Overhauling Sloppy Joes

When my kids were little, making Sloppy Joes was a win-win situation. They loved eating them, and I loved sneaking bites off their plates. Eating a full portion of the filling, however, was off the table, since it was one-dimensional and cloyingly sweet.

That said, those few bites were such a guilty pleasure that I’ve often wondered if I could give the sandwich an overhaul so that it could satisfy adults and kids alike. After all, the filling couldn’t be any easier to make: Just sauté some chopped onion (and sometimes celery, carrot, and bell pepper) in a skillet before adding ground beef to brown, and then finish with a ketchup-based sauce. And who knows? Maybe techniques that we normally apply to highbrow foods would come in handy here, too.

The Meat of the Matter

It’s no wonder that the sauce for Sloppy Joe filling is often candy-sweet, since it contains anywhere from ½ cup to 1 cup of ketchup