Food You Can Eat: Hamburger Barbecue

This is NOT Manwich

7/7/21 Elliecoo 19

Here is a little background…this recipe is beloved by my friends and family. My son tells the story of discussing favorite foods with his partner early in their relationship, and mentioning my hamburger barbecue. His partner rolled her eyes and was unimpressed, because she figured that he was referring to Sloppy Joes from a can; she too is now a convert. here is what you will need:

  • 2 pounds very low-fat hamburger or ground chuck – get the good stuff
  • 1 large Vidalia onion
  • 1 green bell pepper
  • 1 red bell pepper
  • Worcester sauce, up to ¼ cup, to taste
  • Dry mustard spice, 1 tablespoon or more
  • Garlic, minced, 3 Tablespoons or more
  • Sugar, at least 1/3 cup or more
  • Ketchup, 1 cup or more

Dice the onion and peppers, add to a large skillet with the ground beef, and cook until the vegetables are softened and the meat is browned. Drain any fat or liquid. Pour in the Worcester, and add the the dry mustard, minced garlic, sugar, and stir. Mix 1 cup of ketchup with 1/3 cup water, pour into the pan, and stir. Now you need to taste and tweak the mustard, Worcester, garlic, sugar, and ketchup. Some people prefer sweeter barbecue (add sugar), some more savory (add garlic, mustard, Worcester). Some people prefer a thicker sauce, so if that is you, add more ketchup. This is also when you will have several taste-tester volunteers loitering in your kitchen.

I do not use a recipe for this, so all amounts are estimates, and to taste for my carnivores. Feel free to “wing it” to the preference of the folks whom you feed.

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About Elliecoo 563 Articles
Four dogs, one partner. The dogs win.

19 Comments

      • I kind of agree with Butcher, because the ketchup itself might be/is a little sugary. Have you ever made this with like a very sort of dry, spiced ketchup? (My imaginary best friend Ina Garten whispers in my ear, “and you can make it yourself. How simple is that?”) In fact somewhere I have a recipe for a French–I forget what they call this–it’s like a ketchup but it’s more what I mean. If you go to a French restaurant and they serve fries, like with a steak frites, and you don’t like aioli or mustard and prefer ketchup it’s what they will give you, along with a lot of side-eye. The Italians would throw up their hands in horror, while they all flock to the nearest McDonalds.

        But to each his own, I would eat this by the bowlful. 

        • Back when I ate meat, I was not overly fond of sweet meats. Thus the option in the recipe to use the ingredients to personal taste. Now I donning my Cousin M hat, and telling a story.

          I remember when I was child, a million years ago, visiting my father’s relatives in a very small town. My mother disliked sweet potato or macaroni salad, and my aunt used sugar in hers. So showing little ability to read the room, my mother asked my aunt to make the salad without sugar, saying it would taste so much better to her… a few hours later my father drove into the small town’s only barber shop for a haircut. He walked in the door and the barber yelled, “Hey father’s name, I hear that your wife doesn’t like  aunt’s name’s cooking. I think ya better look for a new place to stay”. Small towns, where everyone gossips as sport.

          • That is excellent. I couldn’t have done better myself. Did I ever tell you the story of one of the only times I got high? I’ll save this for later and drop this down-thread. I’ve done enough damage.

      • Chiming in again, because with FYCE posts I can seldom resist. I don’t think this is regional much as it is generational. As a connoisseur of food that was common before even I was born, and an amateur food historian, it’s kind of astonishing how much sugar people must have eaten right after WWII. The cereals. The craze for chocolate milk. The candy stores on every street corner (which also doubled as tobacconists, so that was nice.) In fact for those trying to “reduce” the ads would recommend that rather than reaching for a sweet you reach for a…Lucky, maybe? Some brand of cigarette. 

        Let us consider the Jell-O™ mold. It started out being a kind of novelty dessert, but one of the geniuses at the company noticed that it mimicked aspic. It would, they’re both gelatin. But aspic is savory, made from stock. Jell-O™ is sweetened. Traditional aspic is a huge pain in the ass to make. But here you have the boxes of sweetened E-Z Jell-O™. (I’ll stop with the ™). So rather than serving a somewhat elaborate food in aspic, like they would have eaten in the first class dining room aboard the Titanic, why not get out the bundt pan and serve it in lime Jell-O instead? And while you’re at it, add some thawed frozen vegetables to the meat for “nutrition”.  (Frozen vegetables are actually nutritious but that’s a whole ‘nother topic.)

        You can find evidence of this in pop culture if you look hard enough. A tough guy is in a greasy spoon. He orders coffee, black and hot. A comely young female is in a respectable coffee shop. “Just a coffee please, three sugars, no milk.”

      • My mom was a decent cook but she would put a cup of sugar in Ragu and add browned meat for spaghetti sauce. It was good, but I don’t think I could eat it now. 

  2. This looks similar to my mother’s Sloppy Joe recipe which I loved growing up. It was one of her few good meals, she was a lousy cook. The canned stuff is no comparison to homemade. I haven’t had it in a long time. You’ve inspired me.

  3. @Elliecoo Except avocados and cilantro are genuinely horrible. LOL, just kidding. I don’t care for them but I respect your right to enjoy them. Not myo’s though. He deserves all the teasing he gets.

    Do they do ham barbecue in your part of PA? It might be a Pittsburgh thing. A couple of lbs of shaved ham simmered in a bbq sauce, either homemade like this or bottled with water added. But instead of peppers and onions you dump in a bunch of sweet pickle relish and juice. Serve on a bun. That should send a few people screaming from the room!

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