Easy-Sleazy Sloppy Joes

Thursday 21 August

Sometimes you've just got to get sloppy.  Can't believe we've never posted the original recipe (which Barbara got from Joan Peterson, who used to call it "barbeque").  The original index card is so full of brown splashes you can barely read it anymore.

1 lb. ground beef

1 medium onion, chopped

1 cup ketchup

2 1/2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 Tbsp. cider vinegar

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

water (opt.; no more than 1/4 cup)

2 1/2 Tbsp. brown sugar

2 1/2 tsp. dry mustard

1 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. black pepper

pinch or two cayenne pepper

In a deep pan, brown ground beef and onion, crumbling it up small, until all pinkness is gone and onions are translucent. 

Add everything else, using the vinegar and lemon juice to wash out the ketchup cup.  You can drizzle a little water in there too, to scrape it out.  Simmer for 30 mins., or until it reaches the requisite sloppiness, or until you can't stand it any more.

Instead of the traditional hamburger bun, we served this on Holt's toasted wheatbran bread.  It gave a superficial gloss of health to homemade junk food in which ketchup is indeed a vegetable (see Slutburgers, below).