Condiments

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Stokey Sue
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Condiments

Post by Stokey Sue »

Someone started a poll on Twitter (X) which I think she has now deleted, about What is a condiment?

Feelings ran high :o

She considered that anything you add to the plate or the food not part of the original dish would be a condiment - but that would include things like gravy and custard sauce, which most of us didn't think were condiments. She also thought jam on a scone might be a condiments (Brits did not concur).

This leaves us with some interesting grey areas - gravy not, but apple sauce out of a jar?
Added to finished dish - but Branston in a cheese and pickle roll is there from the start, and named, but Branston is clearly a condiment.

I did look up a dictionary definition, and it's pretty much what I'd have thought, something added to enhance a savoury food - but not necessarily itself savoury, so the jarred apple sauce might get in there, red currant jelly for venison or mutton certainly could.

What's your favourite condiment? What's your best new discovery?
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aero280
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Re: Condiments

Post by aero280 »

Well I'll start with "Something that comes out of a pot, jar or bottle through holes that are too small to get a teaspoon in".

Not sure about my favourite condiment is. Maybe English mustard, But that may not meet the above criterium!!. :shock:
Gruney
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Re: Condiments

Post by Gruney »

I'm not sure if this falls within the definition, but it's a new, for me , discovery - pomegranate molasses. Love it.
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scullion
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Re: Condiments

Post by scullion »

salt.
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herbidacious
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Re: Condiments

Post by herbidacious »

Oh where to start...

Tajin Classico is my new thing. Chili and lime seasoning to sprinkle on things and make them delicious. Tart and a little spicy. It was already on my radar and I probably had some somewhere but not used because i didn't know what to do with it. I had some today sprinkled liberally on sweetcorn mayo eaten on toasted Finnish rye bread, inspired by a Mexican starter I had in a restaurant last week. I think it might be good with eggs mayo, maybe a cheesy baked potato. And doubtless many other things. Baked feta or halloumi...

A favourite thing and a bit of a treat because expensive is Finca la Barca oak smoked aioli. (Tricky to find in shops but they sometimes have it in our local deli.)

I like chipotle Tabasco. The jalapeno one too.

Liquid smoke. I have some in an ordinary bottle for adding to things at the end of cooking, and one in a spray bottle for spraying on pizza or nachos.

I used to use lemon flavoured olive oil a lot but not had any for a while. (It came from Carluccios.)

If mustard counts, it's used a lot in this house. Plus salad cream, mayo, and of course ketchup and HP, including barbecue version. Sauce pomme frites... and numerous other novelties (to me) from France. (I have some Sauce Ch'ti in the cupboard, not yet tried.)
I have some really tasty truffle ketchup in the fridge...

Henderson's relish. (Used as a vegetarian Worcestershire sauce sub.)

I confess have half a small cupboard of condiments. It needs sorting through, but a lot of these things do last a long time... (?)



Yeah. And salt.

And indeed pepper.
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Earthmaiden
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Re: Condiments

Post by Earthmaiden »

To me, a condiment is definitely something I add to my plate at the table or (or in the kitchen if I'm on my own) or to a hot dog or something if out. That said, I would expect it to come from a jar or to be decanted BUT mint sauce, apple sauce, bread sauce etc I think of as accompaniments and not condiments.
I can see why this has caused some debate!

I'm not a huge one for such things really. I use tomato ketchup once in a blue moon but never HP or other brown sauces.
Salt, pepper, English mustard, vinegar on chips, mayo, salad cream, garlic mayo/sauce, Branston pickle, sweetcorn relish. Some guilty secrets there!

I think most other sauces I add during cooking. Not a fan of hot sauces etc which are so popular now poured on things.

My father always put Worcester Sauce on chips. I use it as a cooking ingredient.
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herbidacious
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Re: Condiments

Post by herbidacious »

On the hot(tish) source front I forgot Sriracha mayo.

I should say that although I have all these things, I rarely have them with meals - as in complete dishes - that I've made from scratch. (Most of my cooking is one pot or a complete thing, rather than a protein source and separate veg.) They don't need anything else. All the flavours go into the dish whilst it's being cooked. I would never offer these things at a dinner party (it goes without saying?!?)

Or course some things don't need condiments but are nevertheless enhanced by them. I find chips a bit boring without something else. Ditto veggie sausages - although that's also a matter of wanting something 'wet' to go with them. I like some sort of sauce to dip a pitta bread filled with melted cheese (occasional lunch) in...

T would probably add hot sauce, mustard or HP to most things... home cooked or not.

I also like ketjap manis.
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halfateabag
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Re: Condiments

Post by halfateabag »

As a child condiments were S&P. Nowadays I think they can include mustard, Tommy ketchup etc. indeed a plethora of other jarred or bottled stuff. I think we mostly have the US to thank for that.
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herbidacious
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Re: Condiments

Post by herbidacious »

I know a few people who have small condiments-dedicated fridge!
mistakened
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Re: Condiments

Post by mistakened »

What a lot of condiments, I have not heard of a lot of them. Just the usual S&P, various oils and vinegars, chutneys are homemade but I do buy mayo
Does Marmite count?

Moira
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herbidacious
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Re: Condiments

Post by herbidacious »

I think, on balance, not, Moira :)
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Badger's Mate
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Re: Condiments

Post by Badger's Mate »

I quite like Worcestershire sauce with beans on toast.

Whether called table sauces, seasonings, accompaniments or condiments, we seem to have loads. There’s even some brown sauce, which I forgot to give to friends for whom I had bought it to go with their breakfasts the last time they stayed. When I was small it was my preferred addition to a ‘sunshine egg sandwich’, but I don’t fancy it anymore.
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herbidacious
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Re: Condiments

Post by herbidacious »

I used to think HP sauce tasted of old (high) churches...
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Earthmaiden
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Re: Condiments

Post by Earthmaiden »

PP has put an interesting article about hot sauces on the 'in the news' page. I really don't 'get' why everyone suddenly likes mouth-numbing sauces on nice food. Tabasco hasn't been mentioned much as a condiment. I had a friend who always asked for some when we ate out, regardless of where it was. I found it quite embarrassing when we were in places you wouldn't expect them to have it, especially of somewhere decent. Sometimes the 'kitchen bottle' was produced.
Ameew
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Re: Condiments

Post by Ameew »

Salt and pepper are seasonings , not condiments .

I’d class a condiment as something you add to a dish at the table which isn’t in the volume or consistency of a sauce .

I love mayonnaise and use it quite a lot . Salad cream I use once in a blue moon , remember how nice it is , then go six months again without using it . Normally have a bottle of Caesar salad dressing in the fridge too

Don’t use apple or mint sauce really , but love horseradish and mustard in all its forms , apart from whole grain .

Ketchup , very occasionally and brown sauce only really on a cooked breakfast .

I love sriracha, sweet chilli sauces , chilli jam , anything of that Ilk.

Always have mango chutney and a caramelised onion chutney in the fridge . I’m a bit of a condiment fiend on reflection !!
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Uschi
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Re: Condiments

Post by Uschi »

In Germany Maggi-sauce is a much-loved condiment. I use it rarely and sparingly, but sometimes it can really rescue a blandish soup or sauce with its umami-lovage-flavour.
KeenCook
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Re: Condiments

Post by KeenCook »

arghhh, Uschi, Maggi is not for me, pure MSG! I remember how it was on every table in various Stuben in Basel when I was there for a year in 1971!!! I think the Swiss are addicted to it!
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herbidacious
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Re: Condiments

Post by herbidacious »

Good point, Amy!

Are you allergic to MSG, KC?

re hot sauce, I prefer mild ones with a discernible flavour but don't use much.

I use chipotle flakes in cooking, in quantities just to give warmth and flavour, quite a lot.
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Lokelani
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Re: Condiments

Post by Lokelani »

I think I'd consider a condiment anything other than salt & pepper served at the table.

As for the wider definition of anything added to cooked food, I always have mayonnaise in the fridge, cumberland sauce, mint sauce, wholegrain and dijon mustard. Other fridge bottles: pomegranate molasses, sweet soy and mushroom soy that for some reason say keep in fridge, yuzu juice that's probably been in there way too long, same as sweet chilli sauce...a recent edition of verjuice. Fridge jars, the usual miso, tahini, tamarind paste, chutneys, a too old jar of Waitrose Bearnaise sauce. Probably others I've forgotten.

I hate brown sauce, burger relish, tomato ketchup but Mr L likes them, so we have those too.
KeenCook
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Re: Condiments

Post by KeenCook »

herbidacious wrote: Mon Jan 27, 2025 7:07 pm Are you allergic to MSG, KC?
Yes, I cannot tolerate it as it affects my joints.
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