Charlie Boys

In my college town, there's this fantastic dive bar that is filled with old timers, college students, and everyone else in between. They serve beer in these ginormous frosted glasses called schooners and serve only one thing - Charlie Boys.  These are a close relation to loose meat sandwiches, maid rites, whatever they call them in your region.  But these are really peppery and stand apart from the crowd of loose meat sandwich recipes.  I can't eat one of these without having a beer.  If I'm watching my carbs, I'll put just half of a bun in the bottom of a bowl, dress it up just how I like it, and eat it with a fork.  Just as good.

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. salt
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb. ground beef
1 tsp. yellow mustard
1 Tbsp. horseradish
1 Tbsp. white vinegar
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. black pepper (you can add more if you like pepper!)

Pour oil into a cast iron skillet and sprinkle salt into the oil over medium-high heat.  Add onion and garlic, cook 2 minutes.  Add ground beef and brown, breaking the meat into very small bits as it cooks.  Add mustard, horseradish, vinegar, sugar, black pepper, and enough water to just barely cover the mixture.  Mix well and bring to a boil.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until almost all the water has boiled away - this usually takes about 15 minutes, so be patient.  Serve on hamburger buns.  

*If you prefer your loosemeats to not be so loose, you can stir in a little Wondra flour or cornstarch at the end of cooking.  I insist on eating mine with a slice of American cheese, mustard, ketchup, and pickles.  Insanely good. Serve with hamburger buns.