Food questions


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I have been binge watching Community and Abed is always eating buttered noodles...I was also reading a food blog about bad customers and people kept complaining about people that ate buttered noodles. I checked out Google and buttered noodles appears to be just butter and noodles. ... Is just throwing a bucket load of butter in noodles a main meal in the U.S.?

I had imagined it to be something like butter chicken....

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It's a very bland meal, but I suppose it counts. I'm not sure how it evolved, but I'd wager it came from the Italian spaghetti olio e aglio, which is just spaghetti dressed with olive oil and garlic. Somewhere along the line, the garlic gets dropped, the olive oil is replaced with butter, and the spaghetti gets replaced with egg noodles. You could probably use any thick noodle, but my mother served buttered egg noodles as a side dish, so that'd be my go-to.


Thanks Misroi. Side dish I understand, as Abed would say... cool cool cool... I would add garlic black olives, basil leaves, cherry tomatoes and some anchovies or chorizo...


My kids love it, I always add a bit of fresh parsley and a little garlic :-)

I like a bit of marinara and parmesan with my noodles personally :-)


I'm more of a bacon/pancetta and peas kinda guy. With lots of black pepper.


Yeah, we had it growing up, although we were more likely to get a grilled cheese or mac & cheese. It's carbs and fat with salt, and it's fairly quick, simple, and inexpensive to prepare.

Now that I'm older, I couldn't eat too much of it too often, or I'd probably feel kinda sick, but I definitely could see how others would think of it as comfort food. I'd much rather have a carbonara or even a scampi over noodles... something with a bit of good grated parm and a bunch of garlic.


I know buttered noodles as a emergency dish when kids refuse to eat whatever sauce should be put on the noddles
parents then add butter to make the noddles a bit less dry and the meal more nourishing

and Hi 8th Dwarf, how are you?


I can honestly say that, in all of my life, I have never once eaten buttered noodles and it has never been offered to me. Maybe its after my generation or some such...

Liberty's Edge

I never had buttered noodles as a main dish, but it's a fairly common side dish in the area I grew up in, and I'd say it's more of German or some other Central European derivation than Italian. It was also not just noodles and butter. A rough recipe from my mother's kitchen follows.

1 bag (12 oz) wide egg noodles cooked in salted water.
1 stick (1/4 lb) butter, unsalted prefered but salted is fine.
Good bit of Fresh black pepper.
Plenty of parsley (Mom used dried and so do I, but fresh should be fine).
Fresh ground nutmeg.
Some onion powder.
Pinch of salt.
Pinch of sugar.

It should taste butter with a subtle nutmeg flavor and just a hint of sweetness.

Often this would then get hit with the chicken or beef gravy being served with the entree when plated. I don't think my mother ever serve it with pork, but i know she did drop the nutmeg and sugar in favor of caraway and cabbage sauteed in the butter.


Cool thanks guys :-)

Aeglos - I am doing ok, thanks :-) How's life for you?

Ok Mac and Cheese - I have seen it at our supermarket - should I try it?

Liberty's Edge

It has it's charm, like ramen. I keep some in the cabinet for cravings or tight paychecks.

Usually when making stovetop (rather than real Macaroni and Cheese, which involves making bechamel and baking it) I'm doing it for cheeseburger macaroni with mixed vegetables and I use 2 lbs of regular elbows, then microwave 2 lbs of velveeta, 12 oz of evaporated milk, 15 oz of no salt diced tomatoes (undrained), some Colemans mustard powder, onion and garlic powder, and a dash of cayenne. That and a pound of seasoned, cooked, and drained hamburger, a diced onion, and 2 lbs of mixed veggies (corn, carrots, peas, green beans, and lima beans). Makes 10 servings about 3 cups each.

Scarab Sages

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I highly recommend the macaroni & cheese that comes in the various cartoon character shapes - for me, the texture makes all the difference (it even seems to come out tasting different).


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The 8th Dwarf wrote:

I have been binge watching Community and Abed is always eating buttered noodles...I was also reading a food blog about bad customers and people kept complaining about people that ate buttered noodles. I checked out Google and buttered noodles appears to be just butter and noodles. ... Is just throwing a bucket load of butter in noodles a main meal in the U.S.?

I had imagined it to be something like butter chicken....

The Italian deli I used to work at has buttered noodles on the menu, but it's REALLY garlicky garlic butter, and you typically put a ton of parmesan on it and eat it with a hot sausage. Good eats!


The 8th Dwarf wrote:

Cool thanks guys :-)

Aeglos - I am doing ok, thanks :-) How's life for you?

life is good, my boy has started to walk which makes things quite - interesting

Mac an Chesse does not exist in Germany, I never had it or seen it

Scarab Sages

Okayyy...apparently, even in the global commerce age, macaroni and cheese is just another North American sideshow freak. I'm learning new things all the time.


Yep my 1 year old is climbing things....its weird combination of pride and fear when you find her climbing the bookshelf and has made it a meter up. We have pushed the sofa up against the book shelf now.

Mac and Cheese as far as I understand is dried macaroni and a powdered cheese sauce.

Student or convienience meals. Not an everyday thing.

Next question is what is everybody's favourite convience food?

Mine is Jaffels (toasted cheese sandwiches). Every Australian house has a toasted sandwich maker. It's not just cheese that we put in, It's cheese + last nights bolognese, or stroganoff, or a tin of flavoured salmon or tuna, or salami, Devon, or Sweet Jaffels like Nutella or apples and custard.

Scarab Sages

The 8th Dwarf wrote:


Mac and Cheese as far as I understand is dried macaroni and a powdered cheese sauce.

Student or convienience meals. Not an everyday thing.

You also add milk and butter when cooking.

I have to wonder: What constitutes an "everyday thing" if not "convenience meals?"


Stuff you eat when you have zero time or energy. Convenient because it's quick, student because it's cheap.


This is recipe for stove-top mac & cheese. It'll have the same loose consistency and cheese sauce of the boxed stuff. This is a version of baked mac & cheese, which we had much more often growing up, as mom had a strong aversion to the boxed kit with the powered cheese.

I've made both of these and they are quite delicious, although I usually chuck in 1/2 teaspoon of red-pepper flakes or a diced jalapeno (or two). Leftover crumbled bacon, chorizo sausage, or diced chicken are also quite good.


Favourite convenience food - pasta with a lighttly fried egg, ketchup, and some raw carrot and/or bell peppers on the side. (or, y'know, prefab pizza - Dr Oetker makes one that's not as good as real pizza, but better than warm sandwiches).


I've also done a pretty tasty pasta-sauce from taco-dinner leftovers. Just take everything except the tacos/tortillas, stir it together, and heat in thr microwave oven.


The 8th Dwarf wrote:
Stuff you eat when you have zero time or energy. Convenient because it's quick, student because it's cheap.

Depending on budget, time and willingness, I'll cook up some noodles (penne, angel hair, w/e), then run the colander under a cold tap, and season it with Italian salad dressing. If I can be arsed to do it, I'll add in hot dog or bologna. Especially in the summer.


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Kajehase wrote:
Favourite convenience food - pasta with a lighttly fried egg, ketchup, and some raw carrot and/or bell peppers on the side. (or, y'know, prefab pizza - Dr Oetker makes one that's not as good as real pizza, but better than warm sandwiches).

English muffins make good mini pizza bases.

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Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Ambrosia Slaad wrote:

This is recipe for stove-top mac & cheese. It'll have the same loose consistency and cheese sauce of the boxed stuff. This is a version of baked mac & cheese, which we had much more often growing up, as mom had a strong aversion to the boxed kit with the powered cheese.

I've made both of these and they are quite delicious, although I usually chuck in 1/2 teaspoon of red-pepper flakes or a diced jalapeno (or two). Leftover crumbled bacon, chorizo sausage, or diced chicken are also quite good.

Just to round out the episode Ambrosia Slaad is referencing, this is very Southern, but probably very Scottish as well, if what I've heard on BBC America is true.

Senior Editor

My wife's go-to foods are quesadillas and Japanese curry (hamburger + chopped veg + packaged sauce); mine's chili (hamburger + cans of beans, corn, tomatoes, etc.) or tomato soup + cheese toasties. And now that it's warming up, noodles with shredded/julienned veg and nuoc mam or a vinegar-soy dressing.

M-i-l makes big batches of empanadas and then freezes them, so if she needs food fast she can just reheat a few. It's a good idea that we keep forgetting to implement.

Liberty's Edge

Well, I always try and keep chili or some other stew in the fridge, portioned out in three cup containers.

At the moment I have some of my (mostly) Pre-Columbian Three Sisters Chili (turkey, tomatoes, hominy, beans, and squash with lots of spices and a good bit chili and some sweet corn) and one container of chicken bott boi with mixed vegetable.


In Southern Style United States cooking, nearly anything can be "improved" with the addition of butter (or Crisco), and/or deep frying.

An excellent example of the "add lots of butter" approach to cooking was Paula Deen, where I half expected her to add butter (or Crisco) to iced tea.

Liberty's Edge

Vegetable shortening is a sign of degenerate modernity and commercialism.

Lard. Lard is the good stuff despite what you're been taught by the nutrio-industrial complex.


So, for those of us who have easy access to the bluebox macaroni and cheese, let me give you some serious advice. The box says use 1/4 cup of milk but instead you should use 1/3 cup of heavy whipping cream. The box says use 1/4 stick of butter or margarine but you should use 1/2 stick of salted butter and never margarine.

You are welcome.

Edit: and for the love of baby Jesus salt the water you boil the noodles in, let the water come to a boil before you put the noodles in, and NO MORE than 6 minutes in the water.

Liberty's Edge

Dear lord... No. Just no. Well, don't use margarine, but a heavy cream and adding even more salt and butter?

Whole milk or at most evaporated milk at the most.

If you're going to use that much fat, just make real cheese sauce.


Krensky wrote:

Dear lord... No. Just no. Well, don't use margarine, but a heavy cream and adding even more salt and butter?

Whole milk or at most evaporated milk at the most.

If you're going to use that much fat, just make real cheese sauce.

Just do it. You'll thank me.

Sometime you just need to clog your cardiac arteries and you don't have the patience to make a béchamel.

Liberty's Edge

It's complete overkill. The powdered cheese just doesn't justify it and it's already way too salty.

And this is from someone who cooks with lard and makes everyday cheese sauce by melting velveeta in evaporated milk.

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