The secret is in the sauce

Good Food Blog

What is RSS?

Posted at 11:55AM, 10 September 2008 by Adrian Bridgwater - Journalist

My wife and I are both committed sauce addicts. While she prefers ketchup, I am firmly entrenched in the brown camp. HP, Fruity, Jerk, BBQ, Worcestershire or even A1 steak sauce if I'm stateside.

We can't help it, honestly. So we've both grown up learning to shrug off interminable comments such as, "Would you like some food with your sauce?".

My better half says it got her through what she calls the "Broccoli Years", when her mother would insist that she ate steaming plates of the stuff, which she would 'sauce-up' to aid consumption. Of course now she loves it with butter and salt and pepper instead, like a (ah-hem) normal person.

My wife is in fact American and some time back now she introduced me to the 'Sloppy Joe' hamburger, sometimes also called the 'Manwich'. This at first ridiculous proposition is effectively minced beef in a wet tomato-flavoured burger sauce - all served in a bun. Will it fall out and go all over your face? Yes. Is this part of the fun? Yes it most certainly is.

But jocularity aside, the dangers of children eating too much sauce can not and should not be underestimated. With mutations like green ketchup around - designed to make food more "fun" - perhaps we really should stop and think about the content of our condiments.

Firstly, there's the sugar factor. Ketchup contains a lot of sugar and so do the BBQ sauces of this world. Second comes sodium, in all its forms. Sauce contains salt for taste, but also compounds such as sodium benzoate, which work as a preservative. To your body though, they are pretty much all salt.

My father balks at the very idea of any sauce and won't even anoint a sausage with a coat of Colman's. To me this is heresy; to him it's an opportunity to taste the food as it should be, plainly served.

The more gastronomically developed among us may feel that unless a sauce is a reduction of at least two aged vinegars and the strained cooking juices of an organic guinea fowl served in a 'boat', then it's not a sauce.

But I think the great British public would be hard pressed to deny themselves a dab of red or brown sauce to extend the manifold pleasures of a bacon sandwich. So maybe this is just an exercise in self-help and an admission that I should cut back a bit.

Comments

sioden

10 September 2008, 6:21PM
sioden

I think it's ridiculous that children might be eating better quality school dinner now but they are still dorwning out any flavour with ketchup and othe bottled sauces. A dab with chips or in a burger is acceptable, but there are some that refuse to even eat a Sunday dinner (with gravy) without ketchup. When I was groing up we werent allowed ketchup in the house at all, and this was definately a positive influence on our tastebuds. you can actually taste the flavour of the individual ingredients. And what's more - I find nothing more insulting that cooking a meal, only to have someone ask for a shop bought sauce to smother it without even tasting it first. I simply refuse, if they can't even be bothered to taste my food, then they can go hungry!!!!

Flag as inappropriate

Please let us know your name and the reason you find the above comment inappropriate.

Your name: Reason:
Amy

15 September 2008, 6:19PM
Amy

I'm in both camps here. My Mother's cooking was so bad when I was growing up, Dad introduced me to Ketchup to make my eating expeience a little happier. I was brought up with good manners, and NEVER ask for ketchup if anyone else has cooked the meal. Although, as an adult I do really enjoy it as a condiment when I cook for myself.

Flag as inappropriate

Please let us know your name and the reason you find the above comment inappropriate.

Your name: Reason:

Your binder

Here are three other great reasons to sign up:

You get an online binder, where you can store all your favourite recipes and create menus.
You can add your own recipes to this site for others to try; plus, rate and make comments on recipes, and share your views on our blog.
You can sign up for our weekly newsletter (sent out on Wednesdays) - it's packed with recipes, special offers and competitions.