Sloppy Joes - Sweet or Not?

After pondering what's for dinner and pouring over recipes and one of my favorite food blogs, I got inspired. We haven't had Sloppy Joes for quite a while so this sounded like a pleasant change. I've used this recipe for years - simple and tasty. My recipe calls for brown sugar, but I leave this out because we don't like the sweetness.

If you like Sloppy Joes, what do you prefer? Sweet or Not.

Not. Definitely not.

I've never had it with added brown sugar, Linda. Don't know if I'd like that or not.

Brown ground beef with onions, salt & pepper and then add ketchup and stir. That simple.

[Jenise]

Brown ground beef with onions, salt & pepper and then add ketchup and stir. That simple.

Mine must have tomato sauce, vinegar, worcestershire sauce and dehydrated bell peppers. Not sweet.

Not sweet!

I recall my preferred Sloppy Joe to most resemble Howie's list of ingredients. I haven't had them in quite awhile but I remember not liking the overly sweet ones as well.

In my eyes, whatever makes a Sloppy Joe more like a true "burger" and less like a "sauce", the better.

But that might just be my biased love for burgers talking

Jeff

If a sloppy joe = hamburger + bbq sauce, then the brown sugar is correct.

Howie, that ketchup probably has plenty of HFCS in it.

The "recipe" I posted is how my Mom made them back in the early 50s and how I've always made them.

I have never been a fan of them--sweet or otherwise. I'm not sure what I don't like...I love meat, bread, and all the ingredients. Maybe it's a texture thing, or the combination of ingredients? It seemed when I was a little girl, at every slumber party, Sloppy Joes were on the menu. I don't think I've had them since.

Not.

Brown sugar - yes. But to keep me happy, a generous dollup of hot sauce mixed in.

My recipe is from the 50's or late 40's. It is a bit different than most. Meat,onion, green pepper, can of chicken gumbo soup. can of tomato soup, ketchup(or tomato sauce, apple cider vinegar, mustard, brown sugar. I think it came from the back of a Campbells soup can.

So admitting to being infected with the 'curiosity' disease, wondered where the "Sloppy Joe" originated, and thanks to wikipedia now know that it was created at a Key West bar of the same name, that name urged on by Hemingway from a place in old Havana.
Here's the link if interested in more info.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sloppy_joe

Mom always made them with ketchup/mustard/brown sugar/vinegar and we called them mexican hamburgers. I liked those. Wife used to make them with Manwich Bold. I liked those. Now she makes them with ketchup/worcestershire/Tabasco. I like those. I guess I'm just a fan, or maybe I'm fickle.

So I've run the gamut of sweet/not.

I guess the next question is how do you eat them? Do you pick them up hamburger style or open-face style with a fork?

After pondering what's for dinner and pouring over recipes and one of my favorite food blogs, I got inspired. We haven't had Sloppy Joes for quite a while so this sounded like a pleasant change. I've used this recipe for years - simple and tasty. My recipe calls for brown sugar, but I leave this out because we don't like the sweetness.

If you like Sloppy Joes, what do you prefer? Sweet or Not.

Off the subject but I've been admiring the picture of the cat on your avatar. It looks very much like a cat we had named Cordon Bleu. Bleu for short who like many cats was very fussy about what he ate. Russian blue was his cat ancestry. Before Bleu we had a cat named Gandalf The Great Gray who was of Blue British ancestry, very much the same color as C. Bleu but much bigger. In fact Gandy was 15 pounds, no fat. We think he pumped iron in his spare time.
My heritage is New England. Sloppy Joes, never sweet.

I guess the next question is how do you eat them? Do you pick them up hamburger style or open-face style with a fork?

I haven't had them in ages but I definitely always ate them like a burger (with the hands).

I find I have a hard time using a fork for those foods which seem traditionally to be "made for the hands". I can't enjoyably eat pizza with a fork either - it has to be the hands. And that's coming from a deep dish (Chicago style) pizza lover! I've tried it but it just isn't the same. And ridiculous as it may sound, pizza TASTES different (less harmonious) somehow when I try to eat it with a fork. I end up giving up and just holding it and diving my mouth into it. Then all is right again in the world.

Contrary to how it might sound, I'm actually NOT a barbarian when I eat! LOL. Most foods DO need to be eaten with silverware. It's why it's invented obviously. But there are certain foods that just seem tailor-made to be grabbed and using a fork just ruins the pleasure/ease/taste for me.

Jeff

So admitting to being infected with the 'curiosity' disease, wondered where the "Sloppy Joe" originated, and thanks to wikipedia now know that it was created at a Key West bar of the same name, that name urged on by Hemingway from a place in old Havana.
Here's the link if interested in more info.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sloppy_joe

Sorry to be a wet blanket, but if you follow that entry to the one on the restaurant itself, they admit that the connection to the dish is unverifiable.

After pondering what's for dinner and pouring over recipes and one of my favorite food blogs, I got inspired. We haven't had Sloppy Joes for quite a while so this sounded like a pleasant change. I've used this recipe for years - simple and tasty. My recipe calls for brown sugar, but I leave this out because we don't like the sweetness.

If you like Sloppy Joes, what do you prefer? Sweet or Not.

Off the subject but I've been admiring the picture of the cat on your avatar. It looks very much like a cat we had named Cordon Bleu. Bleu for short who like many cats was very fussy about what he ate. Russian blue was his cat ancestry. Before Bleu we had a cat named Gandalf The Great Gray who was of Blue British ancestry, very much the same color as C. Bleu but much bigger. In fact Gandy was 15 pounds, no fat. We think he pumped iron in his spare time.
My heritage is New England. Sloppy Joes, never sweet.

That is my "little boy" Rosie. He has very soft, silky long gray hair. We've had him since he was a baby. He is almost 13 now. He weighs about 14 lbs.

I guess the next question is how do you eat them? Do you pick them up hamburger style or open-face style with a fork?

I haven't had them in ages but I definitely always ate them like a burger (with the hands).
Jeff

We do them open-face style on toasted buns. Mine are way too "sloppy" to pick up.

I make mine exactly like Howie does. It was never something my Mom made, but I did used to have them for lunch at my High School Cafeteria and I LOVED them. I am not sure I consider them not sweet, since there is quite of bit of ketchup and they taste sweet to me. But I definitely wouldn't add additional sugar if using ketchup. And I always eat it like a sandwich...In reality, I am a very sloppy eater, but I pretend to be civilized around other people...LOL! Especially my British In-laws and friends from Brazil who eat everything, including pizza, with a knife and fork .