Chilli Sauce and Sloppy Joes

Here's a shout out to the Downs'! This is a recipe of my Mom's that uses Nana Hoffman's (Aunt Trudie's mom) Chili Sauce. This is the best chili sauce I have ever had! Mom would make a batch or two every year in the fall, preserve it in pints and use it to top hamburger patties, for wonderful barbeque beef or in this fabulous sloppy Joe like sandwich.

Sloppy Joes (Nola's version)
1 lb lean ground beef
1/3 cup chopped onion
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons prepared mustard
1/4 cup ketchup
1 1/2 cup chili sauce (see recipe below)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. When pan is hot, place hamburger and onions in skillet and brown, breaking meat into small chunks with a wooden spoon. When meat is browned, add salt and pepper to taste and stir thoroughly. Add remaining ingredients and stir till combined. When heated through, remove from heat and serve on buns.


Chili Sauce (Nana Hoffman)
16 large tomatoes
6 medium onions
6 medium apples (equal amounts of onion and apple)
2 tablespoons salt
2 cups sugar
2 cups white vinegar
1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Grind tomatoes, apples and onions. Combine in a large stock pot. Cook over medium heat for 30 minutes, stirring often. Add remaining ingredients and simmer on low about 3 hours or until apples glaze. Makes about 4 quarts. (Process quarts about 30 minutes in a water bath.)

Hints: My mom would make a double batch of Sloppy Joe for our family of six. Of course my older brothers could plow through several sandwiches at a sitting when they were teenagers. If you don't have lean ground beef, be sure to spoon the fat off after browning. I am going to try this recipe with some of the elk meat my brother gave to me--I think it will be great. Mom used dehydrated onions at least one time when she made the chili sauce and it worked fine. She would chop the tomatoes and onions roughly, shred the apples with a fine blade rather than grinding. Pints process faster than quarts, I remember her processing pints for 20 minutes.

I have fond memories of my mom and Aunt Trudie making chili sauce together, using a very, very large pot. It must have been the result of  a tomato windfall in Bennie's garden. I also remember many good times with the Downs family. Once Kelly got Nana Hoffman to freak us all out by twisting her dentures backwards in her mouth with her tongue. We squealed and she laughed and continued knitting. What great times we had!  I thank you; Bennie and Nola, Craig, Brent and Kirk thank you, too. Hang in there Ralph! Hang in there Trudie!