Sloppy Joes

The formula

Every ingredient resolved to grams, expressed against the recipe's own base — next to the median of all 151.

	this recipe	typical
liquid	26%	0%
fat	6%	1%
aromatics	52%	22%
sweetener	6%	23%
salt	0%	0%
thickener	0%	0%
vegetables and beans	33%	34%
collagen idx	0.8	0.8
marbling idx	0.6	0.6

Adapts cleanly: dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free (documented swaps, applied on the dish page)

Ingredients

Weights computed by us.

1 g	1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
120 g	1/2 cup (120 ml) low-sodium beef or low-sodium chicken stock, homemade or store-bought
1 g	1/2 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt; for table salt, use half as much by volume
0 g	1/4 teaspoon MSG (optional)
27 g	2 tablespoons (30 ml) neutral oil, such as vegetable or canola oil, plus more as needed
454 g	1 pound 80% lean ground beef
226 g	1 medium yellow onion (8 ounces; 226 g), finely chopped
10 g	2 medium cloves garlic (10 g), finely chopped
150 g	1/2 cup tomato or marinara sauce (5 1/4 ounces; 150 g), such as Rao's
50 g	1/4 cup Heinz ketchup (50g)1 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
7 g	1 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
8 g	1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
27 g	2 tablespoons brown sugar
208 g	4 soft burger buns, split and toasted

Method: 4 steps, published by www.seriouseats.com — open the original ↗ or use bake mode for a follow-along with a screen that stays on.

“Over summer vacation, back in my high school days, I worked in a summer camp cafeteria. Sloppy Joes were a twice-a-week staple (Sorry, Daniel, we used green bell peppers in ours. You do what you have to, to get something green into kids!).The biggest pitfall i” — a cook

“This recipe was excellent! I've tried several others, and feel like Sloppy Joes belong, along with such cafeteria delights as American Chop Suey and Goulash, to that category of foods that seemed to taste better when I was a child. This is the first Sloppy Joe” — a cook, 5★