Delicious, home-canned Sloppy Joes makes for quick, healthy and nutritious lunches or suppers.
The ingredients are really easy to assemble for home pressure canning.
This is a safe, tested recipe from Dr Barb Ingham at the University of Wisconsin Extension Service.
A quarter-litre (half US pint / 8 oz ) size jar makes enough filling for four buns (i.e. enough for two people to each have two Sloppy Joes.)
Want to make a version without the meat? Then just head on over to Ball’s site for their Sloppy Joe Starter recipe. Then, when you open a jar to use it, you could use veggie ground-rounds or other meat substitutes of your choice.
The recipe
Jar size choices: Either ¼ litre (½ US pint / 8 oz ) OR ½ litre (1 US pint / 16 oz) OR 1 litre (1 US quart)
Processing method: Pressure canning only
Yield: 8 x ½ litre (US pint) jars
Headspace: 3 cm (1 inch)
Processing pressure: 10 lbs (69 kPa) weighted gauge, 11 lbs (76 kpa) dial gauge (adjust pressure for your altitude when over 300 metres / 1000 feet)
Processing time: Half-litres (pints) 75 minutes; litres (quarts) 90 minutes
Home-canned Sloppy Joes
Yield: 8 x half-litre jars (US pint)
Ingredients
- 1.75 kg ground beef (or venison. 4 lbs)
- 500 g onion (washed, peeled, chopped. 3 cups / 16 oz. Measured after prep. 3 medium onions before prep)
- 225 g green bell pepper (chopped, seeded. 1 ½ cups. Measured after prep. About 1 ½ large.)
- 500 ml tomato sauce (2 cups / 16 oz / 1 US pint)
- 500 ml ketchup (2 cups / 16 oz / 1 US pint)
- 500 ml water (2 cups / 16 oz / 1 US pint)
- 1 tablespoon salt (OR non-bitter, non-clouding salt sub)
- 1 tablespoon sugar (OR ½ teaspoon liquid stevia)
- 1 tablespoon prepared mustard
- ¾ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
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Prep the onion and green pepper in advance, set aside.
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Sauté the ground meat in a large pot. Drain off any excess fat.
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Add the prepped veg and all remaining ingredients.
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Bring to a boil uncovered, then reduce to a simmer and let simmer for 5 minutes, uncovered.
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Ladle into jars, being sure to get balanced scoops of liquid and solid.
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Use either ¼ litre (½ US pint / 8 oz ) OR ½ litre (1 US pint / 16 oz) OR 1 litre (1 US quart) jars,.
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Leave 3 cm (1 inch) headspace.
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Debubble; adjust headspace.
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Wipe jar rims.
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Put lids on.
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Processing pressure: 10 lbs (69 kPa) weighted gauge, 11 lbs (76 kpa) dial gauge (adjust pressure for your altitude when over 300 metres / 1000 feet)
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Processing time: Process ¼ litre (½ US pint / 8 oz ) OR ½ litre (1 US pint / 16 oz) for 75 minutes. Process 1 litre (1 US quart) for 90 minutes.
Reference information
How to pressure can.
When pressure canning, you must adjust the pressure for your altitude.
More information about Salt-Free Canning in general.
Recipe notes
The University of Wisconsin notes that you may use “ground beef, or venison, or a combination of both.” We used extra-lean ground beef to be more Weight Watchers® friendly.
To clarify the meat, back in 2017, Dr Barb Ingham who developed this recipe, said in writing that ground turkey or chicken could be used as the meat, so at that time it was added an alternative. She changed her mind in February 2020 so we removed it from the recipe as an alternative. So your alternatives are ground beef, or venison, or both, as above.
You can use homemade or bought ketchup. We used low-sodium, low-sugar ketchup.
Yes, you can omit the tablespoon of sugar. It won’t impact the safety (it’s just there as a dry seasoning), and, we’re not convinced it will impact the taste all that much, either, especially if you are already using regular full-sugar ketchup. If your audience has a real sweet tooth, you could also even increase the sugar by a few tablespoons.
Serving suggestion: for a change, when opening and reheating, try stirring in ½ to 1 cup of chopped, salted peanuts.
Recipe source
Ingham, Barbara, et al. Wisconsin Safe Food Preservation Guide. Wisconsin Safe Food Preservation Series: Meat, Wild Game & Poultry Recipes. B3345. 2002. Page 23.
Modifications made:
- Gave option for smaller portion jars
Nutrition
Nutritional information based on extra-lean ground beef, stevia, salt sub, sugar- and salt-free ketchup, and sugar- and salt-free tomato sauce being used.
Serving size: 125 ml (4 oz / ½ cup). Enough to cover two buns.
Per 125 ml (4 oz / ½ cup) (bun not included):
- 140 calories, 166 mg sodium
- Weight Watchers PointsPlus®: 3 points
* Nutrition info provided by https://caloriecount.about.com
* PointsPlus™ calculated by healthycanning.com. Not endorsed by Weight Watchers® International, Inc, which is the owner of the PointsPlus® registered trademark.
Further reading
On January 17th, 2017 there was a response that ground chicken and ground turkey could be used in this recipe instead of ground beef. My question is, is that information still up to date? Meaning I want to use either ground chicken or ground turkey to can this sloppy joe recipe. Please advice. Thank you!
Back in 2017, Dr Barb Ingham who developed this recipe said that ground turkey or chicken could be used as the meat. She changed her mind in February 2020 so we removed it from the recipe as an alternative.
Tried this tonight and love it!
Thank you for this recipe. It looks amazing! My question is, can we use canning salt or does it matter?
You can use canning salt, but in this instance it doesn’t matter.
Is it safe to do a double batch of the liter sloppy joe meat mixture in a pressure canner at the same time and it still be at the proper pressure?
Yes it is safe to double the batch. The pressure will still work out for you.
I have made my homemade sloppy joes for a party today. I have a whole crockpot left. So how do i can it?
Freeze it.
Can this be made without meat?
Yes, it is fine to omit the meat. But, Ball home canning already has a sloppy joe mix recipe without the meat, you are probably best just to use that. Sloppy Joe Starter Mix.
Greetings, could you add cumin instead of the sugar?
Yes, you could add some cumin as dry seasoning. See: Tweaking.
I tried another recipe that also had sugar in it. Once it was canned it took on a burnt taste. Does this do the same because of the sugar?
I’ve made this several times, with the tablespoon of brown sugar, and didn’t experience any burntness. You could always just omit, it’s so little I’m not sure it actually makes much of a flavour difference, especially if you use full-sugar ketchup….
I used another recipe and it would not get thick it was just like tomato. Juice
My husband has alpha gal; meaning he is allergic to mammal meat. Can this recipe be safely made with turkey?
That is a good question; I will write to Wisconsin to ask, and let you know what I hear.
You cannot safely can ground turkey.
“You cannot safely can ground turkey.” That statement both is correct, and not correct. We have already written extensively about there being no stand-alone pack directions for ground poultry. That information is here: https://www.healthycanning.com/home-canning-ground-poultry/
But the exception to the rule, as in so many things, is: unless the people who developed a canning recipe approve its use as an exception. An example of this is the spaghetti sauce recipe, where ground turkey has been approved as a substitute for the ground beef. https://www.healthycanning.com/spaghetti-sauce-with-meat/
Back in 2017, Dr Barb Ingham, whose extension developed this Sloppy Joe recipe, said in writing that ground turkey or chicken could be used as the meat. In February 2020, she changed her mind, and the minute she let us know that she had changed her mind, we dutifully removed it from the recipe as an alternative.
We confirmed in February 2020 with the University of Georgia that they stand by their recommendation that ground turkey can be used in the spaghetti sauce recipe indicated above, and their answer was yes.
Hello Healthy Canning! Using ground chicken or ground turkey still up to date information? I would like to make sloppy joes with ground turkey Or ground chicken if it is still safe to can. Your information about replacing ground chicken or turkey for the meat is from 2017 and wanted to know if still safe to do. Thank you!
Back in 2017, Dr Barb Ingham who developed this recipe said that ground turkey or chicken could be used as the meat. She changed her mind in February 2020 so we removed it from the recipe as an alternative.