Posted on 05/25/2016 4:18:08 PM PDT by Jamestown1630
Last week I got to thinking about Sloppy Joe sandwiches, which I hadn't had in ages but loved when I was a kid. We decided to try making it from scratch, and settled on Chef John's recipe. It came out really good - I think I might add some jalapeno next time - but it doesn't really taste like the Sloppy Joe made from the canned sauce. I'm not sure what to do to it, to make it more like the childhood favorite (except buy a can of sauce ;-) and I'm wondering if anyone else has made it. Here's is Chef John's recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/219635/chef-johns-sloppy-joes/
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I happened to be browsing archive.org for old cookbooks, and found Rufus Estes' cookbook 'Good Things to Eat, as Suggested by Rufus'. Estes, born a slave, was one of the first famous African American chefs, and the first to write and publish a cookbook. The recipes are sometimes kind of sketchy, as they are in all of these old cookbooks, but the instructions are adequate to figure out the dish. Cherry Season is coming on, and I was intrigued by his recipe for pickled cherries:
"CHERRY PICKLES
Stem, but do not pit, large ripe cherries. Put into a jar and cover with a sirup made from two cups of sugar, two cups of vinegar and a rounding teaspoon each of ground cloves and cinnamon cooked together five minutes.
Let stand two days, pour off the vinegar, reheat and pour over the cherries, then seal."
I searched for more modern recipes and was surprised that most are pretty much exactly as Rufus made them; but here is a recipe that pits the cherries, and adds lemon and star anise:
http://janesadventuresindinner.com/2014/09/celebratingtheharvest-pickled-cherries.html
You can read or download the Rufus Estes book at Archive.org (lots of great antique cookbooks there):
https://archive.org/details/goodthingstoeata00esterich
or purchase a newer edition hard copy at Amazon or Dover Publications:
http://www.amazon.com/Good-Things-Eat-Suggested-Rufus/dp/0965433315
http://store.doverpublications.com/0486437647.html
-JT
This Week: Sloppy Sandwiches, Cherry Season, and Antique Cookbooks!
(If you would like to be on or off of this weekly cooking ping list, please send a private message.)
-JT
Oooh! Sloppy Joes! Clafouti! America Eats and Bugles and Curries! and Cross Creek Cookery! and Mrs. Beeton!
I make this and put a batch in the freezer. We like this and really like Aarti’s cooking and her cookbook.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aarti-sequeira/sloppy-bombay-joes-recipe.html
Please try Rachel Ray’s recipe for “Sloppy Joe DiMaggio’s” on Food Network.com. My grandchildren’s favorite. Adds sliced hot dogs to the sloppy joe mix. In fact they are coming here for a camp out tomorrow night. We’re having those and S’mores. School’s out! Thanks for all your work on this. I look forward to it every week.
Mrs. Beeton and a whole lot of others are over at archive.org; I just haven’t figured out exactly how to search specifically for antique cookbooks, so I have to know what I’m looking for.
https://ia601301.us.archive.org/3/items/b21529036/b21529036.pdf
It’s my great pleasure! and I will look for Rachel Ray’s recipe.
-JT
Hambeens and Rotel tomatoes with an onion, plenty of chicken broth and a handful of frozen kale I keep on hand, and chicken or pork to add flavor.
I also toss in plenty of cayenne pepper to bring the heat up...cleans out the sinuses.
Sometimes add frozen corn and/or peas.
Cheap, easy, wholesome.
You must mean Manwich. I used that quite a bit, tried some from scratch within the last year but they were "off".
The best ones I ever made were for a group gathering. Somebody gave me fresh beef from the whole cow and told me to put some tomato soup, sauce, paste, onions, water, salt can't remember what else. Wasn't into garlicky spicy stuff in those days.
Cooked it in the oven in my big oval turkey roaster, was a great help. Always helps when people are hungry though.
The flavors blend overnight and sometimes they are better the next day. Chef John had some stuff in his I don't care for so I will wing it next time.
My favorite ones were from A&W years ago and some others from the little stand at the 9th hole on the golf course. Were we starved by then! We had to bike, carry our own clubs and walk it. Fueled up and went for 18 if we had time.
I once taught a cooking class on clafoutis. It was a big hit!
Mrs. Beeton - who died at about 29 - is most interesting about hiring help and 19th century medicine. Her remedies are quite interesting and un-quacklike!
I have several 18th century cookbooks but they are very similar and, as you suggest, none too helpful in terms of directions. It’s like reading an early Elizabeth David recipe.
I happen to love childlike food like Sloppy Joes. But it causes me the worst indigestion (if you forgive me for mentioning the human body!!!) Perhaps I’m not cooking down the tomato sauce enough?! or braising the onions? But it is so simple, delicious and childlike - not sophisticated but wonderful after a hard day at work when it’s raining and the wind is blowing.
How wonderful! My husband is the clafouti freak and he makes them. We’ve had successes and failures with them. But have a cherry pitter as a result.
Are ‘hambeens’ Navy beans? (I love hot stuff!)
-JT
I would really like that!
-JT
What I never see any more that the fore fathers must have enjoyed is Quince jelly.
Yummy.
Sloppy Joe seasoning is like Meatloaf, everyone’s is different.
I’ve never seen quince in stores or markets; but here’s a recipe:
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/quince_jelly/
I noticed that you can buy it ready made from Nuts.com, which is a really good place for buying nuts, by the way:
-JT
Truly an ancient fruit and one that I have enjoyed many times as a child.
Manwich gives can bring on the heartburn.
I am going to try this recipe with several different mustards. Not a big fan of Dijon.
Both of my grandmothers made their own mustard. “The hotter the water. The hotter the mustard.”
That sounds like a nice fruit. It looks like it can be grown in most of the US...
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