The temperatures are starting to get cooler. The sun is lower in the sky. It brings back memories of late afternoon, after-school tag football games at Borts Field. By the time I got home and cleaned up, I was starved! At least I thought so.
One of the favorite comfort foods mom made was slumgullion. It was also called goulash, American goulash, American chop suey, or if it came out of a can, Beefaroni. In Columbus, where I now live, there is a cheesier version, known as Johnny Marzetti from its origins at Marzetti’s Restaurant in Columbus. In both my family and my wife’s, it was slumgullion.
At its most basic, slumgullion used macaroni noodles (or penne), 1-2 pounds of ground beef, onions, and tomato sauce (or pasta sauce or marinara). Whereas Johnny Marzetti adds a thick layer of cheddar cheese and was baked as a casserole, you might sprinkle grated cheddar over the top of the dish after all the ingredients were mixed and you’d be set.
Basically, you boiled your pasta, while sautéing your onions (and whatever else you added, like garlic, celery, chopped tomatoes, and peppers) and then adding your ground beef and browning it, draining off the fat. Then you added your sauce and your favorite herb-spice blend, heat it all through, and then mix it in with your pasta, sprinkle cheese over it, warm it through if needed and serve!
Seasoning is where you really make this dish yours. You can go for a traditional Italian mix of Italian seasoning, oregano, basil, rosemary, and parsley. I’ve also seen versions of the recipe with taco seasoning, or Indian curry. I might add my condiment of choice, sriracha sauce to add some zip. This is one of those dishes where “season to taste” is the rule.
It was the perfect working class meal for those cool autumn evenings. It was simple to make, filling, and inexpensive and made the house smell wonderful. Chances are, sooner or later you would have dinner with a friend and then there was the dilemma of whose mom made the best slumgullion. If you were smart, you just said it was “real good” and kept your thoughts to yourself.
To read other posts in the Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown series, just click “On Youngstown.” Enjoy!
Bob on Books 
We make it all the time, we add slices of velveta cheese on top, bake in the oven and it melts and tastes so good!
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That is more like the dish that traces its origins to the Marzetti family of Columbus.
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Never heard it called that; I knew it as goulash.
Phil Blair Sent from my Android e6 phone
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On Facebook, I’ve seen a number of other names including “slop” and chili-mac!
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This was a staple growing up and I still love it and make it for my family. We called it American chop suey. Ever so good.
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My grandmother, who lived her whole life in Lorain, Ohio, made this and called it slumgullion. I don’t think I’ve met anyone outside of my family who knew what slumgullion was!
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That’s what both of our families called it, but a number of comments on FB yielded a number of other names. The most interesting is Johnny Marzetti, which actually came from the Marzetti family in Columbus (same as the salad dressing). This was a casserole baked in the oven. Slumgullion was made on top of the stove, kind of a pasta stew. Others call it beefaroni, slumgush, goulash, and a variety of other names!
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Johnny Marzetti was a staple in high school cafeteria’s in Northeaster Ohio. I made this for my grandsons a while ago; oddly enough, no requests for my making it again.
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My Dad called it Slumgullion also. I always thought it was a word he made up lol
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OMG.. When I saw this post I was thrilled. We had slumgullion often in our house. The only thing my mom did different was she used egg noodles. I make it every now and again but and it’s good but it just doesn’t taste like my mom’s.
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Was one of my favorite when uncle Chester made it for dinner my cousin and I loved it no one makes it like Uncle Chester oh do we miss u
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My mother called it Slumgullion and it was light on any herbs and spices. I tried without success to make it like my mother’s. ROY founder, Bobbi Allen, told me to look into their first book’s recipe for Beefaroni. It tastes exactly like my mother’s minus the red pepper flakes. It just keeps getting better day by day. Perfect comfort food.
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The proper name, in my family, for this dish is Hungarian Goulash but we all called it what my Grandmother coined it as, “Hunky Boots”! LOL!
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That’s a good one!
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I believe my family might win the award for most unique name of this dish. My mother coined it “horse’s slober.” WTH!? I ate it when she made it but was always grossed out by that term. I’ve never made this dish as an adult or forced my kids to eat it. They may have had it at my mom’s though. LOL
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Sherri, just found your comments. WordPress made a rare error and routed these to my spam folder. Great to read about your dad–and I think you are the first to call slumgulliom “horse’s slobber!” Sounds yummy! At any rate, thanks for stopping by and nice to connect with a fellow Youngstowner!
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As a “poor” family with 5 kids in 7 years, my mom had to feed us on “quite a limited budget”. This “chili mac” as my mom called it, (grama called it Marzetti noodles) fed us kids; now it has fed my wife and me for 45 plus years. We love it as well as the casserole version. It never gets old. Our dad called it “poor man’s plate” and liked it, but later in his life, he wouldn’t eat that and pasta Fagioli anymore because it reminded him of the “poor days”. Wonderful food experiences in our Southside Youngstown neighborhood where we learned the ethnic “shortcuts” that kept our family fed well. Thanks for the hometown memories that you share with us daily. God be with us all today and always…
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