. I thought it would be funny to sell “Slumgullion Helper” and the box would be empty and you’d have to add everything yourself and follow the directions on the back.
LOL, Paul! Or there’d be a note in the box saying “What’d you expect, HELP or something?!”
Brilliant post about a dish I haven’t thought about in years. Sludge. Nice.
Thanks! I guess I should also apologize for making you think about it again, though.