Maid Rite is, I guess, the Iowa version of a Sloppy Joe, and there seem to be as many versions as there are cooks, so I have taken some of my fave options from several recipes, added a few of my own, and come up with, I think, a pretty frikkin’ superior Maid Rite.
Some recipes call for adding ketchup and such to more or less plain cooked meat, but I took an alternative and added it as I was cooking, along with a couple of my standards.
INGREDIENTS
•1/4 cup water
•1 tbsp yellow mustard
•1 tsp sugar
•1-1/2 lb meatloaf mix
•1 tbsp Sherry Peppers Sauce*
•1 tsp Cajun Power Spicy Garlic Pepper Sauce – or your fave hot sauce, to taste
•2 diced shallots
•1/2 cup ketchup
•1 tbsp white vinegar
•1 tbsp sherry vinegar
•1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
*No Sherry Peppers Sauce? No Problem! Simply add a bit of decent sherry (none of that “cooking” stuff) and a dash or three of your fave hot sauce, to taste.
This is perhaps my favorite part of this recipe, the bit where you add the water, mustard, and sugar to a pan with the ground meat and boil it, breaking up the meat.
The boiling releases a pleasant aroma and infuses the meat with a nice base flavor.
Once the liquid in the pan has mostly cooked off, stir in the remaining ingredients and continue to cook, stirring, until, again, most of the pan liquids have been reduced.
So, you can serve this on a lightly toasted roll, mebbe with a Ranch Pickle on top.
Or, you can save it to add to Bloody Mary Chili (detatils to come).