White trash cookin'

White trash cookin' dun right!

Hamburger Helper still around? I had a babysitter who made us that for lunch every day but would dress it up by melting cheese on top before serving. I loved it but then again I was a stupid kid without any taste.

Squirrel casserole.

Babby. I eat babby.

R2 hamburger helper! My mother refused it to us growing up. I wanted it so bad! All that stuff was off limits. When i was on my own i lived on all the crap she refused us. Dinty moore! Hungry man. White castle.

Growing up a typical meal for dinner would be macaroni with canned tomatoes (sometimes w/ground beef), pinto beans and fried potatoes.

My mom made “sizzle burgers”, which was hamburger patties fried in Worcestershire sauce. We had hamburger and tuna Helpers occasionally. Vegetable sides were cans of green beans, creamed corn etc. When I first started cooking in my first relationship I made things like tuna casserole and nacho salad (made with Fritos) that I would never make today.

Tuna Helper was part of the Hamburger Helper family. I also liked it when my babysitter made it for me. GenXers ate a lot of these shit because many were latchkey kids and these foods were easy to make to serve younger siblings while parents were late to come home.

R1 that looks delicious. I might add chili to the recipe! Super delicious then and probably a winner at the county fair!

On Hamburger Helper Double Cheeseburger is a favorite. I. Also love. chili Mac and a a new one southerwestern. I also doctor it up with things like like cheese, taco sauce and chili powder.

Hmmm. Might make it tonight.

R10, I'm with you. And, I have no problem eating this delicious comfort food - albeit not every day or week.

Girl, lives in Los Angeles and must maintain a respectable figures for the men!

[quote]Hamburger Helper Double Cheeseburger is a favorite.

Stand by for a warning about how one serving contains a week's worth of sodium.

My husband used to love the Hamburger Helper Cheeseburger variety. We'd cook it until it got very crisp, and had begun to separate into crumbles. Once he scooped a portion onto his plate, he'd shake on Kroger's Dry Worchestershire powder( it looked like hot cocoa mix) As far as I know, Kroger was the only source for that particular seasoning, I wonder if they still handle it?

I miss their Tuna Noodle Casserole.

I have two of the White Trash Cookin' cookbooks. I'll have to hunt them down and report back.

R1 looks so delicious. Unfortunately, it also looks like something that could kill me.

Jimmy Dean's sausage cheese balls.

The white trash oozes like the grease from every ball.

This thread has inspired me to try Worchestershire sauce with my hamburger patties. That seems like the only thing mentioned so far that I could safely eat.

Apple pie filling covered with yellow cake mix and lots of butter. Bake until warm and toasty. To DIE for.

Dump Cake. I see it at every big family get together in the summer. It's actually not too bad but crazy sweet.

R17 - I was calling your recipe "dump cake" which is what my family has always called it. A can of pie filling, a can of crushed pineapple, optional chopped pecans, a yellow cake mix sprinkled over all of that, then pats of butter on top of the cake mix. Bake until bubbly!

Watergate Salad, I actually like any of those jello fluff salads.

Better Than Sex Cake

Pig Pickin Cake

What is “helper” in the context of Hamburger Helper and Tuna Helper?

It's a dehydrated personal chef that comes in the box, Rose.

Anything with Duke's mayonnaise.

R16 It may be a sin to purists, but my father always cooked beef and venison (he hunted) steaks medium rare in butter and Worchestershire Sauce, added black pepper, and then poured it all back over the steaks when he served them. It's absolutely delicious, & boosts the flavor of the meat. Sometimes, I'll caramelize onions & mushrooms in it before I add the steak (or burger) to the pan. But that's nothing new. It's a classic combination.

Side Note: it took me until I was in my late thirties to realize all Worchestershire sauces aren't created equally. My parents favored French's, but I only use Lea & Perrins. And I always get the big bottle. Store brands are just salt water & caramel color by comparison (and probably literally).

Somebody around here must have some Spam recipes.

What is Pig Pickin Cake?

Do you have the Cookbook OP? or are you looking for recipes for the second edition?

It’s. It’s...a cookbook!

Real white trash cooking, such as in the cookbook above which I believe was someone’s master thesis, is less modern processed foods and more staple foods much like the Native Americans of Oklahoma eat.

A good example is ‘pot liquor’ or ‘likker’ which is the cooking water of vegetables, often greens such as cabbage or turnip greens. It is served with leftover fried hot water cornbread -just white cornmeal, hot water, and salt- crumbled up in it to make a watery corn porridge.

Slowly roast bacon and brown sugar in your oven until nicely crisp. Cool down. Put in pussy.

Any "Cream of" soup is usually a huge part of WT chow. Pour it over chicken, canned vegetables (the infamous green bean casserole, for instance), pasta etc.

Here's something my Mom used to make. We didn't like canned tuna, so canned chicken and cream of mushroom soup mixed into hot , buttered egg noodles. Later on she would bake it with cheese on top. It was actually pretty good.

My mom used to make spaghetti, but with american cheese. I dreaded coming to the kitchen table.

[quote] Worchestershire

Worcestershire. I hope you don't pronounce it like you spell it. (Not that it's pronounced like it's properly spelled either.)

What is more classic trash than shit on a shingle?

r35 Please, sir, no more. Tomatoes? Walnuts? Fish???

I realize they are options, but jeez Louise that just ain't right, even as suggestions. Ya' gotta' keep SOS as simple as possible; otherwise, it loses its charm, simple savoriness and introduces flavors best left to other dishes. I am weeping over my biscuits.

Mama June's 'Sketti. Pasta with butter and ketchup. Especially tasty if stirred with bare hands.

R37, you have crossed the line.

We used to have Hamburger Helper but with venison. Is that white trash?

Jello with fruit and vegetables in it. Canned ham. Canned corn. Wonder bread for hamburger buns. I want to throw up just thinking about it.

You've mentioned Hamburger Helper: I've seen it in the stores, but never tried it.

R34, Looney Tunes shows us the correct pronunciation of "worcestershire" at :40.

We had Spork and pickle sandwiches. Spork was a off-brand Spam. You grate it on a box grater, grate in some dill pickles and add mayo. This is best served on toasted bread -- I always liked open-faced so there was a greater ratio of sandwich mixture to bread. It was delicious at the time but I haven't had it for 35 years.

R39, yes especially if you killed the poor deer.

Yes, my grandpa hunts deer and we would always have venison in our freezer. I loved it as a kid but when I had it in my 30s it tasted very gamey

R44, don't get me wrong - I had it too. My father hunted.

My mother used to make a casserole with macaroni, ground beef, canned corn, tomato soup, sour cream and green onions. She made it because it was cheap and filling but I was the only one who thought it was disgusting. One night I just couldn't stomach it any longer and I stood up and announced I was going to the bathroom to puke. My mother told me sit back down and finish my dinner. I took one more bite then turned my head and heaved all over the kitchen floor. My mother was horrified but my father was laughing his ass off. When she asked him what the hell was so funny, he said, "Well he TOLD you he was going to puke, didn't he?"

I'm adventurous when it comes to food and will eat almost anything but just thinking about that casserole makes me wretch.

R37 Don't forget 4 cans of jellied cranberry sauce mixed with 4 lbs of sugar. Honey Boo Boo's fav!

Don't sell Ernie "White Trash Cooking" Mickler short. That was an art book.

That doesn't sound very appetzing R46, i would have vomited too. My mom was not a good cook at all. She hated cooking. Occasionally i'd have dinner at friends houses as a child, and it was amazing. I didn't know cooked and seasoned carrots tasted so good that didn't come out of a can.

"... it also looks like something that could kill me."

Apparently you intend to live forever.

Lasagne layered with meat sauce and mozzarella cheese i.e. the white trash version, served with caesar salad and garlic bread which are white trash side dishes.

[quote]We had Spork and pickle sandwiches. Spork was a off-brand Spam. You grate it on a box grater, grate in some dill pickles and add mayo.

We had something quite similar: bologna and pickle sandwiches. Whole bologna (not sliced) and pickles run through a meat grinder and then mixed with mayonnaise.

Call us when you get your head out of your ass, R51.

We didn't often have white trash cooking (aside from the dressed up mac and cheese), but there was definitely the occasional can of vienny sausages being eaten over the kitchen sink.

"To DIE for."

No, R17, to die FROM.

I like caesar salad and garlic bread and I am by no means white trash.

I prefer ‘regular’ Italian American lasagne or baked ziti over the bechamel type.

None of these things sound in the least appetizing. Then again, I'm not a food enthusiast in any sense. If there were a pill I could take to get all nutrition, I'd take that rather than having to ever eat again.

Grew up in a family of 5. My mom was a total K-Mart queen. When we would all go there to shop, my folks would often pick up a 5 pack of ham sandwiches (which they sold there at the time at their deli - just ham, lettuce and yellow mustard on a bun, in a sack).

Has anyone mentioned salmon patties yet? When you're a kid you often don't like stuff like smelly canned fish. My mom's were greasy and heavy on the flour, chopped onions and celery. Yuck.

Pork chops. Disgusting and trashy.

^^ Jew.

my mom would make salmon croquettes, they smelled awful. no one but my dad would eat them

Bologna cake!....they mentioned it in the film “Sweet Home Alabama”...

I like the looks of these noodle weenies.

[quote] I like caesar salad and garlic bread and I am by no means white trash.

It's still trashy food.

OK, Thurston Howell.

It's a doggy dog world out there...nothing better than comfort food.

[quote] It's a doggy dog world

And I'm wearing Milkbone underwear.

How Americans eat is no wonder there is a vitamin deficiency. None of these recipes mention a vegetable, which, even when poor in Eastern Europe back in my day, was normal to eat in season and store away pickled for colder months. Granted cabbage, berries in syrup and pickled vegetables aren't that healthy, at least you knew what they are made with because you had to pickle them. Even bacon, you go when the butcher kills the pig and see them smoke it and know what the hell it is. Same with cheese, sour cream and yogurt. You go to whoever has cows (that eat real grass), goats, or sheep and buy the milk and get the products made.

In a sense, less developed countries can, if you know how, make healthier foods than what I have been seeing in my 35 years in the US where parents don't get that much access to fresh stuff from farms.

I also don't agree that Caesar salad is white trash food as the original was made with Romano and Parmigiano and anchovies by chefs. Obviously, everything has since been made instant for the masses. But try Trader Joe's Caesar Romano Cheese dressing on romaine hearts, with their croutons and some chicken breast and it is amazing. To truly get the breast tender, poach it instead of grilling because it retains a much more tender and juicy texture.

Ever heard of collard greens, R70? Black eyed peas? There used to be plenty of veggies for poors. And I bet Eastern Europe has traded cabbage for McDonalds too.

[quote] I also don't agree that Caesar salad is white trash food as the original was made with Romano and Parmigiano and anchovies by chefs.

I'm not saying it's trashy because of it's roots; I'm saying it's trashy because of the majority of the people who consume it are trashy.

"The English only know 3 vegetables and 2 of them are cabbage."

Baked potatoes with "fixins."

R61, Pork chops aren't necessarily "trashy" if cooked properly. They're inexpensive, and lean. My parent's gardened, so they always cooked them with fresh garlic and fresh parsley in olive oil. Usually paired with a salad and some corn on the cob.

What is the picture in the OP? It looks like rice krispies with butter pats.

Crumbled saltines

But what's UNDER the saltines? I used to make a very white trashy vegetable casserole, but it was really good. You take three boxes of thawed frozen green vegetables (this was back in the day before they came in plastic bags)--usually something like chopped broccoli and spinach, then you add cubed Velveeta (the white trash cheddar) and Ritz cracker crumbs and baked. It was the white trash au gratin.

I remember reading the original cookbook and being horrified that fried egg sandwiches with mayo were listed as white trash cooking. I still eat those all the time.

So, the big question: What to white trash cooks do with their pasta water when they make the macaroni for their Hamburger Helper or tuna casserole???

I've been trying to look up the original cook book via my library, but they are not currently offering it electronically. Anyone know if this is published anywhere online?

Beenie-weenies. Baked beans with cut up hot dogs. Trashy unless you use a better quality hot dog. Bread on the side.

Corn chowder always strikes me as trash cooking.

Not one mention of ranch dressing? Always trashy especially when the dressing bottle is on the dining table. Salad dressing should be applied in the kitchens.

Who are you people?

Much of it sounds disgusting -But a lot of it tastes good, R84.

Besides, how do you think Americans got to our present size? It wasn't just Cheetos!

Ranch dressing is a step up from mayonnaise as salad dressing. I’m talking about Miracle Whip as salad dressing

But why R66? Seriously? It's a salad and bread.

Yes, R83, but they that when everyone demands a different dressing...I gave up.

How are pork chops especially trashy because Perry's charges a small fortune for their pork chop that is about 6" thick and easily feeds 4 but is served as a single entree?

A good Texas boy here and I love some black-eyed peas and cornbread. A must on NY's day.

I'm famous for my dinner parties! I love to serve pigs in a blanket and chocolate pudding tarts!

Found both cookbooks. The first one is titled: 'White Trash Cooking', by Ernest Matthew Mickler. The second has a more lurid title: 'Sinkin Spells, Hot Flashes, Fits and Cravins,' same author. Some of the latter chapter headings are a hoot:

-Foot Washins, Prayer Meetings, Creek Baptisms and All Day Sings

-Funerals, Wakes and Cemetery Cleanins

-Hog Killins(includes the recipe for 'Hog Pickin Cake')

-Sewin, Quiltin, Tacky and Home Demonstration Parties

-Eatin On The Ground

Anyone care for: Rack of Spam, Sluicey-Dab in a Foot Tub, Miss Fayda Mae's Fruit Cocktail Gravy Cobbler, Verna May's Pigtail Perlow, Quick Loretta or Weenies and Tortellinis?

BAG, that sounds more like hillbillies like the Clampett's or the Darlings than white trash.

As a good southern boy, let me say there is a difference between redneck, white trash and mountain folk.

Not to be confrontational (famous DL last words), but some of you seem to be overcompensating for growing up eating these foods. I was born and raised in South Georgia, so many of these are things are common staples for families with kids (I grew up with three younger sisters),or at church potlucks. Children obviously don't have a discerning pallet...there's a difference between eating some of these dishes at age six and eating them at age 40. Unless you have children and are feeding them on a budget, or making something cheap for the pig trough at the church potlucks. The troll who keeps saying Caesar salad and garlic bread are white trash...you're nonsensical and so obviously overcompensating.

Things I prepare these days when I want comfort food: Mexican cornbread, Velveeta cheese dip with hot sausage, and green bean casserole.

In the 80's my mother and grandmother made this dish ALL the time. Though the version I remember had crushed up potato chips sprinkled on along with the cheese.

What is comfort food?

The books are written from a Florida panhandle frame of reference, R93 (by a gay artist having fun with his regional dialect and folkways).

R95 speaks the truth. Lots of kids enjoy this kind of food and obviously most of us stop eating it.

The caesar salad is white trash troll is bizarre. Upscale restaurants still do tableside caesar salads with the anchovies. Ain't no white trash in those places. They cant afford it.

[quote]Children obviously don't have a discerning pallet

Oh, DEAR!

Pallet - what gets delivered on forklifts

Palate - what's in your mouth that's not a dick

Palette - what a painter uses

Hey, he said he was from south Georgia..

All the unusable parts of the turkey plus a third of your daily sodium intake for under 4 dollars!

Are biscuits and gravy trash?

When I visited Texas I had them in many trashy restaurants that also served frito pie. I grew to love them, so if they are trash then I am for trash.

All I know is it's damned good, R104.

No R104. Biscuits and gravy are a staple. Everyone eats them occasionally. They are too caloric for every day consumption but a few times a year I get my biscuit and gravy groove on. Same goes for chicken fried steak. The little trashy diners or mom and pop places are the best for this kind of thing.

Biscuit.

My neighbor, who was actually a really good cook, made a casserole topped with crushed potato chips. Really delicious. The casserole involved a can of soup as well, I'm pretty sure. It was either a chicken or a tuna casserole.

[quote] Are biscuits and gravy trash?

I'd say no, not trash.

I'm famous for my candlelit suppers! On those rare occasions when Daddy comes to dine, en famille, he always enjoys those simple, old-fashioned home-cooked dishes from his childhood, bless him!

Stuff like gravy and biscuits and green bean casserole are not traditionally trashy food but rather traditional staples in some parts of the country. Same as the poster comparing collard greens and black-eyed peas to Eastern European fare ...traditional regional foods in various parts of the world.

If Gurpreet & Ahmed's 10 For 1 Pizza serves it as a side like every other pizza place in rural Canada, then yes, caesar salad is trash food.

There is a recipe I have been craving lately. Something like baked/bar-b-que beans with hamburger. A lady at work would cook it a hundred years ago.

Lobster, oysters, and quinoa all used to be considered food for trashy people. Who knows? Maybe in 25 years Hamburger Helper will be a $300 per box delicacy that only the rich consume.

Poor people, not trashy people R114.