Yummy and EASY Sloppy Joes
ByCall me weird, but I’ve about decided that Sloppy Joes are one of my favorite things to eat. I know…it’s just this spoonful of messy meat on a bun…but I love it.
They are just so simple to make and easy to eat, and they have such good flavor. I love making them for lunch. They freeze well. They reheat easily. Ah, Sloppy Joes…what’s not to love?
Sloppy Joes
2 lbs ground meat (beef, turkey, venison or lamb)
2 T. minced onion
1 cup ketchup (I’m experimenting with making my own ketchup, but in the meantime I love this brand.)
1 teaspoon mustard
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 Tablespoon worchestershire sauce
sea salt to taste
Brown meat and onion together. Add remaining ingredients, stirring well. Allow mixture to simmer in the skillet for a few minutes.
We love Sloppy Joes served on these homemade buns. Shucks, I like them without a bun. Sloppy Joe in a bowl! Yum!
Okay, question…
Just about everytime I serve Sloppy Joes, my kids ask me why they are called sloppy joes. Who was this Joe character? Was he a sloppy kind of a guy?
Anybody know the reason behind the name of this dish? Even if you don’t…do you feel like making something up? Anything’s better than what I’ve got (which is “I dunno.”).
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This post is linked to Frugal Fridays.
Couldn’t resist researching this one. The Original Sloppy Joe Sandwich was invented at Sloppy Joe’s Bar in Key West. The bar opened the very day that Prohibition was repealed, and it was a favorite of Hemingway.
I personally think that the first person to make one was named Joe, and the sloppy part pretty much explains itself!
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Here in Australia a Sloppy Joe is like a tracksuit top. Also called a jumper or a pullover. Usually worn for doing gardening or some other dirty work.
I’ve wondered for years why Americans eat pullovers.
But now I know what Sloppy Joe food is, I think my tribe would love it! (After I explained to them that we are NOT eating their old jumpers.)
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thank you so much for this recipe. have been looking for a good one for s.j.’s. and i KNOW yours will be good.
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To go along with Catherine, in South Dakota where I grew up they are known as taverns, and in Iowa where my mom’s family is from they are called maid-rites. I also remember someone calling them loose meats too, but I don’t remember where we were living then. Strange how a sandwich can go by so many names…
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We love sloppy joes at our house! They are so tasty and so easy. Here in PA I have heard them called sloppy joes, steamers and also beef barbecue. Maybe we’ll try your recipe tonight. Thanks.
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The buns in the pic look great! any chance I could get your recipe? I’ve been trying to find something good for sandwiches.
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Laura Reply:
September 18th, 2009 at 11:51 am
Here’s the link to the bun recipe!
http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/whole-wheat-hamburger-buns
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Yum! That looks so so good.
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I am so glad you posted this recipe! Sloppy Joes are on the menu for next week!
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I grew up in Northeast Nebraska and we called them tavern as well. When I was in college and served them, no one knew that I was talking about. One of my friends from Southeast Nebraska calls them loose meat sandwiches. Some girls would put biscuits in a cupcake tin, add meat mixture and cheese and bake the popovers until brown. Yum!
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Too funny about the Aussie pullovers! =)
Would you believe I am in the process of cooking up 6# of sloppy joes for Sunday night’s college student supper?!
The recipe I usually make (vs. BBQ sauce in a bottle) is very similar to yours, but has brown sugar and chili powder instead of garlic and mustard.
My mom used to make sloppy joes with cream/mushroom soup instead of BBQ – probably b/c it was easier to dump a can and gave it some stick-together-ness. (Doesn’t appeal to me so much now–I’d rather have a maid-rite!)
Oh, and Maid-Rites don’t have BBQ sauce as far as I know. Just browned ‘loose meat’ with onion, salt and pepper – sometimes beef broth but enough salt and meat juice serves the purpose. Then you add ketchup, mustard, pickles, onions, etc. when served.
y.u.m.
~an Iowan ;-)
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I’m from SD and, like Sonja reported, they are called Taverns in SD. Isn’t it fun the different names we give to food and other items.
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Hey you South Dakotans, hi there! I grew up in Montana and we called them sloppy joes. Working with my kids in the 4H food booth when we lived in SD, taverns were on the menu. Since we were selling them, I thought I should know what they were. They showed me, and I said, “These are sloppy joes!” And lots of people buying food would ask what a tavern was. So not every SDan calls them taverns, and no one I asked knew how they got their name. Maybe they are only called taverns when they’re sold at the fair!
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Tried out this recipe for Sloppy Joes last night. It’s a Keeper! Thanks!
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My family calls them “wimpies” and I don’t know how they got that name, either! The best way to eat sloopy joes, however, is not on a bun or a spoon, but on a thick rippled potato chip. Yum.
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I have a recipe that is very similar, but has 5Tbs of BBQ sauce. You have to try it. :)
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We love Sloppy Joes here at my house. They are a standard freezer meal for me now. I am making your Sloppy Cornbread version tonight…can’t wait!
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Very easy and tasted good. This is the only sloppy joe recipe I have been able to get my kids to eat. I made it with ground turkey.
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We haven’t had sloppy joes in sooooo long. I’m going to try this recipe. I’ve been interested in making my own ketchup too and can’t wait to see what you come up with!!!!
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Thanks for sharing your homemade recipe! In case your boys are like mine and do not like to eat “leftovers”, try this disguise! For the next meal night, try adding brown rice, cheese, and some spices (I use Emeril’s Essence recipe.) They love it!
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OK, I’m from SE South Dakota, we call them Bar-B-Q’s or Taverns. My aunt went down south somewhere and ordered a Bar B Q and expected our familiar tavern and got some bowl of hog meat. My wife is from west river, SD. They call them Wimpies. I taught school in NW SD for years and they called them Wimpies. I also taught around Sturgis. In the Pennington County and Meade County area I know they called them “Steam burgers”. Amazes me they have so many names, but you can peg where you come from in SD by what we call them, but we definately do not all call them Taverns, In SE SD when they are served for school lunch they’re called Bar-B-Q’s not taverns.
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I love this recipe! We take rolls and put homemade garlic butter on top and then broil it to make garlic toast so to speak. Then we put the sloppy joes on! The garlic bread adds a lot of flavor. I actually even liked them while still dealing with nausea due to pregnancy so that says a lot.
Question – does the ketchup you buy have better quality sugar in it?
I ask because Trader Joe’s brand is cheaper than the link you sent. $1.99 per bottle. The one you sent ends up being about $3.33 per bottle but I think it is worth it if the sugar is better (well as better as it can be when it comes to sugar).
Here are the ingredients – Trader Joe’s Organic Ketchup: Organic tomato puree, organic sugar, salt, organic white vinegar, organic onion powder, organic spices.
This is the ingredient list to the brand you put a link in for. Tomato Puree (Organic), (Tomato Paste (Organic), Water), Naturally Milled Sugar (Organic), Vinegar (Organic), Sea Salt, Onion Powder (Organic), Garlic Powder (Organic), Cayenne Pepper (Organic), Oils of Cove, Cassia and Celery.
It seems like yours might taste a bit better looking at the ingredients but in saving $1.33 per bottle I might have to go with less flavor unless it is better to have the naturally milled sugar.
Thanks!
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Laura Reply:
April 19th, 2010 at 10:55 am
The ketchup from Trader Joes sounds good! I don’t have a TJs in my area (unfair!)
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Jacqueline Reply:
April 19th, 2010 at 11:01 am
Okay, well that is good news for me but I am sad you don’t have a TJs in your area. You would love it! I hate grocery shopping but found it enjoyable there! :)
Thanks for all your great recipes and your nutritional info!
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Gina Faber Reply:
May 27th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
I just have to chime in on this ketchup sub-thread.
I bought 2 bottles of Trader Joe’s ketchup, and while it IS cheaper, it is not nearly as good as Muir Glen’s
ketchup, which I get through our local UNFI buying club.
My 2 cents!
-Gina
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I can’t wait to try these Sloppy Joes with the corn bread….found in another recipe. Growing up we called them Sloppy Joe’s, but now in my own home, we call them sloppy Jane’s…..becasue it seems Joe is gitting a bad wrap. (: hehe
Thanks!
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It sounds to me as if upper-midwesterners are very confused about their sandwiches in general! In TN, everyone knows what a sloppy joe is, but I’ve never heard of any of those other possibilities. I make sloppy joes about every other week, and my recipe is just about like yours, except it also has 1 T of vinegar. Everyone at my house likes them very much. I think they would like the cornbread option too.
And of course, BBQ is slow-cooked pig with sweet sauce. It has nothing to do with sloppy joes, hamburgers, or beef in general. My inlaws in IN think BBQ is a process rather than a food, and they think it involves hamburgers, hot dogs, and polish sausage. So wrong. And also – it is not possible to cook real BBQ and comply with the health codes. The very best comes from rural gas stations with screened-in pits out back. Look for them in west TN and all over MS too.
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Could you tell me whether the mustard is dried mustard or prepared mustard? Thanks.
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Laura Reply:
May 8th, 2010 at 7:52 pm
You could use dried mustard, but what I was refering to in the recipe is the prepared mustard. Sorry I wasn’t specific!
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Amber Reply:
May 13th, 2010 at 8:07 pm
Thank you, Laura. We tried these and thought they were good.
I ended up not having prepared mustard on hand so substituted the
dried. Thanks for the recipe!
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We love sloppy joes, and when we lived in China we had ONE lovely sloppy joe meal, using a can of the mix we’d found at the ‘western store.’ We probably paid about $5 for that one can. (I didn’t know then how to make things from scratch.) It was during that meal that I discovered our favorite side dish to serve with sj’s: homemade french fries sprinkled with garlic salt!
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