Sloppy Joes - Army style

[98VS1400]

Here it is, the handwritten recipe from one of my old sergeants at the sheriff's office who used to cook in the Army. I'm making it tonight just because you got me thinking about it!

Ingredients:

2 pounds ground chuck
2 medium onions
1 medium green peppers
1 cup ketchup (or catsup...)
1 can of tomato soup
1/2 teaspoon black pepper (or more to taste)
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or a lot more to taste)
1 cup of water
4 tablespoons butter (that is 1/2 stick)

Sautee diced onions and green peppers in butter until translucent, or for about 10 minutes. Add ground chuck until it falls apart and is brown. Slightly (slowly) add in the ketchup, tomato soup, water and spices. Cook until thickens, usually about 30-45 minutes over medium-low to medium heat. Enjoy!

[YoDude]

Oh Boy! One of my favorites.

Yo-

[98VS1400]

Last night after going home, I made up this delicious dish of Sloppy Joe. Then I proceeded to eat WAY too much of it. I'm a sucker for easy meals. Put some tater tots on a plate with just about anything and I'm in hog heaven. The thing I like about this recipe is the Cayenne Pepper it calls for. It gives the joe just the right amount of kick, IMO. There is nothing like a little sweat breaking out on your brow as you enjoy a great meal.

Here it is in the pot. Almost ready to be served.



And of course, on the plate. I like mine on the inside and outside of the bun. My wife does not. She only puts in on the inside, but then she eats it with a fork, not like a hamburger. I don't get it. Cover that whole bun up, girl!



Hopefully these pictures show up correctly. The forum does some type of cropping to the pics, like the recipe above. You lose some of it. For those who might want to actually make this recipe, I will type out the actual recipe instead of just using the photo. It is good, so I suggest making it!!!

[YoDude]

Yeah, this forum doesn't do the, 'auto resize' thing that IA does. Looks as though your pics can only be as wide as the displayable text area. I don't know if there's a way to change that or not.

Yo-

[YoDude]

You could reduce the size of your photo using MSPaint. I do it all the time.

Yo-

[jumpinjoe]

OK Keith, I had the wife try the sloppy joe today while we watched the 500. It was OK but we both agreed it was missing a little something. Turns out it was the salt. Why was the salt scribbled out in the original and left out completely in your copy? That much ground beef definitely needs a little salt.

And a personal thing I guess but we also felt it needed just a touch of sweetening so we added what would have been about 1 tsp of table sugar. That's just a personal taste thing but the way we preferred it.

Your recipe was really good and easy to put together. She had it done and on the table with the tater tots in about an hour+ including setting the table. I've found over the years there are a lot of good recipes for sloppy joe but the really good ones are the old ones passed down. This was one of those. Thanks.

Regards,
JJ

[98VS1400]

O Keith, I had the wife try the sloppy joe today while we watched the 500. It was OK but we both agreed it was missing a little something. Turns out it was the salt. Why was the salt scribbled out in the original and left out completely in your copy? That much ground beef definitely needs a little salt.

And a personal thing I guess but we also felt it needed just a touch of sweetening so we added what would have been about 1 tsp of table sugar. That's just a personal taste thing but the way we preferred it.

Your recipe was really good and easy to put together. She had it done and on the table with the tater tots in about an hour+ including setting the table. I've found over the years there are a lot of good recipes for sloppy joe but the really good ones are the old ones passed down. This was one of those. Thanks.

Regards,
JJ

JJ, I can't tell ya how funny it is that you replied to this thread tonight of all nights. Not only 1 hour ago, my wife asked me if I would mind making this dish tomorrow night! I was wondering where I put the copy of the recipe, and lo and behold, you reminded me! Thanks!

As to the salt... I don't know why exactly, but it seems to me my sgt. told me that he cut salt out of his diet or something. It didn't really matter much to me because I routinely season meat as I'm cooking it. I don't think I ever cook any dish, especially something with red meat, without salting and peppering the meat as it cooks. Same thing holds true with the Sloppy Joe recipe.

I'm with ya on the sweetening, if we're talking chili. I typically use chocolate to do the job in chili. There is something about the sweetness of chocolate that gives chili a unique taste. For this recipe though, I like the bite of the cayenne pepper more than sweetness.

Thanks for trying it out! I saw this sergeant who gave me this recipe not long ago at a retirement party for someone at the agency. I will be sure to tell him the next time I see him that his old Army recipe lives on!

[YoDude]

@ Keith. A man's culinary accomplishments are measured by how many times the result is repeated. He will love to hear that news!

Yo-

[Night_Wolf]

Might have to try this recipe

One tip on sweet without using sugar; try worchester sauce

[1sttightwad]

OK. 98VS100.. I just know you have a great recipe for SOS... Dave

[tabasco]

Here it is, the handwritten recipe from one of my old sergeants at the sheriff's office who used to cook in the Army. I'm making it tonight just because you got me thinking about it!

Ingredients:

2 pounds ground chuck
2 medium onions
1 medium green peppers
1 cup ketchup (or catsup...)
1 can of tomato soup
1/2 teaspoon black pepper (or more to taste)
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or a lot more to taste)
1 cup of water
4 tablespoons butter (that is 1/2 stick)

Sautee diced onions and green peppers in butter until translucent, or for about 10 minutes. Add ground chuck until it falls apart and is brown. Slightly (slowly) add in the ketchup, tomato soup, water and spices. Cook until thickens, usually about 30-45 minutes over medium-low to medium heat. Enjoy!

I gotta try this. The cayenne pepper really fits this, too. Just because it's common ingredients and looks easy don't mean it won't be great. I got hungry reading it.

[Forge]

This is sounding like it would be good for Labor Day. I always have my son and his family over on holidays and grill hamburgers and hot dogs. I think I'll still grill hot dogs for the grand babies, but make a big pot of this sloppy joe recipe and leave it in a crock pot buffet style! It's sounding so good, I already want to start icing down the beer!

[98VS1400]

The recent replies to this thread have me wanting to make it again!

[Forge]

Got 7 pounds of 90% lean beef that needs to be cooked. I think I'm going to try this is the crock pot on low overnight and see how it turns out. We are expecting Hurricane Harvey to make landfall sometime tonight. I'm 130 miles away in San Antonio, but we are still expecting heavy flooding and high winds. I'm hoping that if we don't lose power, I'll be having sloppy joes all day long and make a day of netflix while we ride out the storm. At least I have a gas stove so I can always finish cooking it if power fails.

I'm already drooling over it.

[Forge]

Made this and the family loved it. Definitely a keeper.

[98VS1400]

Made this and the family loved it. Definitely a keeper.

Awesome! It is quite a tasty dish.

I used to love mine with tater tots! Back when I still ate tater tots...