These three beef-based staples earned their legendary status in our state.
Brought to you in partnership with our friends at Mo Beef.
Kettle Beef
In the 1800s, German immigrants settled in Missouri and brought over the custom of slow-roasting tough cuts of beef to tender perfection. At festivals, church events, and community gatherings, a cast-iron kettle was often placed over a live fire for easy cooking. One of the most common meals was kettle beef.
Kettle beef at Sedgewickville United Methodist Church.
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Kettle beef was inexpensive, fed large groups, and provided a warm, filling meal. Taking a chuck roast or an arm roast, the cook would place it in the bottom of the kettle with bacon fat. The roast would sizzle and cook through at low temperatures while families talked and children played nearby.
After a few hours, the beef became aromatic and tender, releasing juices that made a perfect base for a beef gravy. The beef was then cut and served over a hearty portion of mashed potatoes or egg noodles before being topped with a river of gravy.
CHEF TIPS Kitchen 61 Kelso
Karen Beggs, owner and chef at Kitchen 61, says, “In this world, we’re missing eating at home, sitting around the table, and having real home-cooked food.” One of the home-style dishes she prepares for customers is kettle beef. The dish isn’t always easy to find.
“The only time you really see kettle beef is at weddings and church dinners. People tend not to have it as part of their menu,” Karen says. “It’s actually very simple. I don’t know why more people don’t make it.”
Karen suggests taking a cut of beef and searing it on both sides, creating a “crust” of sorts with the meat’s fat. The next step is seasoning the meat, though Karen notes that simpler is better. “With kettle beef, you don’t need to over-season,” she says. “Just the classics, you know: onion, garlic, salt, and pepper.”
Then cube the beef, set it in a pot with beef broth, and let the meat work it’s magic for two to four hours.
Burnt Ends
Kansas City Barbecue started in a street alley with entrepreneur and pit master Henry Perry.
Henry began each day by smoking meat over hickory logs, wrapping his fall-off-the-bone delicacies in newspaper and selling them to passersby. When he retired, Henry left his business to Charlie Bryant, a trusted employee. Arthur Bryant visited his brother and stayed, working with Charlie until he died.
Arthur continued smoking juicy cuts of meat, including beef brisket. When the brisket was done in the smoker, he chopped the thicker, heavier-barked tip of the meat off before slicing and serving the rest of the cut.
One day, while Arthur prepared orders for customers, he took the brisket tip, cubed it, and placed the meat on the serving counter, allowing customers to snack while they awaited their meal. Customers couldn’t get enough of those burnt ends—there was something about those scraps.
In 1972, a well-known food writer, Calvin Trillin, wrote an article for Playboy magazine, explaining that “All of those (beef, ham, and short ribs) are really side dishes to me. The main course at Bryant’s, as far as I’m concerned, is something that is given away free—the burned edges of the brisket.
“I dream of those burned edges,” he goes on. “Sometimes, when I’m in some awful, overpriced restaurant in some strange town, trying to choke down some three-dollar hamburger that tastes like a burned sponge, a blank look comes over me: I have just realized that at that very moment, someone in Kansas City is being given those burned edges.”
Calvin titled the article, “Arthur Bryant’s Is the Best Restaurant in the World.”
After its publication, Calvin’s article made burnt ends famous across the country. Visitors flocked from every state to try the legendary burnt ends, and barbecue restaurants added them to their menus not as scraps, but as staple menu items.
PIT MASTER TIPS Jack Stack BBQ Kansas City
Jack Stack Barbecue is revered for good Kansas City barbecue. One of the pit masters, Logan Gaspard, has almost a decade of experience smoking meat in the pits. Logan wakes up at two o’clock in the morning to season meat, load smokers, and build fires to create delicious, smoked meats.
To create burnt ends at home, Logan advises starting with the proper cut of meat. “Traditionally, burnt ends come from the brisket—more specifically, from the point of the brisket,” Logan says. Either a packer brisket (an entire, untrimmed brisket including the flat and the point) or a brisket point will provide great burnt ends.
“For a home pit master, I’d suggest trying to find a brisket point. If you can get that cut, you’re already a third of the way there,” Logan notes.
Season the brisket and then let it come to room temperature before placing it on the smoker. This process ensures even cooking throughout the cut.
Once the meat has reached an internal temperature of 195 degrees, divide the “flat” of the brisket from the brisket point if using a packer brisket. The flat can be sliced and eaten right away, but the point—due to its high fat content—should be put back on the smoker to render for another two to three hours to finish off the burnt ends.
Logan’s biggest tip is to keep it simple and don’t be afraid to make mistakes.
“It’s meat and fire. That’s barbecue,” Logan says.
Toasted Beef Ravioli
For such a simple dish, toasted beef ravioli has a surprisingly complex history.
The legend surrounding the St. Louis staple, toasted ravioli, starts in the kitchen of either Lombardo’s, Oldani’s (now Mama’s on the Hill), or Angelo’s Tavern. Who actually invented the dish is debatable because, funny enough, all three restaurants tell the exact same story, which goes like this: When cooking meals for customers in the kitchen one day, the head chef prepared fresh ravioli. Instead of dropping the ravioli into boiling water, as was the custom, he accidentally dropped it into hot oil. The ravioli crisped up, creating a golden-brown crust, and the chef decided to serve the dish instead of throwing it out. After customers tasted the new creation, they begged for more, and toasted ravioli was here to stay.
Each of the three restaurants added toasted ravioli to their menus in the 1930s and ’40s. Most commonly though, the credit for the dish goes to Oldani’s. Everyone agrees that Oldani’s was the first to advertise the menu item in the St. Louis Star – Times in January 1943.
Traditionally, toasted ravioli is stuffed with a filling of ground beef, breadcrumbs, egg, parsley, and a blend of seasonings. The dish is made by stuffing squares of fresh pasta dough with the beef mixture before dropping it into hot oil and frying it.
CHEF TIPS Mama’s on the Hill St. Louis
The legendary Mama’s on the Hill, formerly Oldani’s, has been serving toasted ravioli since the early 1930s, but a few things have changed since then. Instead of simply dropping the ravioli into hot oil and frying the dough, an egg wash first coats each ravioli, followed by a breadcrumb crust mixed with Italian seasonings. The fried ravioli are served with a warm marinara sauce or drawn garlic butter.
Chef and owner Andrea Ervin says creating toasted beef ravioli at home is challenging due to the multiple steps it requires. Start by making the dough, then the filling, and finally the breading. After breading the ravioli, Andrea recommends, “Freeze it before you fry it to make sure you have a great consistency,” Andrea says. “When we go to fry it, it cooks perfectly.”
This article was originally printed in the November/December 2025 issue of Missouri Life.
