Ground beef is pretty low in the hierarchy of meat, but its cheapness makes it a cornerstone of the modern American diet. This is not the stuff of fine dining, but sturdy home-style simplicity. Sloppy Joe and Cuban picadillo are similar tangy ground beef recipes. It’s interesting how two very different cultures inadvertently created variations of the same dish. You could say they rhyme in flavor as well as sound.
As a man of little sophistication and great appetite, I have always considered Joes and picadillo to be golden classics that every chef should perfect. One can learn a great deal about building and balancing hefty flavors with both dishes, which require the balance of savory, sweet, sour — and if you’re anything like me — spicy.
Sloppy Joes and similar “loose meat” sandwiches have a strong presence from Minnesota and Iowa in the west to New England and Virginia in the east.
This article appears in Mar 10-16, 2011.