Hi Everyone! How is the “Spring” weather in your neck of the woods? In central Illinois, it stinks. For crying out loud, we had measurable snow on Easter. What…the…heck? Mother Nature needs to turn up the thermostat because I am so over this cold weather. I want warmth and sunlight asap! And everybody is so depressed and crabby…including me. So, to combat these cold weather doldrums I have been trying to think about summer sensations and memories of warmer days. One of those memories brought to mind the recipe that I am going to share with you today. It is for Wally Burgers. These are very similar to sloppy joes and I have seen them referred to as California burgers. This is a super easy recipe that you can have on the table in about 45 minutes. It keeps in the frig for about a week and freezes well. The meat is sweet with a little bit of tang and delicious.
Why do these remind me of summer, you ask? Well, I will tell you. The next small town over from the small town that I claim as my own is also the county seat. The county courthouse is situated on the town square there and my dad worked as the County Treasurer in that courthouse for many, many, many years. The town square is surrounded by lots of small businesses and one of these was a window-service-only dairy bar run by a man named Wallace (nicknamed Wally). He served Wally Burgers and Dad loved them. Dad would frequently make the trip across the street during the warmer weather to get a sandwich for his lunch. Now, this eatery was only open during the warm months back in the day and I remember going there sometimes after swimming or music lessons to get an ice cream cone. Since there was no seating indoors we would sit on the sun-warmed concrete of the curb to eat or get back in the car with the windows down for the ride home. When this memory came to mind so did the idea to share this recipe. My sister, Brenda, also works in the courthouse and many years ago she was somehow able to get the recipe from someone. I thought that she said it was from the Wallace family but she can’t remember now. Brenda shared it with me and I will occasionally whip up Wally Burgers and take some over to Dad to enjoy. I’m not sure if it is authentic but it is close enough. As long as it tastes great I don’t mind.
I much prefer to make these instead of using the canned sloppy joe sauce because you can adjust the sweetness and tartness to your liking. It is a forgiving recipe in that you can use lower quality ground beef and it will still turn out great.
To start with, as always, I prefer to use budget burger, but you can use high-quality ground beef as well. There will just be a bit of a change in the method. More on that shortly. Finely dice up your onion and add it and the burger to a large stockpot or large, deep skillet. Yep, there is that mashy tool again. I promise that I will figure out where to get those and let you know.
Cook this mixture until the meat is well browned and the onion is soft and translucent. Ok, now, the original recipe did not call for draining this mixture. If you are using high-quality beef with low-fat content you may not have to drain. However, I find that when I use the budget burger I have too much grease and liquid in my cooked beef. I drain the meat/onion mixture in a colander set over a bowl and reserve ½ cup of the drippings. Move the burger back into your pot or skillet and add that ½ cup of drippings back into the meat mixture. This will add the moisture needed to keep the burger from drying out or burning during the simmering.
Add the remaining ingredients to the meat and stir well. You can add the sugar and vinegar gradually if you feel that the sweet or the tart might be too strong for you. You can see in this image that there is quite a bit of liquid. Don’t worry. Most of that will cook away during the simmering process. Bring all of this to a simmer over high heat and then reduce to low heat. Allow this to simmer along uncovered for 30 minutes stirring occasionally.
Now you can see that most of the liquid has cooked down and you are left with saucy beef rather than beef in sauce.
Remove from the heat and scoop a nice amount (about 1 cup) onto a soft bun or a toasted bun. Be prepared to have a fork at the ready. The juices will soak into your bun and create this wonderfully soft and saucy combination. You won’t want to leave any behind on your plate. I hope that you enjoy these sandwiches as much as I have enjoyed bringing a little bit of my county pride to you!
Wally Burgers
These are very similar to sloppy joes and I have seen them referred to as California burgers. The meat is sweet with a little bit of tang and delicious.
Ingredients
- 3 lbs. of ground beef or ground beef/pork mixture
- 2 medium onions, finely diced
- 1 1/2 cups of ketchup
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. pepper
- 1 tsp. chili powder
- 4 Tablespoons sugar
- 2 tsp. vinegar
- Buns or bread of your choice for serving
- Optional: pickles or cheese slices for serving
Directions
- Step 1 Finely dice up your onion and add it and the burger to a large stockpot or large, deep skillet.
- Step 2 Cook this mixture until the meat is well browned and the onion is soft and translucent.
- Step 3 Drain the meat/onion mixture in a colander set over a bowl and reserve ½ cup of the drippings. Note: if you use a lower fat content of beef you may not need to drain and add the dripping back in. You should only have about 1/2 cup of excess liquid in the meat/onion mixture before you add the remaining ingredients.
- Step 4 Add the meat/onion mixture and dripping back into your pot or skillet and stir in the rest of the ingredients.
- Step 5 Bring to a simmer over high heat and then reduce the heat to low.
- Step 6 Simmer for 30 minutes, uncovered, stirring occasionally.
- Step 7 Remove from heat and scoop about 1 cup onto buns or bread and serve. You can toast the buns of leave them plain. Pickles and sliced cheese are good additions to this sandwich.
