Sloppy Joe

The comfort food train continues down the track with a childhood favorite…Sloppy Joe. There are variations on ingredients, but the main star is ground beef, onions, tomato sauce, and seasonings. You cannot go wrong with grabbing a pack of McCormick spice blend to take the guesswork out of the mix.

As I started typing this blog, I wondered about the origin story of Sloppy Joe. The internet is a wonderful tool for the curious, so I was fascinated that early and mid-20th century American cookbooks offered variations on a theme under other names such as “toasted deviled hamburgers, chopped meat sandwiches, Spanish hamburgers, and Hamburg a la Creole.”

There were various stories about the origin of this meal, but I liked the version whereby a loose meat sandwich made in Sioux City, Iowa in the 1930’s created by a cook named Joe. I could also believe the theory it started in Havana, Cuba as an interpretation of ropa vieja by bar owner Jose “Sloppy Joe” Abeal y Otero.

The bottom line for me is a Sloppy Joe sandwich is delicious and packed full of vegetables and beef. How could it be bad?