One of the most under-rated, underappreciated, and unremarked sandwiches of all time, Sloppy Joe’s are the odd-man out when it comes to ‘favorite sandwiches’ lists, and you almost never, ever see them offered in restaurants. (At least here in the South, and I have eaten at my share of diners.)
They at least deserve the dignity of a thread.
What are your favorite sloppy joe recipes? Do you have a go-to restaurant for them? What are your thoughts on pre-made mixes, ala Manwich?
This is really not fair on a fast day. Sloppy joes were one of my favorite hot lunches in school.
Better Homes & Garden’s New Cook Book1 has a good, easy recipe. I think I’ll add hamburger buns to the grocery list and pull some ground beef from the freezer tonight. I’m eatin’ good tomorrow, boys!
1 - Cannot recommend this cookbook enough for new/inexperienced home cooks.
Love me some Sloppy Joe’s, especially with a slice of cheese. Manwich is a poor substitute.
When a friend named Joe came to our house, he thought we were making fun of him when we told him we were having “Sloppy Joes” for dinner. Not sure we were able to convince him we weren’t making it up.
Given that the flavor is basically “ketchup, onion, garlic, salt” I wouldn’t use a mix, but it depends on how you like to cook.
My standard recipe, passed down from my parents:
I love Sloppy Joes. And they most definitely are underappreciated.
A can of Manwich and 2 lbs of meat. (I think the direction call for 1 can per lb). If I’m opening my spice cubbard I’m not making sloppy joes. That’s the whole point.
Speaking of which, Binging with Babish just did an episode on Sloppy Joe’s from Billy Madison:
Anybody remember “loose meat burgers” on Rosanne? (The sitcom)
Ironically, I didn’t like sloppy joes when I was a kid but I do like them now.
Makes sense, but I’m constitutionally incapable of making an easy dinner. If we’re eating frozen fish sticks…I’m also making tartar sauce and oven fries from scratch.
As an adult living on my own, I tried making sloppy joes using the Manwich sauce once. It was way too sweet. I also tried the Spaghetti-Os type of canned pasta and that was also too sweet. I assume these products are tuned to children’s tastes.
The sweetness can be adjusted by doubling the amount of meat per can and adding garlic and the like, but that kind of defeats the purpose of using the can to begin with.
I love Sloppy Joes and I love loose meat sandwiches. I could live on them, and have for periods of time.
I’m not the biggest fan of Sloppy Joes or loose meat sandwiches as they just such a messy pain in the ass to eat. Just gimme the fillins in a bowl with some crackers and a spoon and I’m good to go.
That said, we will make sloppy joes about once or twice a year here. Loose meat sandwiches I’ve only had at Maid Rite.
When I was growing up, a sloppy joe was served open faced: bun open on the plate, meat on both sides. Eat with a fork. The way my mother made it, the filling was so wet it would be essentially impossible to eat as a sandwich. I…am not sure I knew until just now that was unusual.
I’ve only made it once or twice myself, and now I can’t remember how I ate it then.
Going to giving you a cooking tip for 1.
Once the ground beef is brown, it’s not done cooking yet. Once all the moisture is gone you’ll hear the crackling of the beef cooking in its own fat. Stir for about a minute then it’s done. You’ll find there isn’t as much to drain after that as well. Personally I don’t drain it the fat adds flavour - I know it’s not healthy but whatever.
I like your seasoning for your sloppy joes, going to try that.
mom’s and the family’s recipe is mixing up ketchup mustard and sometimes bbq sauce with a bunch of hamburger … no one measures anything … it’s just all “to taste” my aunt uses Manwich and it’s ehh it’s ok I guess
but as a kid, i could scarf down about half a dozen or so sandwiches
The only place I ever ate them growing up was at Girl Scout campouts. I don’t know what the recipe was (scout leaders prepared them) but they weren’t sweet; more like the flavor of spaghetti sauce but not soupy like sauce.
A couple of years ago I got an inexplicable craving for one and went to Sloppy Joe’s restaurant. It tasted exactly like barbeque sauce. Did not enjoy. Not that I don’t like barbeque, but that was not what I was expecting or wanted. Now I’m curious what it was I ate those many years ago as a girl scout.
I prefer loose meats, but I do enjoy a good Sloppy Joe now and again. Not too sweet though, and with plenty of yellow mustard and diced white onions on top. If the sauce tastes too sweet, I’ve been known to throw some hot sauce on it to cut the sweetness.
The only restaurant that had Sloppy Joes on the menu was Moody’s Pub in Chicago. I had them there, but it’s been a few years and I don’t remember if I liked them or not.
I wish I had the school cafeteria recipe from the 70’s…man those were good. I’m suspicious though they may have used some kind of non meat filler, not sure, but if they did it sure didn’t detract from my enjoyment of those delicious sloppy joe sandwiches. I’ll have an extra please and thank you.
In honor of this thread I made a Sloppy Joe for lunch. Yum! This one was more BBQ sauce than tomato sauce, and with chopped red onion.