Homemade is worse



I don’t recall ever trying to make my own - do you have a trusted/go-to recipe?

I haven’t made it. I’ve tried different house-made ketchups at restaurants , artisanal ketchups, and small batch ketchups. I sent my cousin Fortnums Ketchup at Xmas, but I haven’t tried it.

The house-made ketchups are different. I think most of us are used to the Heinz, French’s or Hunts type.

Truthfully I don’t have strong feelings/attachment about ketchup as my use of it is mostly as an ingredient in other things (like meatloaf glaze). I don’t dip fries in it ever, I like it on a hot dog but generally opt for spicy mustard, and on a burger I like it, but am fine without it. And still I have found homemade ketchup to be a colossal waste of time and often far too much work because the end result ends up tasting like either tomato sauce or tomato paste. Tasty ones, but not ketchup.

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YES … my homemade tartar sauce is so much better than store bought, not too much effort.

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I make my own tartar sauce, but only because I rarely think ahead enough to buy it. Since commercial tartar sauce is what I’m used to, all my home brew tartar sauce tastes like it came out of a jar!

We’ve had a few of these pasta sauce comparison discussions.

There’s a Rao’s thread (or maybe more than one).

There’s the favorite jarred sauce thread.

And whether Aldi’s is secretly Rao’s or Victoria or neither.

They’re all centered on Marinara, though, which I never buy – the Arrabiata is much better.

(Re Victoria pricing, I don’t know where they live, but around me at regular grocery stores, Victoria is as expensive as Rao’s, sometimes more, and Rao’s goes on sale more frequently.)

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Base mine on the recipe that Tracklements include in their book “Handmade Pickles & Preserves”.

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Soy sauce

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Peeps.

Any textural differences are because of differences in hydration–one starts out well hydrated, the other starts out virtually dehydrated. There’s also the issue of fresh commonly not being fully cooked, so of course it can be softer.

As far as catching and holding sauce goes, a fresh/dry distinction is 'way down the list. Shape, cross-section, thickness and roughness likely matter more. In fact, a case can be made for dry grabbing and absorbing more sauce by dint of staying drier longer until finished.

I bought some of the “best rated” cans and found it inedible. And I’m really not a food snob.

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Gotta disagree with you there. Home brew shoyu can be really complex and surprisingly savory. The only reason I don’t make it anymore is Mrs. ricepad can’t stand the sight of it, and repurposed my fermenting rig to something else.

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I think Trader Joe’s makes the only good grocery-store tartar sauce.

Maybe Canadian Chef Boyardee is better? :rofl:

(I haven’t bought any in around 20-25 years. )

Martha has a surprisingly good recipe for peeps.

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I work with Pasta every day and you are wrong.
The amount of Egg, how the Dough is handled, how fine or course the Semolina is ground, whether it is rolled or extruded, hydrating-drying and then rehydrating all effect the Pasta.
If you can’t tell the difference, fine. You will never convince me that they are the same because they are not.

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I can tell a difference, but it’s not IMO a betterment unless you’re incorporating fresh ingredients you need to keep fresh. But you be you.

It is interesting that catsup/ketchup is a main ingredient in so many make-at-home barbeque sauces. A short cut, perhaps? Our mother would make her own catsup, a Weight Watchers recipe, with liquid saccharin. Yikes! A Monsanto product even back in the day.

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:rofl:
Our neighbor asks me to pick up some liquid saccharine in the UK when I visit. It’s still available at Boots Drug Store. For her coffee and for her tea. :smile:

Guess it’s what one gets used to. There’s a bitter edge to saccharine that some in my family actually liked with their coffee.

It is not available in CA? Pretty sure it’s still available here in US.