After a big shop and subsequent reorganization of our pantry and fridge door I thought it would be interesting to talk about jarred and bottled sauces. Hot sauces count but aren’t the limit.
I’ve found Jamaican Pickapeppa sauce to be difficult to find over the last couple of years. It is spicy but not hot and makes a dandy base for a chicken marinade.
We like low-salt Kikkoman soy sauce and keep a small dispenser in the kitchen and a half-gallon jug in our basement pantry.
Sriracha, Cholupa, Tiger sauces to hand.
We have Worcestershire sauce in the pantry. My wife claims not to like it but as an ingredient in a number of things I make she is a fan.
We keep a Thai sweet chili sauce I use a lot.
I think condiments count as sauces: Hellmans mayo in a squeeze bottle, Heinz ketchup, Grey Poupon, Guldens, and Colemans mustards.
I’m sure there are others I don’t remember offhand. GO! grin
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Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
2
Heinz Ketchup, HP Brown sauce, HP BBQ sauce, Hellman’s mayo, Colman’s English Mustard, Maille Dijon Mustard, Sarah Darlington’s French Mustard (yes, to we Britons “French” mustard is different to Dijon), supermarket own label grain mustard, Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce, supermarket light and dark soy sauces, Al Dayaa Pomegranate Molasses, supermarket own label teriyaki sauce, Lee Kum Kee Oyster Sauce & Char Siu Sauce & Hoisin Sauce, Malay Taste Kicap Manis, supermarket own label Nam Pla, Tracklements Horseradish Cream,Tabasco, Heinz Salad Cream, Maille Bearnaise Sauce and, last but by no means least, Maggi Masala Chilli Sauce.
Some used as condiments. Others as cooking ingredients. Some as both
Salad cream seems unique to the UK. You listed a number of things like oyster sauce and fish sauce that I forgot.
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
5
I believe so. Mrs Harters chooses it in preference to mayo. As we say round here, you can take the girl out of Salford but you can’t take the Salford out of the girl. I don’t like it at all.
I bought a book in China called “Sauce Cuisine” (because it was bilingual and had photos of the sauce and condiment jars most of which I recognised). The sole purpose of the cookery book is creative uses for (non traditional) Chinese dishes using sauces and condiments in stir-fries.
Had the book all these years and then I dropped it in the paper recycle bin just last week.
Sauces and condiments for my own sauce-condiment cuisine:
I’m not a fan either. For others not familiar it is similar to mayonnaise but I think thinner and somewhat more acidic.
We have similar geographic assessments. Closest to me now is Pasadena (MD) girls and a propensity toward “big hair.”
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
9
Good description, Dave. I think it was developed by Heinz, in 1914, as a working class version of mayo. In its original form I don’t think it needed refrigeration. The end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries was defintely a period where spicy, acidic products were developed in the UK to perk up what was a very bland diet for working class families. Mention of pickles and the like was often mentioned by soldiers in the Great War in letters home. For my taste it is much too vinegary and the spirit vinegar is the dominant flavour.
Towards the end of the 1990s, Heinz threatened to discontinue production due to falling sales,as folk preferred mayo. Now, of course, this may have been a PR stunt. In which case, it was very successful. There was a public outcry - helped along by the popular press. And Heinz responded to the “public will” and has continued to make it.
Mrs H enjoys it to dress a simple salad or slathered liberally on a fish finger sandwich. As I say, you can take the girl out of Salford…
I eat my salads plain but out of curiosity I looked up a ingredient list for salad cream. It reminds me in Netherlands there’s a similar sauce called “slasaus” (literally “salad sauce”) which also has same uses.
Off the top of my head( the missus will claim we have far more)
Heinz Tomato Ketchup
HP Sauce
Lee Kum Kee- Dark & Light soy sauce also oyster sauce.
Flying Goose - Siracha & hoisin sauce
Squid brand fish sauce
Red Boat fish sauce.
Laoganma black bean chilli sauce
Delouis mayonnaise
Grey Poupon Dijon mustard
Encona sweet chilli sauce
This does not include the pickles and chutneys.
Which for some reason reminds me of packets or sachets and the dedicated drawers for them in kitchens. Salad cream, ketchup, mustard, soy sauce, duck sauce, malt vinegar, mayo, …
With further respect to geography, when I demonstrated the famous baking soda and vinegar volcano experiment to my nieces my wife and her sister were fascinated. This has led, after some exploration, to the family saying that “there is no science in New Jersey” despite Princeton and Einstein. Current nieces and nephews have confirmed that public school science in New Jersey is lacking. That reality has increased the entertainment value of Uncle Dave. My brother in law, after the potato clock demonstration, told me to stop playing with my food.
I’ve got over 50 jars of sauces, spreads and condiments in my fridge right now.
Worcestershire
Caesar dressing (have been trying different ones- a German Caesar from Farm Boy in Canada is our favorite right now)
Realemon lemon juice
A few local mustards
Yellow ballpark mustard (from Schwartz’s in Mtl , which is fancier than usual)
Dijon
Maybe 7 hot sauces, inc Tabasco, Franks, Jamaican, Cholula
Greek sour cherry spoon sweets
Apricot jam (I cook w it)
Sesame oil
Soy sauce
Fish sauce
Mayo
Ketchup (barely use it)
Tomato paste in a tube
Mint sauce
Mint jelly
Red pepper jelly
Chocolate sauce for ice cream
Pico de gallo (bottled)
Mirin
HP
Maggi
Maple syrup
Diana sauce
Blue cheese dressing
It isn’t that popular, but it is available at every grocery store where I shop in Ontario, Canada. There are a lot of people of British extraction, as well as people who immigrated here over the past 60 years, so Salad Cream is a staple in some homes. I think most Canadians who use Salad Cream use it on salad, and would keep mayo on hand for other uses.
We also have HP, Branson Pickle in our grocery stores. Some stores have a small British section, with imported Brown Sauce, imported
HP (Canadian HP is in a plastic bottle and made here, imported HP is in a glass bottle) and some other British favourites.
We had Marks & Spencers across Canada when I was growing up. The last one closed roughly 20 years ago. That is where a lot of British Canadians would have been buying their Salad Cream, other British foods and underwear. The M& S underwear was better than Cdn underwear. It lasted longer. I still stock up on M & S underwear in the UK, but it isn’t as good as it once was.
2 Likes
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
20
M & S has never had a full enough range to do the week’s shopping there. But, they have just teamed up with Ocado, which is an online supermarket, so we can get their products alongside Ocado’s normal range. It’s the most expensive of the home delivery options but we get from them maybe once a month at present, just to get a wider range of, say, organic products. And, yes, M & S is where I buy my underwear.
