I need help on the origin of a recipe.. (ingredients, ground beef, hamburger)

[Caligula1]

My Granny made this ground beef concoction consisting of 2 lbs ground beef..
diced onions.. 3 cans of tomato soup, small can of paste....
and H2O to make it a medium thickness..

Serve hot over piping hot mashed potato's....
She calls it like her mother and grandmother before.. Buggered Hamburger'

Is it maybe an old soup can recipe..?
They always use cambels
I have looked online..

[the_windwalker]

Originally Posted by Caligula1

My Granny made this ground beef concoction consisting of 2 lbs ground beef..
diced onions.. 3 cans of tomato soup, small can of paste....
and H2O to make it a medium thickness..

Serve hot over piping hot mashed potato's....
She calls it like her mother and grandmother before.. Buggered Hamburger'

Is it maybe an old soup can recipe..?
They always use cambels
I have looked online..

What it sounds like is something that may have come out of the "Great Depression". Likely, something that Grandmother, or even Great Grandmother may have concocted in order to fill the empty stomachs around the table.

I know a couple of women that will look in the cupboard and frig, take out a few things, put them together, and pray they work well. If it's accepted well, they'll put the same ingredients together again, and again. It becomes a "family recipe".

A recipe I have came about, sort of that way. "Polish Lasagne." And, every time I make it, it doesn't matter how big a batch it is, there are NEVER any leftovers. I've already made 3 sheet-cake pans of it for 4 people, and it was all gone before the sun went down. But, like your "Buggered Hamburger", you will not find the recipe online. I was the one that came up with it, years ago, while trying to feed 4 kids on a small budget. In a couple of generations, my descendants may be looking for the origin of that one as well.

[Cliffie]

There are a zillion Campbell's Soup recipes out there -- it sounds very similar to my mom's recipe for Porcupine Balls -- she was a can-opener gourmet from the 1940s when that was the chic modern way to cook. Your folks could have gotten it from a women's magazine, a Campbell's cookbook, a neighbor...the possibilities are endless.

[rural chick]

I used to make this for my kids and we always called it tomato gravy.....I didn't have a recipe....but I also didn't add tomato paste...just hamburger, onions and tomato soup and some water. The kids loved it over mashed potatoes. And, now sometimes I even put tomato soup around meatloaf to make tomato gravy....tomato gravy seems to be popular in the more southern states.

[Cliffie]

It almost sounds like an ultra-American version of spaghetti sauce.

For anyone who wants to try this incredibly good recipe:

PORCUPINE BALLS (or PORCUPINE STEW)

1 lb hamburger, ground round, chuck or sirloin (your choice)
1 Tbsp instant minced onion flakes
1/4 to 1/2 C uncooked white or brown rice
s & p
1 can Campbell's tomato or tomato-rice soup
1/2 can of water
1 bay leaf

Mix the meat, onion flakes and rice by hand until everything is evenly distributed. Form into balls and brown in a frying pan with a lid -- or do what I do and just chop the meat into crumbles as it browns.

When nicely browned, pour over the soup and water and add a bay leaf. Bring to a simmer, cover, turn the heat down to low and cook 45 minutes, turning the meat over halfway through. Discard the bay leaf before serving and serve over rice.