American Chop Suey is a pasta casserole from the northeastern United States, made with ground beef, elbow macaroni and a seasoned tomato sauce. The dish evolved from the original Chinese-American "chop suey" of the late 1800s, a stir-fry of meat and vegetables served over rice. In New York City, the overlap of Chinatown and Little Italy along Mott and Mulberry Streets created a working-class culinary exchange: Chinese immigrants ate in Italian restaurants, Italians ate in Chinese restaurants, and both communities shared an appreciation for noodles and savory gravies.
During the Chop Suey craze of the 1900s through the 1920s, Chinese-American food became the most popular and affordable "exotic" dining option in American cities. Italian-American customers in New York's Chinatown often ordered the rich, stir-fried gravy of chop suey and asked that it be ladled over elbow macaroni or spaghetti instead of white rice. Trade publications such as The Macaroni Journal printed chop suey recipes using spaghetti alongside Italian and Mexican pasta dishes, reflecting this cross-cultural blending.
These neighborhood exchanges in New York and Boston inspired home cooks to standardize the dish into what became known as "American Chop Suey," a one-pot combination of beef, tomato sauce, and macaroni that grew into a New England household staple. By 1949, Betty Crocker was publishing simplified, family-friendly versions that helped cement the dish in American home cooking. - AsNotedIn
| Particulars for : | |
|---|---|
| Product Kind | Food |
| Cultural Affiliation | Italian-American |
| Food Culture | Italian-American Food |
| Food Taste | Savory |
| Food Conformation | Viand |
| Food Form | Victual |
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