Alton Brown Cooks Food | Episode 14: Sloppy Joe Buns

0:00 Food history, specifically American food history,

0:03 drives me nuts because it's chuck full of apocryphal nonsense,

0:07 tall tales, and assorted poppycck.

0:11 Take the sloppy joe sandwich, a derivation of the loose meat sandwich,

0:18 aka tavern sandwich, which was most likely born in or around Sous City,

0:23 Iowa in the mid 1920s [music] and found

0:25 its ultimate expression in my opinion in Musketine,

0:29 Iowa by way of the maidight sandwich 1926.

0:34 Now, around 1930, back in uh Sous City,

0:38 a cook named Joe supposedly added uh tomato sauce to the meat [music] mixture,

0:42 thus taking that first step towards what we know of as a sloppy Joe's sandwich.

0:47 This would be so convenient, [music] so convincing,

0:49 and completely credible were it not for the fact that between 1917 and 1919,

0:54 a guy named Jose Otterero [music] opened

0:57 a sloppy Joe's bar from Iowa in Havana, Cuba.

1:03 And there uh they served a ground beef

1:06 sandwich that was a variation on a classic picadillo,

1:09 a dish that migrated to Cuba via Spanish colonialism,

1:13 featuring shredded or ground beef cooked with spices, tomatoes, and capers.

1:17 Though, as far as I know, the sandwich was never referred to as a sloppy joke.

1:22 Now, an expat regular, one Ernest Hemingway,

1:26 supposedly talked a pal of his in Key West, name [music] of uh Joe Russell,

1:31 who owned a bar called the Silver Slipper

1:33 into changing the name of that establishment to Sloppy Joe's.

1:39 Interesting.

1:40 Um, but I have not been able to find concrete evidence that Sloppy Joe's in Key

1:46 West served a sloppy Joe's sandwich during

1:49 its original iteration because it closed in 1959.

1:51 It's reopened now.

1:52 Now, since it's generally agreed that the first mention of the sandwich

1:56 in print didn't happen until 1940, we may never know.

1:59 It is, however, impossible to deny the evolution

2:01 of the loose meat sandwich of Iowa.

2:04 But the Cuban angle is defensible as well.

2:06 What we do know [music] for sure is in the 1950s

2:09 and60s the popularity of the sloppy joe exploded [music] um as uh

2:15 its economy landed at a top spot on school lunchroom menus

2:19 and uh convenience food processors rolled out countless um canned components.

2:26 The crowning jewel of which of course was the man witch man

2:29 witch sauce launched in' 69 as part of the one pan meal revolution.

2:35 Now, like so many other Jen Jonesers like me,

2:38 sloppy joe is one of my favorite foods.

2:40 That was until I got a little sloppy with one at a church picnic in 1968,

2:45 staining the front of a white dress shirt,

2:48 which judging by my mother's reaction,

2:50 [screaming] must have been the last white shirt on planet Earth.

2:56 So apoplelectic was her reaction to my gustatory negligence that she forbade me.

3:02 so much as looking at a sloppy joe again for the rest of my natural childhood.

3:07 Now, to prevent such misery of replicating in the lives of other younglings,

3:11 forced to fet al fresco in white garments, today I offer the sloppy joe bun,

3:17 essentially a sloppy joe sandwich, where in the meaty red sloppiness is safely

3:22 enclosed in a sesame seed topped fresh baked dough.

3:25 But before we cook, might I gently implore you to subscribe to this channel

3:30 so that one day we might bag a [music] nice juicy sponsor.

3:33 I mean, I'm not looking to go full-on NASCAR,

3:36 but one or two properly placed stickers might be nice.

3:40 Enough talk.

3:41 Let's go.

3:48 All right, step one.

3:49 Combine a third of a cup of whole milk with 1/2 cup of water.

3:53 And no, that's not the same as using like skim milk and less water.

3:57 Just trust me on this.

3:58 We're going to nuke this on high for 30 to 40 seconds.

4:01 The target temperature is between 110 and 115° F.

4:07 Perfect.

4:09 Now, I'm oldfashioned, so I still proof active dry yeast,

4:14 mostly cuz I can't tell whether that's a 2025

4:16 or 2026 on the back of the envelope.

4:19 So, I'm going to combine one envelope uh that's 7 g with 3

4:23 tablespoon of sugar into the milk mixture and letting that sit for 10 minutes.

4:27 And if it foams, I know it's good.

4:29 Besides, this gives the yeast a head start, which is not a bad thing.

4:33 There, it's great.

4:34 It's foamy.

4:35 It's fine.

4:35 Here I have 282 g.

4:37 That's 2 cups, but don't tell anybody.

4:39 You should weigh it.

4:40 Allpurpose flour into which goes 5 g,

4:42 that's 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of kosher salt and 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil.

4:47 You don't have to uh to weigh the oil.

4:49 It doesn't compact.

4:50 Then add the yeast liquid in.

4:53 Now, grab yourself a wooden spoon or a silicone or rubber spatula, whatever.

4:57 And stir until it becomes kind of a big sticky well dough ball.

5:02 Like that.

5:03 Now, we're going to turn that out.

5:05 Need to flour uh the work surface a bit cuz it's very sticky.

5:08 Turn out the dough.

5:09 Wash that bowl.

5:10 Going to knead it again.

5:11 That was really fast.

5:12 I may have actually used another bowl, but ignore that.

5:15 Oil the bowl, but not as much as I did.

5:17 That's too much oil.

5:18 Wipe some out there.

5:20 And then knead the dough.

5:21 Adding as little flour as possible just to keep it from sticking to your hands.

5:25 I'm going to go 20 turns and pulls here.

5:28 And that's what I call that.

5:29 It sounds worse than it is, but that's how I need.

5:32 There.

5:33 That is what that should look like.

5:35 Into the bowl.

5:36 And then some people like to cover this with a tea towel.

5:38 I want something a little more airtight to keep the humidity in.

5:41 So, I'm going to use plastic wrap and just park that in a corner of the kitchen

5:45 for an hour to an hour and a half or until it doubles in size.

5:54 For vegetable fabrication, I'm going to go with a nicer.

5:58 Need to fix that knife [music] bar.

5:59 Now, for the filling, we begin with a green bell pepper,

6:02 one medium onion, and three cloves of garlic.

6:04 I will admit that uh the green bell pepper is not my favorite vegetable.

6:08 I use it for for very little,

6:09 but it is absolutely required in a sloppy joe filling.

6:13 There is no substitute.

6:14 To disassemble, I take off both ends and then pull out the placenta.

6:18 That's what that is.

6:19 Pull that out and you won't have seeds flying all around the room.

6:22 All right.

6:23 Before chopping, I try to take off as much of the inner membrane as possible.

6:26 Not absolutely required, but a nice touch.

6:29 And then cut into strips and then chop across there.

6:33 As for the onion, uh take off both ends, but not all of the stem end.

6:37 You want to kind of keep everything together.

6:38 Then half it, peel it,

6:40 and then cut each half on the radius and then chop across.

6:44 Again, the root end will hold it together.

6:46 Prevents chaos.

6:47 That was fast.

6:49 All right.

6:49 Um, as for the three garlic cloves,

6:52 now some folks u might just uh crush this with kosher salt into a kind of paste,

6:57 but that's not what I want here.

6:58 And no, I'm not crying.

7:00 You're crying.

7:01 Now, what I do is I just kind of make several

7:02 cross cuts in one direction and maybe one across sideways or two.

7:07 And then chop.

7:08 Notice I didn't cut through the hard root or basil plate.

7:10 That's what's keeping things together.

7:12 There.

7:13 That'll do.

7:14 And that's what three looks like.

7:16 Magic.

7:18 And let this heat for 2 minutes over medium

7:20 heat so that it will be nice and even.

7:22 Now, I'm using cast iron, which I really like for this application because

7:25 it does dole out heat very [music] evenly.

7:27 If you want to use say a straight sided uh stainless steel sauté pan,

7:32 you could do that too.

7:33 I would still let it uh heat for 2 minutes.

7:35 And you are going to have to manage the heat

7:37 a little bit more if you're using something besides cast iron.

7:40 Okay.

7:42 All right.

7:42 Good heat.

7:43 I've got about a tablespoon of oil here.

7:46 Just any neutral cooking oil is fine.

7:49 And the uh green pepper and the onion go in first.

7:53 All right.

7:54 We'll start with the uh the onion.

7:57 There we go.

7:59 And green onion, salt, pepper.

8:06 Now, what's important here is that that this is a sweat.

8:09 Okay?

8:10 We are not trying to sauté.

8:12 That is [music] brown the vegetables.

8:14 We want them to break down, give up moisture,

8:16 soften without browning, which is a sweat.

8:18 And we always add salt to sweats uh because the salt

8:23 will of course help to pull moisture out of the vegetables.

8:26 The other thing is you've got to manage your heat.

8:28 If you hear a little bit of sizzling like this, that's fine.

8:31 If it gets really aggressive or you see any browning, cut down on the heat.

8:35 That heat seems good.

8:36 I'm going to let this go for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.

8:42 Now, we mix the uh the dry team or the uh the dry

8:45 uh spices that are going to uh go into our meat mixture.

8:49 A teaspoon of smoked paprika.

8:51 You could use sweet paprika if you had to.

8:53 I would not.

8:54 [music] I would use smoked paprika.

8:56 And you don't have to measure perfectly here.

8:59 It's the first time I've ever said that in my entire life.

9:02 Cumin, my personal favorite spice of all time.

9:04 One teaspoon ground.

9:05 If you want to uh toast um seeds

9:08 and u and then grind them up, you certainly can.

9:11 But dry mustard, [music] not like o bay or something that contains it.

9:16 Just dry mustard.

9:17 Use it a lot in this kitchen because it is a very, very fine emulsifier.

9:22 I may have gotten a little more in there than I should have.

9:24 I don't care.

9:25 Teaspoon of onion powder and two teaspoons of dried ancho chilies.

9:32 Um, I used to do this recipe with just one, but I really want the kick of two.

9:36 And there's a great little kind of smokiness that goes in there as well.

9:40 One.

9:41 Two.

9:43 Finally, two teaspoons of kosher salt and 1

9:46 and 1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground pepper.

9:52 Perfect.

9:58 Call this knife work.

10:03 Right, time to add the garlic,

10:05 which of course we're adding later because it is smaller and tastes really,

10:09 really nasty when it burns.

10:14 All right, here we have 1 and 12 lbs of chuck.

10:17 80/20, which means 80% lean, 80% fat.

10:21 I don't want it any leaner than that because fat is flavor.

10:27 Just going to break that up.

10:31 Why did I reach for All right, once everything is broken up,

10:37 go ahead and sprinkle in the uh dry team.

10:40 I'm going to keep the heat on medium low and uh let this cook for e 3

10:46 to 4 minutes or until we really see a lot of that fat kind of render out.

10:51 When it comes to measuring gooey things like

10:53 say uh ketchup and mustard and tomato paste,

10:57 I hate trying to do that with spoons.

10:59 It's just absolutely ridiculous.

11:01 You got to scoop it and you go like this and then you get

11:04 it on your fingers and then it's just not the smart thing to do.

11:07 So, uh, that's one of the reasons that all

11:09 of my recipes are also done in weights

11:11 by grams because we're just going to weigh this out and zero out or tear uh,

11:16 the scale for, uh, for each additional ingredient.

11:19 Uh, beginning with 40 g of brown sugar.

11:23 Light wouldn't do the job quite as well as dark.

11:26 We zero it.

11:27 And always shake the mustard before.

11:29 There you go.

11:30 30 g.

11:31 So, just squirt gently.

11:32 Perfection.

11:33 200 g.

11:36 200 gram of ketchup.

11:37 Zero.

11:41 199.

11:42 I'm willing to [snorts] call that done.

11:43 Zero.

11:44 And 35 grams of tomato paste.

11:47 And I do like the kind that comes

11:48 in a tube because it doesn't oxidize because like toothpaste,

11:51 you're putting the tube back on and it

11:53 easily stores in the door of your refrigerator.

11:55 [music] And no, tomato paste and ketchup not the same.

11:59 36.

12:00 Oops.

12:02 Zero out.

12:04 25 gram of the Malda vinegar.

12:06 Got a little on the table, too.

12:07 I like that smell.

12:08 45 of the old Wishir sauce.

12:11 And uh yes, I know it looks like we're Chester sauce.

12:14 Worster sauce.

12:18 Last but not least, liquid smoke.

12:19 Now, some of you may be thinking, "Oh my gosh, that's chemical laid." Well,

12:23 believe me, this is not this is not a cigarette, okay?

12:25 This is actually just distilled smoke.

12:28 The people that make this stuff, and we do like um a couple of different brands.

12:31 This one's just called Lazy Kettle.

12:34 That could be so many things now I think about it.

12:37 Um, a brand.

12:38 They literally have hardwood smoke that goes into kind

12:41 of a a condenser and they turn it into a liquid.

12:44 So, um, really couldn't be much more natural.

12:47 Don't have to weigh this.

12:48 I'm just going with 10 dashes.

12:49 [music] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10.

12:53 Now, we'll remove the scale.

12:55 Whisk to combine gently.

12:59 You know, we could just [music] bottle this stuff.

13:03 I'm going to get on that.

13:05 All right.

13:05 I'm going to turn the heat all the way off so I don't burn myself.

13:09 Um, and scoot everything over to one side

13:11 of the pan so that I can do a little defatting.

13:15 Now, I know what you're thinking, Alton.

13:16 If you're just going to defat it,

13:18 why the heck uh did you uh use the the 80/20 chuck in the first place?

13:22 Why didn't you use something leaner than that?

13:25 [music] Well, the reason is simple.

13:27 I needed all this fat to really activate and wake up the spices and then move

13:32 that spice flavor [music] throughout the hole because

13:34 most of these spices have fat soluble flavors.

13:37 So, I'm going to knock it down by about half there.

13:45 That looks good.

13:46 Now, I'm going to return the heat uh to medium low

13:51 um and add the uh the wet works as it were, the uh the ketchup combo.

13:59 and simmer just a few more minutes or until this all comes together.

14:06 All right, it's been 4 minutes.

14:07 Um, and this looks like it is tightened up nicely.

14:10 I am going to call that done.

14:12 But first, we must sample.

14:18 Tastes like childhood.

14:20 The childhood I was robbed of after that dress shirt incident.

14:25 Oh well, I'm going to fix that now.

14:28 Heat off and we'll get this off the heat.

14:31 Uh, this needs to uh cool down to room temperature.

14:34 So, I'm just going to set this someplace cool for about an hour.

14:41 When the dough is doubled in volume, uh,

14:43 it's time to actually fabricate our individual buns.

14:46 So, turn that out onto a flowered counter and top

14:49 with just a little flour cuz it's pretty [music] sticky stuff.

14:52 You're going to knead for three full minutes.

14:54 And yes, you will have to use a timer for that.

14:57 You're also going to have to add a little flour as you go,

15:00 but don't go overboard or [music] the dough will get tough.

15:03 Now, uh to break this down into pieces, I like to weigh the whole thing.

15:07 Got 517 g here.

15:09 Um I need 12 portions.

15:11 So that's 43 g a piece.

15:14 I find it easier to work with two portions.

15:16 So actually, I'm going to do 258.

15:18 That's fine.

15:18 So now we're going to roll these into kind of like log shapes.

15:22 And this is not 100% necessary,

15:24 but I find that it makes uh cutting each portion a little bit easier to eyeball.

15:29 I'm shooting for 43 g for each of these, give or take.

15:32 Then make them into smooth balls best you can.

15:35 And then spritz the counter with just a little bit of water so it's just tacky.

15:39 And then roll with kind of an open hand like this orbly uh to tighten the skin.

15:44 Makes it a nice even ball.

15:47 Now just line them up uh so they're not touching on a baking sheet or sheetpan.

15:51 Um, and [snorts] then cover and allow

15:53 to what we call bench proof for 30 minutes.

15:56 Oh yeah, I always take off my watch when I roll dough.

15:59 No idea where I put it.

16:00 All right, it has been 30 minutes and ooh, what buns we have.

16:05 Uh, time now to convert these into envelopes of goodness.

16:09 Uh, for that, uh, you will need to have a rolling pin.

16:12 I'm just actually using a hardware store dowel here,

16:15 uh, which is perfectly fine.

16:16 We're going to need a little bit of flour.

16:18 We're going to need half a cup of chopped dill pickles.

16:22 Um a/4 measuring cup.

16:24 Uh now over on this side we have

16:27 our cooled meat mixture which is making my mouth water.

16:30 I also have a ruler so that I can measure 5 in which is important.

16:33 Then over on this side of the world we have a half

16:36 sheet pan that has been casually

16:40 conservatively lubricated with cooking [music] oil.

16:43 That's going to be our landing pad to get these going.

16:46 So, um let us let us now uh begin the process.

16:50 Uh just uh taking one of these guys at a time.

16:53 Little bit of flour down on the uh the counter.

16:56 Okay.

16:56 Um and we're going to roll these out into 5 in circles.

17:03 If you find uh that life gets in the way of uh making uh this and you

17:08 need to rest the um doughs a little bit longer than the required 30 minutes,

17:13 uh feel free to leave them covered in the refrigerator,

17:15 which is actually what I did.

17:16 Um you can do that for up to an hour easily, maybe two.

17:20 Just remember that if the dough is cold,

17:23 it's going to take a little longer to roll out each one.

17:30 5 in exactly.

17:31 Now we'll get ourselves a uh 1/4 cup of the meat filling right into the middle.

17:40 And I just tamp down the top and then deposit our pickles.

17:45 Some people argue that sloppy joe's should not have pickles.

17:49 They're all messed up in the head.

17:51 That's all there is to it.

17:52 Um I don't really measure this.

17:53 I just kind of cover the top.

17:54 If you wanted to call it a fat teaspoon, uh you could kind of tap that down.

17:59 And now this is uh the the ceiling of the dumpling.

18:02 Okay, it looks complicated.

18:04 It is [music] not.

18:05 Um if it was, I wouldn't be able to do it.

18:07 True story.

18:08 Just fold, turn, fold.

18:11 You notice each one of these folds is going half over the previous fold.

18:16 Four, five, six, seven.

18:21 And then just give a twist.

18:23 Boom.

18:25 And that's all that we're [music] looking for.

18:27 It looks a little nubbly right now,

18:30 but after they bench proof, they'll look nice and smooth.

18:33 So, that goes here.

18:35 And we're going to go 3x4 on this sheet.

18:40 Repeat thusly.

18:46 So, going to cover these and let them what we call bench proof for half an hour.

18:50 Uh, now would be a good time to crank the oven to 375.

18:55 Our buns are proofed.

18:59 Um, and this is exactly what they should look like.

19:01 Uh, we do however um have a a couple more steps here.

19:06 Uh, we are going to do an egg wash.

19:07 We are going to dock them and then give them the finishing touch.

19:11 All right.

19:11 Uh, first things first, the egg wash.

19:13 And this is just literally an egg with a tablespoon of water.

19:16 It's the best thing for browning.

19:18 You don't have to slop on a whole lot because if you do,

19:21 it's just going to glue the bun to the pan even with the oil.

19:24 So just go light.

19:25 And now we dock.

19:27 That is we poke holes in each one to make sure that they don't get blown to bits

19:31 uh by uh water converting to steam from inside

19:34 the dough or the filling for that matter.

19:36 Five purr, please.

19:37 Last step, finishing touch, sesame seeds.

19:40 Gives it a uh a bit of crunch, a little bit of flavor,

19:43 and of course that u coveted fast food drive-thru look.

19:48 And voila.

19:49 Into the 375 degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

19:54 We're going to keep an eye on them.

20:02 All right, time to extract.

20:04 And notice I don't usually even rotate these as they bake.

20:08 They usually come out fine.

20:08 And look, they did nice and even.

20:11 [music] The dough is very forgiving,

20:12 but it's really important that you get that egg

20:14 wash not too thick and not too thin.

20:17 Cool.

20:18 um at least 15 minutes before uh before devouring.

20:21 Um a rack would be preferential for this.

20:24 Um now please notice I am wearing a white dress shirt

20:28 and notice I am holding not one but two sloppy joe's.

20:31 Now since my mother is no longer among the living as we say I

20:35 cannot extract a full measure retaliative pleasure

20:39 from this simple act of culinary defiance.

20:42 But it's still going to feel pretty gosh darn good.

20:45 I should probably assume the uh position

20:47 of the original mishap which was something something like this.

20:53 Yeah.

21:10 Hey mom, look at me now.

21:14 See you next time on Elton Brown Cooks Food.