First things first: This isn’t just a poor man’s stroganoff—it’s a poor stroganoff. This is not within a 100 miles of what you would expect for a beef stroganoff recipe. But, it uses beef, egg noodles and sour cream, so—based on the logic of a mid-century, Midwestern, housewife—it’s a stroganoff.
A caveat before we get started: The recipe calls for the onions to be sauteed separately from the meat, but I think that’s both wasteful and stupid. So, I cooked them together. Also, you’ll notice the typically bland Midwestern lack of seasonings, so I added some to the meat and onions as I was cooking them.
Here’s what you’ll need:
3 Oz. Cream Cheese
1 Cup Sour Cream
1 Cup Cottage Cheese
1 Can Tomato Sauce
2 Lbs. Chopped Meat of Choice
1 Lg. Pkg. Egg Noodles, cooked and drained
2 Onions, diced and sauteed
1 Cup Butter, cold and sliced
Blend cream cheese, sour cream, cottage cheese and tomato sauce in a blender until smooth. Brown meat.
In an oblong Pyrex pan, layer sauce, noodles, and meat. Repeat. Sprinkle onions and butter slices over the top.
Bake in a 350-degree oven for 45 minutes.
This isn’t quite as awful as I thought it would be. I think between the seasonings I added, and the super cheesiness, it’s…OK. If I made it again (which I won’t) I would cover the dish with aluminum foil to avoid the dreaded crunchy, dried pasta effect. No, I do not want to hear from the heretics how crunchy, dried pasta is somehow good. Just eat your pasta straight out of the box and leave me alone.
Yup – not what I think of when I think of stroganoff. I’m glad it was edible, because it looked like it made quite a bit. Would Mrs. Butcher or Butcher Dog eat it?
Mrs Butcher wouldn’t eat it if you put a gun to her head. Butcher Dog would eat the whole thing in one sitting.
It feels needlessly overcomplicated to still not be a stroganoff?
Why not skip the cottage cheese and just dump cream cheese and sour cream in with the sauteed meat and onions and let it melt into a sauce? Then you don’t have to fuss with a blender.
Also to be clear this is not Midwestern. Midwestern would be skip the blender and dump a can of cream of mushroom soup and a block of cream cheese into the pan with the meat, stir until melted, and then dump over the egg noodles. Maybe top with cheese at that point. Hahahaha.
And why bake it? When I grew up “Stroganoff” was just meat, onions, tomato sauce and sour cream straight out of the pot and poured on noodles. It’s pretty good.
Presumably to make extra extra sure that beef is all the way cooked to oblivion to avoid the spector of food poisoning risk!
This is Wisconsin Midwestern, which is much fancier than Missouri Midwestern.
LOL
1. Since it comes from Wisconsin, I’m surprised it is not even cheesier.
2. There are few things worse than crunchy, dried, cooked pasta. But that’s often a by-product of casseroles.
3. I have a feeling that the reason why so many mid-century recipes come in casserole form was that there were small kids everywhere, and houses were smaller, so rather doing a lot of stovetop cooking, which would give the kids more opportunity to run rampant and possibly burn or scald themselves, the solution was to preassemble and casserole everything, close the oven door and hope for the best, and then feed your five kids or however many. My mother was not a great cook but she also wasn’t a fan of casseroles, so we had a lot of stovetop cooking, and her attitude was, “Put your hand on the burner. You won’t do that again.” Plus I had older siblings to distract and corrupt me in the garage or their rooms, listening to rock music and getting me high from second-hand pot smoke. #blessed
It’s 2 sticks of butter for a 9×13 pan, the butter has replaced the cheese for dairy apocalypse in the casserole.
Yeah Missouri can claim to be fancier than Kansas, but certainly not Wisconsin.
Poor man’s strokin’ off sounds just about right for me.