Why hello there, and welcome back to Kitchen Catastrophes, where one man makes merry with meat and munchies, while moping and…man, M is a weird one to build alliteration around. Or I’m just rendered dumb by the heat. Anyway, I’m Jon, this is my blog, and today, we’re kicking off something funky and special with Korean Sloppy Joes. Check the recipe with this link. Everyone else, let’s dig into some backstory.

An Unexpected Return

Today’s post kicks off a theme month for the site, because as I’ve said before, I use theme months as a fun way to guide my posts and reveal some of the behind-the-scenes burden of the blog by giving myself a directive. Today’s theme is something of a revisit: it’s Asian August 2: Asian Burger-loo! Sorry, for using “Asian” twice there, I know it’s untidy, I was going to say “Burger Boogaloo”, and then realized that Burger-loo is a much ‘better’/grating pun, so I had to improvise.

But yes, after last year’s Asian August was one of our most popular theme months, with many emails and messages sent to me praising our delicate breakdown of an entire continent’s cuisine into four dishes, two of which technically just come from different parts of China, we decided to do it again. Or, rather, since no one ever messages or emails me about the posts, I just get the odd comment every now and again, it seemed equally well received as anything that wasn’t an endorsement of the first season of Somebody Feed Phil.

This was many people’s assessment of the show.

In fact, I was originally just going to do “Burger August”, under the vague connection of “there’s a U and a G in both of them”. And then, kind of on accident, the second burger I decided to make was also Asian-influenced. As was the third. At which point, I said “Shit, I guess we just find a 4th one, and we get to double dip!”

And of course, to kick this thing off, we have a burger that isn’t really a burger: a Sloppy Joe. Because why would I ever do anything 100% correct?

The Slop Stops…Here?

The Sloppy Joe, if you don’t know, is a cheap American burger/sandwich where instead of a beef patty, the buns are filled with ground beef in a tomato-based sauce. It’s arguably not a real “burger”, since the general opinion is that the meat inside a burger should be in patty form to truly count, But…language is untidy. You can technically call ground beef “burger meat” or “hamburger”, so even if it’s not technically a real burger, it could be called “a burger sandwich”, and…I mean at that point, we’re clearly splitting some pretty fine hairs. Like, Otter undercoat hairs. People have a relative understanding of various mammals’ hair fineness, right?

Otters are universally understood to be soft, right?

The history is…complicated, and part of the reason I feel okay calling them burgers. So, to really explain: around the time that Hamburgers were catching on (sometime in the late 1800’s, early 1900’s, depending on who you believe), someone said “okay, so people like ground beef, formed into patties, on buns. …How lazy do you think we can be about this?” and started serving sandwiches that were just ground beef on a bun. No patty, just loose meat. Indeed, the first name for the dish was “steamed hamburger.” Sorry, the SECOND name for the dish was “loose meat sandwich”. And you can still get them today. They’re popular in Iowa and the rest of the Midwest. Like, “You can buy them at Dairy Queen” level of popular: a national fast food chain said “hey, let’s mildly complicate our international supply chain in order to wring the profits of selling this slight variation over here.”

“It doesn’t even really LOOK different, but do it.”

Now, do I know who turned the Loose Meat sandwich into a Sloppy Joe? No. BUT, the former Director of the Heinz Test Kitchen, Marilyn Brown (who actually passed away last year, sadly) says that Heinz’s research at the Carnegie Library suggests it came from Sioux City, Iowa in the 1930’s, and that tracks: one of the most famous vendors of Loose meat sandwiches is Ye Olde Tavern, a Sioux City restaurant that renamed Loose meat sandwiches into “Tavern sandwiches”. That may sound like a quirk of branding, but there’s some reporting that suggests you’re looking at it the wrong way: several sources say the restaurant had a different name, and just sold loose-meat sandwiches as “tavern burgers” as a more fun name, and then, when it was sold, it was renamed to Ye Olde Tavern, to make the RESTAURANT match the burger name.

In any case, loose-meat sandwiches, and particularly tavern burgers, season the meat, and almost always mix it with chopped onion before cooking. Supposedly, one restaurant making the dish (often suggested to be the original Maid-Rite, an Iowa based chain restaurant), had a cook named Joe, and either by accident or intentionally, he made a version of the sandwich using Tomato sauce.

Maybe.

That’s the more popular, and agreed-upon version. BUT, there exists another etymology that happened at roughly the same time, though it might just be a case of convergent evolution: because there are famous Sloppy Joe’s before that sandwich was made. Specifically, in Havana Cuba, in 1918, Sloppy Joe’s Bar is opened: an American immigrant by the name of José “Joe” Abeal y Otero had come to Cuba to make his fortune, bought a grocery store, and when his friends came to visit, they laughed at how “sloppy” the place was. He remodeled the grocery store, and built it into Sloppy Joe’s Bar. And here’s the insane thing: it definitely invented at least one sandwich.

In parts of New Jersey, a “Sloppy Joe” refers to a sandwich that is a weird hybrid between a club sandwich (three slices of bread, cold cuts and cheese), and a Reuben (coleslaw, swiss cheese, Russian dressing, rye bread). It’s popular in the area because the Mayor of Maplewood went to Sloppy Joe’s in Havana (Remember that the Cuba embargo didn’t happen until the 60’s) which was HUGELY famous, due to being often visited by some dude named Ernest Hemingway, loved the sandwich, and tried to have a deli in his town make a knock-off of it. So, we KNOW Sloppy Joe’s was making sandwiches. We ALSO know that a mural in Havana showed the restaurant serving some kind of round-bunned sandwich, and rumors suggest there was either a Ropa Vieja sandwich (ropa vieja is the national dish of Cuba, and consists of shredded beef in tomato sauce) or a picadillo sandwich (picadillo is a Latin American mixture of ground beef, tomato, and a bunch of other ingredients such as raisins and olives). Then, when Prohibition ended in the states, a Key West bar opened up named the Blind Pig, before Ernest Hemingway convinced its owner, Joe Russell, to rename it to “Sloppy Joe’s”, in order to pull some free mystique/advertising, as the American version of the Cuban bar. Both bars are still open to this day.

This is the one in Key West. I legit would have believed it to be either.

The Key West Joe’s starts serving Sloppy Joe sandwiches at some point in the 30’s, and they claim to be the American originators, saying they took the recipe from the Havana bar, and Americanized it. And there’s some weight to the argument: an Ohio newspaper in 1944 claimed that Sloppy Joes originated in Cuba. And sure, it’s possible they’re wrong…but they’re also about 400 miles closer to Sioux City than Key West, so it’s a little weird they heard about the Cuba version first. (not impossible, though. I went to California LONG before I went to Idaho, for instance.)

Then again, there were a LOT of different names for the dish at the time, several of which imply the Cuban connection: Good Housekeeping called them “Toasted Deviled Hamburgers” the same year as that Ohio ad; an Indiana church cookbook called them “Spanish Hamburgers” in 1951. BUT, those could be similarly weird etymologies: there was a dish in 1939 called “Hamburg a la Creol” consisted of meatballs cooked in a tomato sauce, which, while not much like a sloppy joe in composition, is an interesting confluence of ingredients, as is “Minced Beef, Spanish Style”, a 1902 recipe that consists of a creating a small box of ground beef, in which you roast some tomatoes and vegetables. Neither are the right style, but may have prompted people to conflate the dish with Spain/Southern cuisine.

So, after that surprising complicated history of the Sloppy Joe, who wants to ignore most of it, by taking it in a completely different direction?

Burrowing down to the Kore-a

So, today’s recipe is thankfully, MUCH easier than all of that historical unearthing was. (That was 20+ tabs, and like, 3 hours of effort ON ITS OWN. I had to CHECK RECIPES in 118 year old texts, which is how I learned that despite being cited as “Sloppy Joes” on Wikipedia, the Hamburg a la Creol and Minced Beef Spanish style are REALLY pushing the definition, and I would personally not include them. (I will yield the Hamburg is VERY close, though: like, if there was a note to the effect fo “bread for service”, I’d give them that one.)

They’d technically be more like, Meatball subs, but meat-ball subs are a weird mid-point between burgers and sloppy joes.

That was a rabbit hole so deep, I’ve literally just realized that I missed Last Week Tonight a couple hours ago. Shit. Let me watch that real quick to cleanse my mental palate. …Welp, this week’s topic was US HISTORY, so that was not nearly as refreshing as I could have hoped. It was also a bit of a bummer, but I knew that going in. Alright, let’s tear ourselves free of the smothering teat of history and breathe deeply of the fresh night air. (or day air, if you’re some kind of Day-walker)

So, this recipe has 11 ingredients, to make 3 parts, and takes about 30 minutes. How does it start? With the part I haven’t MENTIONED yet! Yes, despite giving you 1,050 words on the history of Sloppy Joes, I never technically gave you the full name of recipe. That’s because, personally, I get why the writers added it, but I also think it kind of unbalances the name: these are “Korean Sloppy Joes with Kimchi Slaw”, according to the original recipe-creators, Cook’s Country. And…there’s just something about that added “slaw” clause. Like, it explains too much and too little for my liking: If you just GOT Korean Sloppy Joes, for instance, and they had slaw on them, you’d just accept it, right? When I order a pulled pork burger, I’m not surprised when there’s slaw on it. “This is just part of a Korean Sloppy Joe, I guess” would be your thought. On the other hand, saying you’re getting sandwiches with slaw kind of implies that the slaw might be a side dish. So you might think this is two whole recipes, when it’s really “a burger with a special topping”. Also, Cook’s Country named the dish that, and then included an option for replacing the Kimchi. Is it important enough to put in the recipe NAME, or is it something you can REPLACE? Hence my abbreviation of the name. Definitely not to try and undermine Cook’s Country on an SEO game.

Anywho, the first thing you MAKE is the slaw, so maybe I’m being ungenerous by taking it off. But it’s not like it’s a super interesting recipe: You literally just mix some chopped kimchi with mayonnaise and a bit of fresh black pepper.

I can’t tell if this is pre or post chopping, but it’s definitely pre-saucing.

That’s it. You’re done with the slaw. Three ingredients, maybe 5 minutes of work, most of it chopping the Kimchi. It’s just there for funk, creaminess, and texture. And I like it, honestly. Like, I enjoy Kimchi on its own, but adding that bit of creaminess, while a little unusual, does smooth it out a little.

Anyway, now that that’s done, you’ve got to mix together half of the overall ingredients into a single slurry. If you’ve made sloppy joes, you know that most modern recipes consist of Ketchup mixed with things like mustard, vinegar, maybe some veggies, etc. Here, the recipe is cribbing notes from Bulgogi flavoring, so it’s a mixture of Ketchup, Soy Sauce, Sesame Oil, brown sugar, and minced garlic.

If you look at the side, you can see the fairly thick layer of sesame oil between the soy/garlic and the ketchup.

Weirdly, I had a HELL of a time getting my sesame oil to integrate with the rest of the sauce, AND, it was at this point that I went a little off-script. See, Sure, this is a recipe based on bulgogi flavors, but I will be damned if I make something called a Korean Sloppy Joe, and the recipe doesn’t include Gochujang. So I added gochujang to my mixture. You might say “Jon, is that really authentic?” to which I say “Did you just ask me about authenticity with KOREAN SLOPPY JOES?

Sauce is done.

Once the sauce is mixed up, you’re basically somehow both “about to actually start cooking” and “functionally in the endgame”. This is because the beef and sauce don’t cook together for very long (otherwise you might scorch the sugars in the sauce), so once your beef is browned, the recipe’s about 2 minutes from being finished, and browning your beef only takes about 10 minutes or so.

There’s a weird number of “here’s an ingredient before I mix it with the thing that makes it visually interesting” pics today.

Dump the sauce in, stir together, and simmer for a minute or two. That’s…it. Which gives me time to make my only real complaint: My biggest issue with this whole recipe was that, at the end, I think the final product was a little too oily, so maybe I’d want to try draining the pan a little before adding the sauce, or cutting the sesame oil a little. I don’t know which, but there was just about a tablespoon or so of standing oil that hadn’t mixed into everything at the end, and I think reducing that would be good. Anyway, sauced meat goes on a bun with slaw, and BOOM, dish is done.

I foolishly allowed natural light into the background, which really highlighted how orange my kitchen light is.

Personally, I came pretty damn close to loving this. Like, other than that slight complaint about a minor excess of oil, my other biggest complaint is that I didn’t get to eat more than a burger and a half, because Nate was unexpectedly hungry, and this recipe only makes 4 servings. I will definitely try doubling it the next time I make it for more than 2 people. It’s sweet, spicy, salty, and meaty. It’s just a great burger/sandwich in my opinion. My mother thought it was a little too salty, but she has said that about foods with literally no salt in them, so I’m beginning to worry it’s some kind of vitamin deficiency on her end. Some online posters have also suggested that it tastes equally great in a more classic Asian presentation, where instead of eating it as a burger, you scoop the sauced meat over steamed rice. I haven’t had a chance to try that, but it sounds like it would work.

THURSDAY: I HAVE NO IDEA. I BRIEFLY CONSIDERED MOVING THE HISTORY OF THE SLOPPY JOE TO BUY TIME. I’LL THINK OF SOMETHING, THOUGH.

MONDAY: A CLASSIC CATASTROPHE IS REBORN, IN A BURGER WHOSE MAIN PROBLEM IS SURPRISINGLY GENEROUS.

Time for the

Recipe

Korean Sloppy Joe

Makes 4 Joes

Ingredients

Kimchi Slaw

1 cup kimchi, chopped

¼ cup mayonnaise

¼ tsp black pepper

Sauce

½ cup ketchup

3 tbsps soy sauce

2 tbsps toasted sesame oil (though I want to try it with only 1)

1 tbsp packed brown sugar

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 tbsp gochujang

The Meat

1 pound 85 percent lean ground beef

½ tsp black pepper

4 hamburger buns

Preparation

Make the slaw by stirring together all Slaw ingredients and setting aside. Combine all sauce ingredients in a small bowl.
Brown the beef, seasoned with the pepper, over medium heat in a 12-inch skillet, roughly 8-10 minutes. Add sauce mix and cook an additional minute, until sauce thickens.
Scoop seasoned beef onto buns, along with slaw, and serve.