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

[Bill Fisher]

On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 10:51:45 -0500, Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius
<adamantius.magister at verizon.net> wrote:

> Am I alone in sensing some irony here?

I grew up on home made catsup that my grandma made.  It was much 
stronger and less sweet than commercial catsup.  She got tired of making
it in the mid 70's and I never grew a liking for the commercial stuff.

> >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.
> 
> But <shudder> -- isn't it sweetened, like most ketchups?

Well, it is sweetened, but not as much.  And it has other flavors in it besides
tomato and sweet.

> I'm a Tabasco man, myself... I suppose so.

It was the flavor mask that got me through my mother learning to cook
things properly when I was growing up.  She tends to overcook things 
still.  Chili sauce was what I had on hand to add flavor to the overcooked
things.  

Yeah, I love tobasco on eggs, Crystal is good too, or Texas Pete's.


> Hah! Sriracha chili sauce from Thailand is the real deal: a thin
> ketchup made from chilies instead of tomatoes.

Yeah, I have it in my fridge :-p   that and Tung ot tio vietnamese
chili garlic sauce.  I think I have owned over 100 different hot/chili 
sauces over the years, maybe more.  I don't think I have owned a
bottle of heinz chili sauce in well over 20 years.  I remember my
first experience with real chili sauce thinking "I've had chili sauce 
before, why are these people sweating?"

I'll still put it on my burgers tho if there is nothing superior to it on
hand.

> Nor me, but someone mentioned a thin, ketchup-like sauce being added
> to chili-and-spaghetti, somewhere. I was just wondering if Heinz-type
> Chili sauce (as opposed to some other sauce made from chillies and so
> designated) was the stuff.

I  dug about online and it seems to be the stuff a lot of people use for that.
It is less sweet than catsup and probably suited for it.  Like all of heinz's
products, it was originally just a condiment.

> It is. Putting it on a perfectly aged porterhouse steak the size of
> your neighbor's child that was slathered in sweet butter before
> broiling (the steak, not the child), doesn't hurt it much, either.

You're going to make me crash off of my no-red meat trend I have been
on lately.  My neighbors have some pretty hefty children.
 
> Interesting. A little surprising, given the trend, natural selection
> being what it is, to decrease variety. I wonder if this is
> specifically a Heinz-ism originally, when they only had 56 varieties
> ;-).
> 
> Adamantius

Actually over 60 varieties at the time they chose the 57 varieties marketing
ploy.  Heinz did make red and green pepper sauce, and a cayenne sauce
that failed to compete with Tobasco.  (ah, the magic of google)


Cadoc

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