I prepared this recipe without the cloves and the kids loved it. I like to put the sloppy joe's mixture in a bowl and eat it with corn chips....excellent! It's also great over corn bread. I'm a country girl, what can I say?

The cloves made it inedible. My kids spit it out and my husband (who eats anything) could barely eat it. If I try this recipe again, it will be without the cloves.

Way too much clove, I would try again with 1/4 tsp instead.

I doubled the recipe and it was great! Dont let the amount of ketchup turn you off, your really just making a BBQ sauce of sorts and it does mellow after cooking dor 30 minutes. Nobody that ate it picked up on the cloves either so USE THEM! Though I will admit that I didnt have any green peppers on hand so I made this sans peppers. This is going right into my recipe box!

I make this recipe all the time, but I omit the cloves and the salt. The cloves make it taste funny, and I just don't think you need the salt because of the amount of ketchup. I like the fact that this recipe uses peppers and onions because I feel like it makes the joes more healthy.

Honestly, this recipe was only 'okay' for me and my family. We found the clove flavor to be too strong. Also, even after simmering for 30 minutes there was still a lot of liquid that would not cook down. Maybe that was the vinegar? I won't be making this again.

I really liked this recipe. My daughter doesn't like green peppers so I left them out but still tasted great!!

This is a big hit with my friends. I've made it several times and also made it once for my small home church. It's actually funny to see a lot of the guys coming back for 3rds and 4ths. The recipe is sweet but you don't have to use so much sugar. I make it exactly as stated and this quickly became a favorite sloppy joe recipe amoung 20+ of my friends.

This is a very fine recipe. I would not have thought to put cloves in a Sloppy Joe mix, but it's there. I would go a bit lighter on the clove, or eliminate it. It's not bad, but it can overpower if not moderated.

I never made sloppy joes from scratch. So, I decided to try this recipe. I was a little nervous about using the cloves, but you know what, I turned out GREAT! At first my family wasn't too sure if they liked it, but the more they ate the more they liked it. My 6-year-old ate it all up. That's a BIG plus in my book. :D

I love this recipe! I didn't grow up eating sloppy joes, and so don't know about anything from a can--this is so easy to make, I wonder why a person would buy sloppy joes from a can? Anyway, I made some alterations, in that I did half ground turkey and half tofu (which had been frozen, thawed, and then had all the liquid squeezed out and then crumbled). It was EXCELLENT! My husband, who will shy away from tofu whenever possible, knew this had tofu, and had TWO helpings! I did thin the mix down, just a tad, with some broth that I happened to have in the fridge.

mmmmm....just like the canned stuff with a couple of easy tweaks. Skip the cloves, add a lil black pepper, tsp of chili powder, 1/2 tsp. of paprika, 1/2 tsp garlic powder. YUM! I lessened the salt and bumped up the brown sugar as well as adding an extra 1/2 lb of beef....but it's basically the same recipe, lol.

I did NOT like the clove taste!

I use less clover and no green pepper to suit our taste and we LOVE this recipe.

My kids and hubby LOVED it! I minced the pepper and onion. The cloves MAKE this recipe--just don't over-measure. If you want plain ol' normal sloppy joes, buy the packet of mix from the store! If you are unsure of the cloves, take half aside and try it! We WILL make this again, however, we found it overly sweet and a bit salty, so we'll adjust that. Also, there was liquid that didn't absorb well, even after second helpings were left to simmer. It wasn't grease from the meat, it was something added. Perhaps it was the vinegar, as I forgot the recipe note saying NOT to double it when doubling everything else. We didn't notice the mustard flavor. Looking forward to making this again.

My husband made these last night and they were very good. He didn't add cloves and we didn't have green pepper on hand and they turned out great! Looking at the poor reviews many have given, I'm a little shocked because these taste, to me, really good!

I love this basic recipe! To make it easier, I sometimes just used the canned sloppy joe mix (manwich or the generic brand) and add everything in this recipe except the vinegar and ketchup. I don't add cloves either - I like to save the expense. I add a dash of worchestershire sauce too. Excellent! Thank you for the recipe!

I thought these were the best sloppy Joes I have ever had, I loved it!! I did not have any cloves so I added about 1 to 1 1/2 tsp of Worcestershire Sauce it added the clove flavor. It was even good reheated and I am not a big fan of leftovers.

I thought this tasted kind of weird. I did everything by the book except for the green pepper. It tasted too salty and strong, like I needed to add lots of water but couldn't. I think if I make this again, I will leave out the vinegar, 1/2 the mustard, 1/2 the ketchup and add a half cup of barbeque sauce. Oh, and 1/2 the cloves for sure and forget the salt.

I didn't like it, though my 4 year old ate it with no complaints. It felt like a recipe for heartburn with all that vinegar and ketchup ketchup ketchup, plus beef grease. (I'll admit I didn't pour it off until after simmering in the sauce for a while.) It might have been much better if it had used real tomatoes or tomato sauce or paste instead of all that KETCHUP!