Mustard, Ketchup or Mayo?

Which is your favorite? I've been buying all of these for years, but the new issue of Food & Wine had the following recipes. We grilled up some burgers last weekend (I've been meaning to copy & re-post these recipes..but found them online)

I may never buy these things again...well, maybe mayo given the storage issue with the fresh stuff. But all of these are certainly worth the time.

Sweet-and-Spicy Ketchup

TOTAL TIME: 40 MIN
MAKES 1 1/4 CUPS
Virant keeps this simple house-made ketchup on hand for staff meals when burgers or Chicago dogs are on offer for his cooks. He also likes to have it available to serve with his chicken tenders for children who come into the restaurant. For the base, Virant uses tomatoes his staff has canned during the summer, but store-bought tomato sauce also works.
INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika or pimentón de la Vera
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/3 cup distilled white vinegar
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Two 8-ounce cans tomato sauce
Salt and freshly ground black pepper



DIRECTIONS
1.In a saucepan, heat the oil. Add the onion and garlic and cook over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 7 minutes. Add the brown sugar, paprika, allspice and cloves and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sugar melts. Add the vinegar and tomato paste and cook over moderate heat until thick, about 3 minutes. Stir in the tomato sauce and simmer over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until very thick, 15 to 20 minutes.

2.Transfer the ketchup to a blender or food processor and puree until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.
MAKE AHEAD The ketchup can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks.


Golden Yellow Mustard

TOTAL TIME: 15 MIN PLUS OVERNIGHT RESTING
MAKES 1 1/4 CUPS
Like most homemade mustards, this one tastes best after resting overnight, once the flavors have had time to mellow. The classic sauce has a refreshing piquancy that makes it work perfectly as either a condiment or a marinade. Slather it on a burger or steak, or spread it on chicken breasts a few hours before grilling.
INGREDIENTS
1/3 cup yellow mustard seeds
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons turmeric
1/4 cup Champagne vinegar
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Dash of Tabasco
1/3 cup water plus 3 tablespoons



DIRECTIONS
1.In a small skillet, toast the mustard seeds over moderate heat until they begin to pop, 1 minute. Immediately transfer them to a bowl and cover with a lid to stop the popping. Let the seeds cool completely.

2.Transfer the mustard seeds to a spice grinder. Add the sugar and salt to the mustard seeds and grind to a powder.

3.Return the powder to the skillet. Add the turmeric, vinegar, oil, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco and 3 tablespoons of the water. Cook the paste over moderate heat, stirring constantly, until it’s sizzling, about 5 minutes. Stir in the remaining 1/3 cup of water and transfer to a bowl. Refrigerate overnight before serving.
MAKE AHEAD The mustard can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks.


Lemon-Dijon Mayonnaise

TOTAL TIME: 10 MIN
MAKES 1 1/4 CUPS

"When it’s made fresh," says Virant, "plain mayonnaise is a great little sauce"—a savory complement to grilled chicken, pork or even asparagus. For added punch, Virant suggests adding a quarter cup of finely grated fresh horseradish and up to a half tablespoon of Sriracha chile-garlic sauce to the processor before adding the oil.
INGREDIENTS
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 cup grapeseed, canola or other neutral vegetable oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper



DIRECTIONS
1.In a food processor, combine the egg, egg yolk, mustard, lemon zest and lemon juice and process until very smooth. With the machine running, add the oil in a very thin stream until it is fully incorporated and the mayonnaise is thick and creamy. Season with salt and pepper.
MAKE AHEAD The mayonnaise can be refrigerated for up to 2 days.


Wow...that mustard. The others are good too, but I like mustard.

Richard

Mustard has always been my fave.

[Robin Garr]

Which is your favorite?

I love mustard and always like to have a variety around - prepared mustards and dry mustard - so I can play.

Mayo is okay, but needs to be good quality. Hellman's is about the only commercial brand we'll buy (I think it has another name west of the Rockies). "Salad dressing," never, ever. A little mayo and mustard mixed can make a nice slather on a sandwich in which the other flavors are relatively delicate - it tones down the mustard in a mellow way.

Call me a snob, but I won't even touch a ketchup bottle. I'm okay with red cocktail sauce for shrimp, though, and always keep a jar of Heinz Chili Sauce around - it makes a great "secret ingredient" to add a touch of hot-sweet flavor in unexpected places. But ketchup, le sauce Americaine? I don't think so.

I adore mustards of all kinds, but never ever touch mayo. Infrequently, I like ketchup, most notably with meatloaf. (It's a comfort food thing.) I eat red chile (sauce... as in chile colorado) with most things people put ketchup on, including French fries.

Mayo is pus.

I'm with Robin- commercial ketchups are horrible but I do have a bottle of Heinz Chili Sauce on hand at all times for ma po tofu. I wouldn't be surprised if my local Safeway stopped carrying that, too... Anyway... I never really liked ketchup at all until I had the home-made stuff at Mustards Grill with their spectacular onion rings. Yes indeed! That made me a believer. Richard's recipe looks like it would be pretty much the same thing, for which my thanks.

[Robin Garr]

Richard's recipe looks like it would be pretty much the same thing, for which my thanks.

Right ... I was talking about horrifying industrial ketchup, of course. Richard's recipe looks verrrrrry interesting. Maybe doubly so in season when we can start with garden tomatoes and make the sauce part from scratch.

For me, it absolutely depends on what it is on.

Hamburgers, mayo only, as long as the burger is generously seasoned.
Hot dogs, mustard and ketchup
Sandwiches, mayonnaise and mustard
French fries...Hmmm. It's a toss up. Ketchup usually, but mayo if there happens to be a little cup of it sitting around.
The only thing "Miracle Whip" goes on (in) is tuna salad--the way mom always made it...

Robin, Hellman's is Best Foods out here in the West.

I always keep a couple mustards around, though I must admit that as a teenager I wouldn't touch the stuff except for spicy brown mustard on pepper jack cheese.

for Ketchup, the only comercial ketchuo I'll use is Heinz. I used to make a homemade ketchup but haven't done so since berfore the kids were born. Just too time consuming considering everything else I need to do, so I save my days with time to do time consuming things for things like large batches of homemade spaghetti sauce, chicken cacciatori, stuffed shells, and things like that.

For mayo, I prefer homemade again, but because of the storage issues I normally go for Dukes (made right here in South Carolina). It's every bit as good as Helman's, if not a bit better, and this way I get the warm fuzzies of supporting fellow South Carolinians.

What -- no hot sauce!!!!???? Okay, so if I only have a choice of the 3, it has to be mustard. But, I have to keep ketchup in the house because my husband thinks it's the only real steak sauce! So, I use it to make cocktail sauce adding a little chopped sweet gherkins and horshradish. I agree with Robin, a little mayo and mustard mixed is the perfect marriage for holding together a sandwich (if I have to eat a sandwich). Great recipes. Thx.

[Jenise]

Mustard's the only one I couldn't do without. But like many others, I kind of like ketchup with french fries and onion rings, also fried shrimp (Chinese restaurant trick from childhood).

I could get rid of our ketchup and never miss it, but the kids would kill me. We always have mustard around, usually dijon (that actually comes from Dijon), mostly for burgers and some sandwiches. The mayo is the one it would be hardest to live without, though. I mix it with bottles harissa to spread on the sandwiches I take to work. The harissa mayo really livens up an otherwise boring turkey sandwich. The plain mayo also gets used for tuna salad.

We always have mustard around, usually dijon (that actually comes from Dijon)

The interesting thing is that most of the mustard that is made in Dijon, France uses mustard seed that comes from Canada. Three cheers for the global economy.

-Paul W.