American Goulash aka Beef-a-Roni: A Betty Crocker Recipe

Betty Crocker's Beef-a-roni

American GoulashShutterstock — American Goulash aka Beef-o-roni (with a little paprika)

I recently shared an embarrassing story about bringing what I thought was Hungarian goulash to a college potluck celebrating foods from different cultures on Medium.com and News Break. In my initial research for the article, I didn't think to look for American goulash — because I have strong feelings about culinary cultural appropriation.

The Day I Discovered My Grandma’s “Hungarian” Goulash Recipe Was Homemade Beef-o-Roni

But it turns out that my Gam’s goulash recipe was in fact an authentic American version of goulash after all.

This is what Mashed.com said about American goulash:

American goulash…is a spin-off that combines the original goulash with the two, arguably most important tenets of American home cooking: simplicity and speed. It’s still as riff-able as the original, but an entirely new beast that evolved into something like a meaty marinara pasta, which combines macaroni with some version of red sauce and beef. Betty Crocker’s version is basically just elbow macaroni with beefy tomato sauce…

Wow — so I’m somewhat vindicated because apparently my Gam’s goulash was authentically American and I didn’t commit culinary appropriation. I just gave the wrong country credit for my Gam’s paprika-free version of goulash.

I will not touch if the Hungarian goulash is a stew or a soup. That’s not my fight. I stand on the side of delicious, not other cultural food debates. I just know that both Hungarian and American goulash are both good and that’s all that matters in the end. In case you're interested in making American Golash here's the link to the full Mashed.com article and the recipe from Betty Crocker.

How Authentic Goulash Is Different From The American Version

The original recipe American Goulash