Surprising ketchup ratings

[Jenise]

Is that what they call "chili sauce" now? It's like a slightly spicy ketchup and is the secret ingredient in my ma-po tofu.

Me, too, and quite a few other Sichuan dishes. Saaaaaay ... haven't we had this conversation before? (It's also more textured than ketchup, in my opinion ... )

Wouldn't one get a pretty good approximation of that by mixing ketchup with sambal oloek?

Too complex. The Heinz stuff is a lot simpler than that and doesn't have quite the same flavors as sambal oelek. And I think the sugar/acid balance is different than their ketchup.

I used to really like Brooks Rich & Tangy. Haven't even thought of it in years, let alone have any. But then again, this is in my old hometown.

I saw the TV version of this a few years ago. They basically said you like the catsup you grew up on.

[Robin Garr]

Wouldn't one get a pretty good approximation of that by mixing ketchup with sambal oelek?

I'm sort of with Stuart on that, only different. Ketchup and sambal oelek (or equivalent) would be hot ketchup, which might be an improvement, but it would be very much a different kind of flavor. Heinz Chili Sauce isn't really hot at all, but it's not so disgustingly corn-syrup sweet as ketchup (that problem would not go away in your mix), and it has a different flavor than ketchup. It also has some texture, while ketchup is puree-smooth.

Here's the ingredient list (it does have corn syrup, eccch, but it's well down the list:
Tomato puree (tomato paste, water), distilled white vinegar, high fructose corn syrup (yeccch), salt, corn syrup (ick), dehydrated onions, spice, garlic powder, natural flavoring.

Yeah, it's a prepared food product. But I like it a lot better than ketchup, and as Stuart points out, it makes a surprising "secret ingredient" in a lot of Sichuan and Southeast Asian-inspired dishes.

I wanna know, do you Ketchup or Catsup?
'Winger

Catsup's pretty much passe. One of the last holdouts (was it Del Monte?) switched a year or two ago.

Chili sauce alsom makes a nice addition to remoulade sauce and crab or shrimp Louis dressing.

I'm sure there's little if any difference between organic and non-organic and was just coincidental.

You might think that, but often industrial food products have to be reformulated because of the constraints on price and availability. Perhaps the most notorious is organic Similac baby formula, which is much sweeter than the non-organic version, due to its use of sucrose instead of much more expensive lactose. Certainly there's no taste difference between an industrial organic tomato and an industrial conventional one, but the product might be different.

It's hard to tell from the nutrition facts, due to rounding, but there's an extra gram of non-sugar carbohydrate in the organic version, and an extra five calories, so a change in taste is certainly possible.

Walt