A few weeks ago, we opened our great grandmother's church cookbook at random and found ourselves looking at a recipe for "Untidy Josephs."
We quickly realized that these were the sloppy joes of our childhood, and just a quickly, we knew we had to make them without delay!
We've made a few tweaks and clarifications to the original recipe shared by Ms. Shirley Nelson, and we think you'll agree that this is nostalgia at it's finest. It's good to know that some things are still as good as we remember.
The savory hamburger takes center stage, as it should. The sauce has a deep tomato flavor and a slight sweetness. That splash of cider vinegar is the final touch to bringing out all the flavors in each chewy bite.
Serve these sloppy joes on the softest, spongiest hamburger rolls you can find. They're perfect for holding the filling in place and soaking up the delicious sauce.
Old-Fashioned Sloppy Joes
adapted from Favorite Recipes from First United Methodist Church of Still Water, Minnesota
makes 6-8 servings
1 pound ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
10-ounce package of mushrooms (button or baby bella), sliced thin
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 ounces tomato sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
1 Tablespoon cider vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 tsp salt
8 hamburger buns
In a large skillet over medium-high heat, brown the beef. Remove to paper towels and wipe the excess fat from the pan.
Still over medium-high heat, cook the onions in the beef fat until they are softened and translucent, about five minutes. Add the celery and mushrooms, and cook until the mushrooms have released all their moisture and turned golden brown in spots, about eight minutes. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant, about thirty seconds.
Return the ground beef to the pan, and add the remaining ingredients.
Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Taste for seasoning. If the sauce is too thin, simmer uncovered for another 5-10 minutes until the desired thickness is reached.
Serve on hamburger buns. Don't forget a napkin.
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Someone brought these for a potluck once and they were incredibly good in that context. I had forgotten about them entirely up until that moment.
Okay, so today we had planned on making Sloppy Joes using the super easy Manwich sauce in a can... but now that I have this recipe, I think I'll just make it from scratch and give the can to the food bank.
SOUNDS DELICOUS!!
I can't wait, I haven't had "Untidy Josephs" in years!
Eight servings out of a pound of meat. You would make my thirfy grandmother proud!
Some of our favorite family recipes have come from these church cookbooks -- including our favorite sloppy joe recipe! I'll have to try this one and see how it compares to the one my dad's been making in the crock pot for years.
what a coincidence! I just prepared a yummy pot of sloppy joe's for tonight's dinner. But I used soy beef instead of the ones that moo... I prefer to substitute whenever theres lots of sauce, so the soy mimics it well!
we make a similar recipe in the crockpot, but with lentils and carrots instead of meat. (i'm a vegetarian, and i prefer the lentils to the fake meat here). it is *delicious*. love the sloppy joes :)
Okay, I made this recipe last night for dinner and it was fantastic. Best Sloppy Joes I've ever had. The only thing I changed was I didn't add the mushrooms since the boyfriend doesn't like them.
But I was really pleased with the end result! Delicious!
Guess what i'm having for lunch today?!!?!?
i'm going to make this for dinner tonight!
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Very good recipe. I thought they would need some tinkering but no!
do you know where the term untidy joesph comes from?
its from a 1960's area tv show called all in the family
the characters were
mr french..a very english butler..he coined the phrase untidy joesph for the sloppy joe
buffy, jody, and sissy were the orphaned kids that
brian o'keefe ??? was that his name he was the uncle that took the kids in
buffy had a doll named ms. beazzley...you all probly had one
good show...that ought to bring it back..I think bernie mac is the same show..
If you a looking to cut the fat, try using ground turkey for this one.
gretchenalexis,
Sounds like it would be good using lentils. Do you have a recipe?
I'm a vegetarian and my husband is not. I make a version of this and use half the sauce with Morningstar hamburger crumbles. It's delicious.
I made this some time ago and it was very good, even a day latter as a left over. Bittman at the NYT makes a sloppy joe with beans and just six ounces of ground sirloin.
I can sometimes smell what my neighbors downstairs are cooking, and they were making something last week that smelled like sloppy joes, which set off a craving -- haven't had them in years! Anyway, I made these last night, but didn't have any until tonight. So delicious! I used turkey instead of beef and added a red bell pepper. Also, I only had a small onion, but also had a shallot, so I threw that in, too. This recipe definitely hit the spot.
That was sooooooo good I made the recipe last night and it was fantastic! I added red and green peppers and a little more cider vinegar!!!!! I was sooooo impressed and my 3 teenage boys couldnt get enough! Oh and I doubled the recipe because If i wanted any that's what I would have to do!!!! So now I have left overs!!!!!
The name of the 60's show was a "Family Affair", not All In The Family
Hey...you were close on the actor's name who played Uncle Bill on Family Affair.....it is Brian Keith.....not okeefe. Used to watch that show ALL the time as a young kid.
Made this the other night with ground chicken (that whole post-Thanksgiving oh-god-we-need-to-lose-weight thing) and carrots subbed for mushrooms... and it turned out fantastic! I just finished mopping up the last bits for lunch and would consider licking the bowl if people weren't looking. :-)