If The Cap Fits...
Let Me Ask, How Do You feel About Sauce In a Jar?
Now I am not talking about condiments here, or dipping sauces, I’m talking about cooking sauces. It’s something I wrestle with every now and again when making a dish which I’ve had and loved for many years. Then, the readymade sauces were relatively new, exciting and enticing, they added an additional element to a dish which was difficult to replicate, and still are, even now without using a plethora of ingredients and multiple steps. However, similarly, then I wasn’t aware of all the ingredients in the sauce that now, I am not as happy about having in my food.
What’s my Problem?
I can’t be sure whether these products have got better or worse over time, but I can be sure that my tastes have changed, and my opinions most certainly have too.
However, why I wrestle, is there are still some recipes where I long to use these jars of sauces, as without them, no matter what I try, the end result never tastes the same. In fact not nearly as good.
Clever cooks or laborious cooking can do it, making these tastes, pastes and sauces from scratch, and do it well. However, the sauce would take as much time and effort as the main dish and sometimes that is not the point, and although fairly good it is not the same result, and memories are memories.
There are also some amazing companies out there who produce some excellent sauces which add that certain je ne sais quoi to lots of recipes and the recipes wouldn’t be the same without it, which kind of makes you ask, apart from making it your own, why not add it if it’s that good? But for me I think it’s about a couple of things, it’s knowing what I know now about sugars, salts and other additives which are in these sauces, there are some mean old jars and cans of stuff out there on the shelves, and when I say mean, I don't refer to that in a good way! Also, I prefer to cook everything myself from scratch, ideally - I go back to what I have said before, when you cook it yourself, you know what’s in it, you can be a confident cook about your ingredients.
What Do We Know?
I have come to the conclusion that, if the ingredients are good then it is okay to cheat. Someone has gone to great lengths to perfect that product. I do check what is in it, and I will only buy quality products, which is the same for everything I buy, so that’s no exception, and though I do feel slightly guilty when using it, though I still don’t know why, I allow myself the pleasure of doing so occasionally.
The hardest thing, is there are so many of them on the shelves, it’s become a minefield. If you take pasta sauces alone, there are hundreds! Tomato, tomato and basil, tomato, basil and garlic, on and on it goes. Personally, I have used Homepride sauces many times as I can always trust their consistency and love their depth of flavour which I find difficult to replicate. Their Sweet & Sour sauce is top drawer when slow cooked with belly pork.
My favourite are homemade from farm shops or deli’s here and there, so I never miss an opportunity to stop and shop when I see one, and researching on the internet is also a good source.
A Tasty Addition
If you wanted to find out the best overall sauces, look online as there will always be a survey comparing them, however, I like to go with my own opinions on this. I look first at the origin, and then the ingredients, then try for myself.
Another good thing about jar and canned sauces are their versatility. It’s good to use them in different ways that mixes things up a little, just because they say pasta sauce for example, it doesn’t mean it has to be used with pasta, try pouring over chicken breasts and sprinkling with cheese before baking in the oven for a bubbling succulent oven baked Chicken dish.
So...Does the cap fit? Is there a place for these sauces and pastes? My answer is yes there is, take the cap off and use them, now and again, and only now and again. Don’t lose your own cooking identity and flare in the kitchen, keep experimenting. But once in a while, you will know when you need to use it, and if you’re like me you will love finding the ones which are really good, so as long as it is, then use it.
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