[Sca-cooks] OT: on a tangential note -- "Chili Sauce"

[Bill Fisher]

On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 06:06:15 -0500, Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius
<adamantius.magister at verizon.net> wrote:
> Hullo, the list!
> 
> Does anyone have any insight to offer, since we've been speculating a
> bit about various alleged chili preparations, exactly what is the
> provenance and purpose of bottled "chili sauce"? I suspect the
> non-Americans on this list may not know the substance to which I
> refer...

I come from the land of Heinz......Heinz Chili Sauce is primarily a hot dog and
burger condiment.  I grew up in the stuff  'cause my parents couldn't
get me to eat catsup after I developed a dislike for catsup in my childhood.

Like all other heinz products, it has been subverted to other recipes
and such over the years.  I've seen it used to make sloppy joes, etc.

It's good on scrambled eggs as well, especially in a diner.  It's a great
way to mask overcooked eggs, or add to eggs as you are scrambling.

> Someone mentioned a sauce added to "chili", and said it was like a
> thin, watered-down, sweet ketchup. Could that have been chili sauce,
> such as people like Heinz make? I've never actually tried the stuff,
> as far as I know, but occasionally note its existence on supermarket
> shelves, and am always amused by the fact that, so far from having
> chillies as a primary ingredient, it actually contains none, as a
> rule.

Heinz has a habit of listing any "secret ingredients" as "natural flavorings."

This covers any herbs and spices they do not want to disclose, including 
chilis and herb.  

I think it has some cayenne pepper in it, just a trace.

I've never heard of it being added to chili ever.


> Apparently, though, this stuff is a traditional main ingredient in
> the red cocktail sauce you sometimes find served with cold seafoods
> in the US, although by the time the requisite lemon, Worcestershire,
> and horseradish (plus optional Tabasco) are added, the absence of
> chili in the chili sauce is less glaring.

Yep, this is true.  It is a staple in it.

> It's interesting, though, that in a way we've sort of come full
> circle here: the special steak sauce from the Old New York (even
> better: Old Brooklyn) steak house, Peter Luger's, that great temple
> to cholesterol whose waiters have been insulting customers and
> refusing to honor checks and credit cards, other than their own Peter
> Luger's credit card, for well over a hundred years (having a Peter
> Luger credit card is a sign you have made it in New York, not that
> you can do anything else with it but buy a meal at Peter Luger's) --
> their steak sauce, which you can now buy in bottles, is a thin,
> tomato-based (but apparently not ketchup-based) sauce that seems to
> contain crushed tomatoes, maybe molasses or some other sweetener like
> corn syrup, just a little vinegar, grated horseradish and some other,
> unnamed spices. It is sold refrigerated in glass bottles, but is used
> in the restaurant as a salad dressing, with their beefsteak tomato
> and bermuda onion appetizer (I guess this is really a salad), a steak
> sauce, and with cold seafood cocktails. In that context it's actually
> quite good stuff.

Sounds good actually.  


> I was just wondering whether there was any connection to this
> mysterious bottled chililess chili sauce. Apart from seafood cocktail
> sauce, what is chili sauce of the Heinz variety used for? Or are you
> supposed to put it on chili?
> 
> Adamantius

Just another condiment my friend.  Mostly to mix with other things to 
make the condiments.  A "different" catsup.


Cadoc

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