Beef and Noodles

Beef and noodles is a common dinner here in the Midwest. I moved here over thirty years ago, and when I got here there was much excitement when someone was having beef and noodles. When I first tried it, I was very underwhelmed. I never saw what the big deal was about beef and noodles. Then I, for some reason I am not sure why, just made my own version of it one day, and then everyone that tried it was very excited about my beef and noodles. I still don't see what the big deal is, but it is a comfort food, and comforting it is.

I never saw a recipe just like mine until I came upon this cookbook online. This is The Lily Wallace New American Cookbook printed, in 1944, at the height of World War II. If ever the whole world needed a comfort food, it was then. Lily, in her infinite wisdom, wrote several cookbooks. This one is a jewel. Lily was British and became an American. She brought with her many of the thrifty bits of wisdom that the British came to use on a regular basis during the times they endured during the war. This cookbook uses whatever you have on hand and makes a very adequate meal out of it.  

I won't go into a full cookbook review, but it has menus for a liberal diet (one where you have resources), a moderate-cost adequate diet, a minimum-cost adequate diet, and a restricted diet for emergency use only. The implications of having this knowledge are a really useful way to keep you and your family resilient. It was this information that made me dive into this cookbook, and then I found it: my way of making beef and noodles.

 In this recipe book Lily calls it creamed noodles. It is basically a white sauce poured over noodles.

I make a beef gravy and pour it over the noodles and beef. There are versions of this, often with a can of cream of mushroom soup in it. Mine is just beef gravy, beef, and noodles. One other change I made is that I use fettuccine noodles, because I am not a fan of the Amish-style egg noodles.

Beef and Noodles (Creamed Noodles)

Serves 4

Ingredients

8 ounces of dried fettuccine, cooked and drained 

2 quarts of water, to boil noodles

1 cup or more of shredded beef roast, leftovers will work. 

1/2 can Keystone beef roast is usually how I make it.

Sauce: 

I make a thicker sauce, so I use more butter and flour than a thin sauce.

4 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons flour

2 cups of beef broth

Method:

Put the fettuccine into a 2 quarts of boiling water to cook. When noodles return to a boil after you have added them to water, cook for 12 minutes. About half way through the cooking (6 minutes) add the beef roast to your noodles, so it can warm and incorporate into the dish.

While noodles are cooking, make your beef gravy sauce.

Use a separate medium saucepan and melt your butter into it. Add the flour and whisk this roux for 2 minutes. Slowly pour in your beef broth. You can add a cup and then later another cup or all at once and it will eventually thicken into your gravy. Stir continuously until you have the desired consistency, I make mine thick.

Drain the water off of the noodles and the shredded roast. Pour the beef gravy sauce into the noodles and stir until all noodles are coated in the gravy.

Serve hot. 

There you have it! Beef and noodles with a WWII spin as creamed noodles. It is my favorite way to make them. I have never written this recipe down; I always make it from memory. All the children I feed love them, and they are easy to make; best of all you can use leftover beef roast. I have even used leftover beef and beef broth from French dips to make this, and it all turns out good.

In Victory,

Sherry