Make a splash with these home-made sauces
Ketchup, mayonnaise and more can make all the difference to dinner when created from scratch, says Xanthe Clay, so bring out your jam jars and bottles...
Imagine a bacon butty without a dollop of vermilion sweet-sour tomato ketchup, or a dab of fruity, spicy, mahogany-dark brown sauce. It’s sadly disappointing, like that school report “could do better”, perfectly good ingredients lacking that final oomph. “Like eating an egg without salt,” as my grandmother would say sorrowfully, “or kissing a man without a moustache”.
Facial hair aside, other countries are bemused by our love of splashing a vinegar flavoured with mint and sugar on to our roast lamb, or pickling our veg in a creamy, mustardy lotion and calling it piccalilli. But they have their food foibles, too, from the treacly kecap manis of Indonesia to the addictively savoury chilli and fish shito sauce of Ghana.
What a good condiment does is supply the missing ingredient. The perfect mouthful kicks all our taste buds into action, a blending of sweet, sour, salt, savoury and bitter, with an extra whack of heat and fragrance to provide an explosion of deliciousness. That dollop of umami-rich mayo, or hit of chilli sauce, or crunchy, herby, tangy tartare sauce fills in the gaps of flavour while pointing up what makes the main dish so good, whether it is salty, protein-rich chicken, the oily, vegetal notes of avocado or sweet, delicate flakes of fish.
Which brings me to making condiments, and why it’s worth the trouble. Sure, I can’t imagine my larder without the bright labels of the ready-made brands – they are part of our shared national palate, and long may they prosper. But home-made condiments don’t need to last for months, years even, on the supermarket shelf, so you can dial back the vinegar and salt and make them fresher and gentler tasting, as well as using better-quality vinegars and oils than the manufacturers (ever with an eye on the bottom line) can afford, but also use bargain fruit and veg from the greengrocer. And of course you can tweak it to your own taste. Moustache or no moustache, your call.