Days Gone By Loosemeat Sandwich

I've been on an "old time recipe" kick lately.  I've been reading about meals from the turn of the century (uh, that would be from 1899-1900, not 1999-2000).  Does anyone else find it fascinating to learn how folks used to eat? How about all the meal terminology? Depending of where you live, what I call lunch would have been called dinner, and what I call dinner would have been called supper.  Let's not forget the whole what time did they eat? thing as well as what was the most important meal of the day. In years past, the mid-day meal was considered the most important meal of the day. Nowadays, we're taught that breakfast is king. One cookbook from the 1800's frowned upon eating any type of meat for breakfast. It went on to say that if you absolutely had no other choice than to eat meat at the start of the day, be sure that it was served cold, and it was preferable that it had been prepared the day before. Alrighty then!  One thing that made me a little nostalgic was all the write-ups on what used to be termed "Sunday Dinner".  While I'm fortunate that we always eat as a family, if I were honest (and I am ... can't you see my halo?), I'd have to say that we don't make a big deal out of our Sunday meal.  I think I may change that and see how it goes.

I was reading about meals from the Midwest and heartland of the US, and I came across a delightful recipe for something called a loosemeat sandwich.  This recipe is off of the internet, recipezaar to be exact, and is titled The Blue Mill Tavern Loosemeat Sandwich.  According to the write-up that accompanied the recipe,  loosemeat was created in 1924 in Sioux City, Iowas at Ye Old Tavern. I just love the "Ye" in the name! I remember seeing something on Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives that talked about loosemeat, and so I just had to give it a shot.

A loosemeat sandwich is like a "dry" sloppy joe.  There is no sauce or tomato in this, but it's messy just like a sloppy joe is.  It is incredibly TENDER and juicy and has the best flavor. Although it is not saucy, it is far from dry. Give this a try.  Here's the link for the recipe. The Blue Mill Tavern Loosemeat Sandwich.

NOTES:

1) I used 1/2 an onion because my onions are behemoth sized.
2) I used ground turkey because that's what I had. When I say I used ground turkey, I don't mean the bland breast only stuff.
3) I did prepare it in a cast iron skillet, and I absolutely, positively DID use lard. Because I used ground turkey, there were no drippings to drain at all.  In fact, my pan was dry! :-)
4) The recipe is gluten free ... the buns shown in the pictures are not.

TIP:  These are great on steamed buns. An easy peasy way to steam buns is to do it in your microwave.  Loosely wrap you buns in papertowels and microwave 10-30 seconds depending on how many you need as well as how powerful your micro is.

My husband really enjoyed this (without mustard and pickles).  I, of course, had the m & p on my serving.  My youngest daughter, the gluten free child, devoured hers without the bun.  When I say devoured, I mean that she ate more than my husband and I put together.  I had planned to serve hers over rice, but she just wanted it plain.  Works for me!

Speaking of youngest daughter, this past Saturday she ran her first 3K at the CYO track meet. She prefers to run distance, and wanted to see if she could do it.  For those of us who still need a guide to translate the metric system, 3K is equal to 1.86411358 miles or 7.5 times around a full sized track. She ran a steady pace throughout the race, and then sprinted the last 200 meters.  Not only did she do it, she came in first for the girls in her age group! :-)