Iowa Maid-Rites

This was an awesome recipe! Super Simple. Delicious. Very easy party pleaser! I made this for my son’s birthday party and loved the turn out. Used the leftovers for speggheti , love the versatility. Will definitely do again.

My family loves this version of Maid-Rites! We make this one pretty regularly. I don’t change the recipe at all, it stands on it’s own.

My family of 4 guys loves this recipe! it feeds a lot, and is super easy to make. we always have some Ruffles potato chips on hand to scoop up the meat – it’s a must! !

Wonderful! Very flavorful!

this recipe is to salty for me sorry.

I haven’t had a “real” Maid-Rite in maybe ten years, so I can’t really say how genuine this recipe is or isn’t, but they were delicious!

As a child my father used to make Maid Rites, he grew up in Fairfield Iowa and worked in a dinner back in the 1930/40’s. He made them by frying the hamburger and adding a lump of butter that was it. We loved them, I always put ketchup on mine!

This sounds like a good recipe, but it looks like there is as much controversy over the MaidRites as here in Nebraska over the “Runza”. We’ve called loose meat sandwiches “Sloppy Joes” around here. Now I remember growing up in the 50’s here in Lincoln,Ne. there was drive-up and sit down restaurant called “The Patio”, it had a flat roof and on the weekends they had live music up there(what a hoot). They made a signature loose meat sandwich called a “T-Z”. One of my friend’s mother worked there and the owner always made up the loose meat himself and she said he would pull an envelope with some special seasonings in it out of his pocket when making the concoction and she never found out what they were. They were yummy though but when I think back a lot of things were more tasty because our French fries and onion rings were deep fried in real beef tallow rather than veggie oil. Now that I think of it we still have a drive thru that serves loose meat sandwiches called “Tasty Inn” and onion chips with a to die for dip. I believe this was one of the very first drive-ups in Lincoln,Ne. There used to be several in Nebraska but I believe this is the only one left, this business has to be older than Runza. Just Google “Tasty Inn” Lincoln,Ne. the recipes should come up. Now don’t get me started on the original “Valentino’s Pizza”. Bon Appetite n’ Hasta La Bye Bye!

I’ve made variations of this recipe ever since I found it on this site. Tonight I think I finally came up with the right combination of ingredients. I only used 1 lb. hamburger. Browned the meat, then added 2 TBSP. dry onion soup mix and 1 whole can of French Onion soup. This combination made the mixture favorable and just the right amount of moisture. I only simmered it for 1/2 hour. Was excellent…..

Too salty

These are delicious! I’m from Iowa and I’ve had Maid-Rites but I was too young to remember what they were like, since the restaurant in my area closed when I was very young, but it doesn’t matter because these are awesome either way. Thank you for the great recipe.

This is our new favorite maid-rite recipe. I’m from IA and must say that this reminds me of home. We don’t stock our pantry w/ soup mix so we substituted fresh onion & garlic, salt, pepper and a little chicken stock. Delicious!

Pretty close, but not just as I remembered from my Iowa childhood. I add vinegar and fresh bread to thicken mine. No one refused to eat it!!!

For those who have brought up it in the revies that this doesn’t come close to a “real” maidrite…if you read in my description it wasn’t billed as being “authentic” but my OWN version. Just to clear up any confusion you might have. Thanks!

In comparison with an actual Maid Rite sandwich – it’s completely different. Though give it a different name and it’s an alright sandwich that’s easy to make and takes very little time. We’ll have these again, but I wont be calling them “Maid Rites”

Too much sour, salty onion flavor.

I’d never even heard of Maid-Rites until I stumbled across them on an unrelated web search, and had to try them. I had a can each of beefy mushroom and golden mushroom soup, so that’s what went in the pot with the beef (seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic powder) and onion soup mix. 3 hours in the slow cooker and a little added beef broth yielded yummy tender meat, much better than what I thought initially looking at the simple ingredients. Not sure if the flavor is authentically Maid-Rite, but it sure tastes good!

Not even close to a true Iowa Maidrite sandwich. But they are tasty because of all the onion seasoning. Needs alot of tweaking to be useful in any other recipes though. Sorry.

Burlington born and raised. Have a “real” Maid-Rite close by so I presented this challenge: While my wife was busy with this receipe I actually went down to the corner and bought 2 “Real” Made-Rite sandwhiches. To wander a bit off subject, there is a reason the “real” made-Rite is called “Made-Rite”! For those that may be a little foggy in the head, that’s a play on the phrase “Made Right”. If you use this recipe, you WILL NOT have a “Made-Rite”. You WILL have yet another persons idea of what ‘might” be the made right Made-Rite receipe, but side by side this receipe doesn’t cut it either. It WILL imitate the real thing, but it just isn’t there.

These were pretty good. Thank you.

Not bad but not a Maid Rite. Another here from Iowa, Great Uncle owned the Anamosa Maid Rite in 40’s or 50’s. Keep it simple, meat is steamed not browned. The rest is family secret!