Ketchup and Other Sauce

Yes, I was born and raised in the USA, and no, I don’t like ketchup.  If there were a national sauce ketchup would be ours. People put that stuff everywhere, on fries (OK, I get that), hamburgers (OK, if you mix it with equal parts mustard), hot dogs (why), eggs (if you do this in my presence I will do my best not to gag), and I have seen children put it on their pasta (their parents should be punished). The list goes on, but I’ll stop myself here. I confess I do use ketchup in one instance; on a cold meatloaf sandwich, and I cannot offer any explanation for this other than ketchup is the perfect complement for cold meatloaf (it must be cold).

When I went to Belgium and ordered moules frites, as one does when in Brussels, the frites came with mayonnaise. I was intrigued, and instantly won over, it was brilliant. If you’ve never had your fries with mayo, this is what you need to do: go somewhere they make great fries, order them well done with a side of mayo, if you can get aioli, even better. Salt, dip and fall in love. You don’t need a lot of mayo, that’s the beauty of dipping vs. pouring it all over your fries, you don’t use as much.

When I was growing up sauce and gravy were things you ate at restaurants and Thanksgiving, not at home for a regular dinner. We ate a lot of broiled things (no sauce) so when I got to college where the dining hall had some kind of sauce at virtually every meal, I went a little sauce-crazy. I love sauce, I love making it, and have been know to order something in a restaurant based on the description of the sauce. Despite my disdain for American ketchup, I do like hoisin sauce which is essentially Chinese ketchup, though I wouldn’t have it on fries.

In culinary school making sauce is serious business. We spent six weeks in a class called skills development learning (among other things) to make the mother sauces: béchamel, véloute, Espagnol (brown sauce), tomato, and Hollandaise, the bases of all other sauces. We made sauce day after day for six weeks. I think this might be the reason ‘skills D’ was one of my favorite courses. I did develop a pathological fear of Hollandaise, a sauce I generally try to avoid making, but I can (if I have to). 

I often find that people are reluctant to make sauce, thinking it is reserved for professionals, or sure they will mess it up, but making sauce isn’t hard, and making gravy is even easier. As much as I love a well crafted sauce, there’s not much flavor-wise that can compete with a good pan gravy. If you are roasting you must make gravy. And not from a package! That package is filled with things you won’t find in anyone’s kitchen, and frankly, don’t want to eat.

Gravy is simple, remove the meat from the pan, and skim most of the fat (don’t drive yourself insane trying to get it all), deglaze with wine, or sherry, brandy, stock, or whatever flavored liquid you like. In a separate small pan make a roux of butter and flour, cook for 2-3 minutes then add it to the deglazed pan drippings and whisk until smooth. If you get lumps, strain the gravy.

Though it’s not my favorite condiment, ketchup is a good base for homemade barbecue sauce, sweet and sour sauce, Russian dressing, and more. As I write this, I feel another ketchup post percolating. I love homemade ketchup, which is a whole other story, and a project I may take on and report about here, but in the meantime, my container of ketchup ages gracefully in my fridge waiting for cold meatloaf.

What is your favorite, or better yet, least favorite sauce?