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    Home / Dinner / Garbage Plate

    Garbage Plate

    Home fries, mac salad, burgers or hot dogs, and spicy meat sauce — Rochester’s famous messy feast.

    ⏱ 20 minPrep time
    🔥 25 minCook time
    🍽 2Servings
    🏷 DinnerCategory
    ☆☆☆☆☆No ratings yet
    Garbage Plate — Rochester-style home fries, mac salad, burgers and hot dog with spicy meat sauce

    The garbage plate is Rochester’s legendary late-night feast, invented at Nick Tahou Hots in the 1980s. A base of macaroni salad and home fries is topped with burgers or hot dogs and buried under a spicy meat sauce, mustard, and onions. It’s a mess by design — and a rite of passage Upstate.

    Chef Emily presents Garbage Plate

    Rochester’s legendary late-night plate

    Home fries and mac salad under a burger, hot dog, and spicy meat sauce — the famous Rochester garbage plate, messy and magnificent.

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    Step by stepInstructions

    1. In a skillet, brown the ground beef with the onion for the meat sauce, about 5 minutes.
    2. Stir in the ketchup, vinegar, chili powder, and paprika with 1/2 cup water. Simmer 15-20 minutes until thick and dark.
    3. Meanwhile, cook the home fries (oven or pan) until crisp, and heat the burgers or hot dogs on the same griddle.
    4. Warm the macaroni salad briefly or serve at room temperature.
    5. Plate the home fries and mac salad side by side, top with the burger or hot dog, and smother everything with meat sauce, mustard, and diced onion.

    💡 Chef tips & storage

    The meat sauce is the heart of the plate — cook it low and slow so the flavors meld. Serve open-faced on a big plate; the layers are the point.

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    Recipe details

    Prep20 min
    Cook25 min
    Servings2
    CategoryDinner
    PublishedAugust 16, 2026
    Emily — the cook behind My Comfort Recipes

    Hi, I'm Emily 🧡

    Hi, I'm Emily — the cook behind My Comfort Recipes. Simple, tested comfort food for real weeknights, written down the way grandma would. Pull up a chair. More about me →

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