Mama Jean’s Barbecue – Old Style Sloppy Joes

While there are hundreds of Sloppy Joe recipes out there, the addition of cloves and celery seed make this recipe for Mama Jean’s Barbecue deliciously unique. In fact that small pinch of cloves, when simmered down with the ground beef and tomatoes, is the secret ingredient that takes me back to my childhood and makes this vintage recipe one to keep.

Weeknight Favorites

What is it about ground beef and tomatoes that warms the heart as well as the appetite on a cold winter’s day? Looking for seasonal favorites it seems that winter nearly begs for those ground beef dishes that were staples at the weeknight dinner table when I was growing up. My mom regularly made Kentucky Chili in the deep well soup pot on our stovetop at home. She also made Stuffed Peppers and Meatloaf topped with tomato sauce. Each of these recipes stretched hamburger to feed a hungry family on a tight budget.

Ground beef dishes were actually my favorite dinners as a child. This was known, and sometimes catered to, by my dearest relatives. Each had their own versions of ground beef specialties and they often made them when I was eating at their table.

Aunt Hen made my favorite Porcupine Meatballs when I walked up to her house for supper. Aunt Betty sometimes let me help make Lasagna at her house. When I visited my grandmother she served what she called “Barbecue.” Others might call it Sloppy Joes. She made her ground beef version on the thin side and spooned it over toasted hamburger buns.

Mammaw’s Barbecue

From time to time I watched Mammaw stir the tomatoey meat mixture studded with celery and peppers in her big cast iron skillet. As I watched I never thought to ask her about the recipe’s origin. Maybe I assumed it just came to her, like light on a sun dial. After all, I never saw her look at a recipe as she stirred in her canned tomatoes or a pinch of spice.

I loved the way the gravy of my grandmother‘s barbecue soaked deliciously into the toasted buns. They were too soft to pick up so I ate mine with a fork and savored every bite. I liked it so much that I asked for it whenever I visited Mammaw’s house.

I also told anyone else who would listen about Mammaw’s delicious Barbecue. Aunt Hen even requested the recipe so that she could make it for me at home. When Mammaw wrote it out we discovered it wasn’t really her recipe after all. While I had always called it “Mammaw’s Barbecue,” the recipe card suggested that it came from her mother before her. The top of the card read “Mama Jean’s Barbecue.”

Mama Jean

Where Mama Jean got the recipe we can never know. She died a few year’s before I was born, walking to work at Mill Creek Elementary School. For over thirty years she managed the school’s lunch room. She had worked there since Mill Creek Elementary first served lunches for its students in 1925. That was the year after my great grandfather died of pneumonia. Mama Jean needed the work to provide for herself and her three young children.

It was a tribute to Mama Jean’s determination, and her ability to stretch a dollar, that she kept her family, as well as the student body at Mill Creek School, fed through the lean years that followed. What she knew about cooking on a budget might have filled volumes. By the time I put together our Family Cookbook I was only able to scrape together a few meager pages about Mama Jean.  Still, true to family tradition, I took what I could find and made the most of it.

Hamburger Barbecue and Sloppy Joes

I included the recipe for Mama Jean’s Barbecue in my Family Cookbook but it continued to challenge me. For the longest time I had little success recreating the delicious Barbecue I ate as a child. I followed my grandmother’s recipe exactly but, while the flavor was close, it never turned out to be as good as I remembered.

To try and figure out where I was going wrong I finally did some digging. First, I talked to my brother and sister-in-law. They suggested that the ketchup might be a problem, especially if using a brand that contains corn syrup. The next time I tried the recipe I disregarded Mammaw’s note about adding ketchup. That was a step in the right direction but the flavor of my Barbecue still wasn’t exactly what I was looking for.

Then I learned that my cousin had another, slightly different, version of the recipe for Mama Jean’s Bar-B-Que. It was written in a cookbook given to her by her mother, Noni. Aunt Noni was Mammaw’s sister, Mama Jean’s younger daughter. Her recipe for Mama Jean’s Bar-B-Cue did not include any ketchup. It did, however, include double the amount of ground cloves, 1/4 instead of 1/8 teaspoon. It also called for some celery seed and a little less added sugar.

A Pinch of Cloves

After breaking it down I made Mama Jean’s Barbecue for dinner. This time, though the differences seemed slight, I used my cousin’s version of the recipe. I skipped the ketchup and the added thickening. After simmering the mixture to meld the flavors I spooned it over toasted hamburger buns and….that was it! Taking a taste took me right back to Mammaw’s chrome trimmed kitchen table with the rooster lamp hung from the wall above. This is the version of Mama Jean’s Barbecue I have been looking for.

While there are hundreds of Sloppy Joe recipes out there, I’ve found that the addition of cloves and celery seed make this version deliciously unique. In fact it seems the cloves are the secret ingredient in this recipe that, when simmered down with ground beef and tomatoes, takes me back to my childhood in an instant. That same ingredient surprised me in Kentucky Chili, another favorite recipe from my childhood.

Stay Happy

Interpretation aside, another special part of this recipe is my grandmother’s note written at the end:  

“You can also double or triple this recipe which I do. Then freeze the extra for further use. Stay Happy.”

In a few short sentences she offers the means to stretch a dollar, to prepare for the challenges before us by planning ahead, and gently encourages us with a kindly reminder to “Stay Happy.”

I wish the same for you!