Ours, too. I pulled the hamburger out of the freezer not 5 minutes ago. 
According to my lord and master, Alton Brown, so is the ground beef in the supermarket. It’s bits and corners of everything the butcher dealt with that day, from t-bones to tenderloins. It’s all skeletal meat, no entrails or organ bits, and actually quite high quality stuff, just all ground up.
So…it’s like a hamburger, but for people too lazy to form it into a patty? 
No, it’s ground beef with stuff in it not formed into a patty.
I don’t think she invented the term but I first heard in on her sitcom where she worked in a diner that served loose meat sandwiches (I think it was owned by Martin Mull & Michael Des Barres, who played a gay couple).
Alas, “loose meat” and “Roseanne” should never be in the same thought.
Silenus posted a recipe upthread which is pretty easy to follow and tweak with. Anyone got any other ingredient suggestions or is this the closest to the original?
I came out here to Iowa as a 16 year old during the Eisenhower Administration and got a job as a counterman at a drug store/lunch counter. One of the first night at work an elderly gentleman (probably all of 60) came in and ordered a “steamed hamburger,” something I had never heard of – being a kid from Ohio. When I brought the old guy an ordinary hamburger he explained the concept of a steamed hamburger / Maid Rite / loose meat sandwich pretty forcefully and a full volume.
The whole idea seems to be an Iowa thing that ties back to the original Maid Rite stores.
Like others, the Loose Meat Sandwich was a new term to me when Roseann and her semi-goofy former husband started blathering about it. I also assume that it was a dodge to avoid infringing the Maid Rite brand name.
Yes, that’s true. But the key is the ratio of the whole cuts and the consistency of the product in “whole cow ground beef” as compared to typical, “trimming ground beef”. I gurantee it’s a whole different beast
I make Sloppy Janes. (I’m a girl, so…) I thought I’d invented this! It was a way to use ground beef that I’d cooked, but hadn’t made into chili, spaghetti, or casserole.
Mine is extra lean ground beef or ground sirloin, onions, salt, freshly ground pepper, and garlic. White bun, toasted. I like mayonnaise and a slice of cheese…
Wait. I only invented a loose meat cheeseburger.
Next time, I’ll try the seasonings mentioned here, and do the mustard/ketchup/pickle bit. I’m drooling already.
Loose Meat
would have been a great name for the sequel to
Free Willy
Roseanne and Jackie started the restaurant, with their mother kicking in the startup money. Mull’s character was Roseanne’s manager when she worked at Rodbel’s. I don’t remember how he came on board at the loose meat place.
Wow! I go to Dallas in December and I’ll make it a point to find a “Maid-Rite”.
Just to clarify, since nobody’s posted explicitly, Maid-Rite is a regional fast food chain. They used to be extremely common but are now somewhat less common but still fairly prevalent in central Iowa. One of the ones closest to me is part of a gas station but mall stores are also common. They are widely considered to be old fashioned and tend to be frequented by older patrons, or more rural people.
Here is their website. As you can see, there are no healthy or vegetarian or trendy options to be had; they’re a ‘traditional’ fast food franchise. Here is their page about loose meat sandwiches.
jali, according to their website, there is only one location in Texas - Arlington, opening soon. It’s really an Iowa thing with a few in Nebraska and Illinois.
Mmmmmmm…I used to eat at MadeRite all the time when I was a little kid in the Quad Cities area. I could go for one right now…
Meat on a Friday at a Catholic school?! :eek:
Way back in the Dark Ages, there was a Maid-Rite at the end of our block in my hometown in SoCal.
Better days.
That looks like a pain to eat. Why bother with the bun?
Gotta have your carbs, dude!
I guess I’m missing something. In its simplest iteration it’s just plain ass crumbly cooked meat on a hunk of bread?
What makes you think it was born in Iowa? Loose-meat sandwiches, AKA Carlino burgers, were available in Punxsutawney PA for a million years. My dad ate them as a kid and he was born in 1938.
Although the original Carlino’s Corner Lunch has long been gone and the owners in their graves, there are still a couple restaurants there serving Carlino-style hamburgers.
The Maid-Rite in Springfield, IL was still open the last time I checked.