A good sauce can lift an average meal to a new level. One of my neighbours makes a mean ginger and chilli sauce and a green tomato chutney with special transformative powers when thrown at sausage and mash.

Off the shelf sauces can be very good too: two of my favourites are Heinz tomato ketchup (ingredients, tomatoes, sugar and vinegar) and Ballymaloe Jalapeno Sauce (red hot chilli peppers and tomatoes) .





What are you favourite sauces ?

Great topic, cf!

I think it depends a lot on the food, to be honest.

Red onion marmelade is yummy with most things, tartare sauce (Delia's recipe without the garlic) is scrumptious. A burger just isn't right without ketchup and mayonnaise (neither of which I eat otherwise). *steps away briefly, inspired to stick a veggie burger under the grill for tea*

Homemade cranberry sauce mushed into mashed potatoes with turkey and gravy is baby food for me, closely followed by lots of homemade parsley sauce mushed into mashed potatoes and eaten with a spoon when no one is looking.

A tub of creme fraiche with some chives snipped in - or not - is a mean home for a giant bag of doritos. And Ballymaloe relish is great with ham and strong cheddar on brown bread. Or with bland chicken.

Brown sauce is vile, noxious stuff. Husband will know it's time for divorce papers when I stop buying it; the love will definitely be gone at that point.

Tartare sauce. I know what it's made from and I hate both but it's just sooo good with fish.

I like mint sauce and apple sauce on pig.

I was in Rome last Easter and I can still remember the taste of a delicious tomato sauce which covered my ravioli starter in one restauraunt.

I have to say my taste-buds sang with the beautiful flavour. I love Italian cuisine like that.

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

I was in Rome last Easter and I can still remember the taste of a delicious tomato sauce which covered my ravioli starter in one restauraunt.

I have to say my taste-buds sang with the beautiful flavour. I love Italian cuisine like that.

Italians do strange and wonderful things to a tomato. They're not so bad with a grape either.

cookiemonster wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

I was in Rome last Easter and I can still remember the taste of a delicious tomato sauce which covered my ravioli starter in one restauraunt.

I have to say my taste-buds sang with the beautiful flavour. I love Italian cuisine like that.

Italians do strange and wonderful things to a tomato. They're not so bad with a grape either.

No, they are not. I kept ordering the house wine(since I like a bit of surprise), and there was nothing wrong with that, either. It was a gastronomic delight.

Order house wine in either Italy or France and it's 99.9% of the time fantastic, Portugal is quite good too, Spain is hit and miss depending on where you are.
Ireland tends to be quite poor for the most part and the wine is always over priced either way.

cookiemonster wrote:

Order house wine in either Italy or France and it's 99.9% of the time fantastic, Portugal is quite good too, Spain is hit and miss depending on where you are.
Ireland tends to be quite poor for the most part and the wine is always over priced either way.

Yeah, but with climate change, we'll have vineyards throughout the south-east and, come 2050, we'll right as rain!

Chateau New Ross...

*shudder*

I saw plain old Satay sauce being deluged onto chicken and spring onion skewers at a bbq only yesterday. Mighty fine. Have to pick up a jar before the weekend.

Spicy bbq sauce is just divine

AfricanDave wrote:

Spicy bbq sauce is just divine

I make a mean bbq sauce AD.

1 part Ketchup
1 part Worcester
1 part Honey
1/2 part water
1/2 part sugar if required
couple of drops of Peri sauce if you like it tepid on the tongue !

Heat to nearly boil, stirring a bit, and back to simmer.

Sounds good. I would think the sugar isn't really needed with that much honey.
What about boiling it with some scotch bonnet pepper in and removing the pepper when it's done? That should make it nice and spicy.

AfricanDave wrote:

Sounds good. I would think the sugar isn't really needed with that much honey.
What about boiling it with some scotch bonnet pepper in and removing the pepper when it's done? That should make it nice and spicy.

OOOhh ! I haven't met that brand of pepper before. How would you get the pepper out again ? More on that Dave !

You're right about the sugar, I leave it out most of the time.

Scotch Bonnet is THE spiciest type of pepper available. It's so spicy you wouldn't be able to eat a pepper. They can only really be used for cooking.
I suppose you could use a tea strainer or a sieve and just leave the pepper in for a few minutes while it cooks. Alternatively you could put in a half pepper for a few minutes and just pick it out again (they are big enough to be able to see them)

Good receipe there evm - I'll definitely give it a shot for a summer bbq. I love the sweet honey caramelising thing that happens with those sweet sauces.

I really like chilli - arrabiata with penne, veggie or otherwise yum yum
The old Ballymaloe Relish is divine with the cheddar
Mayonnaise with chicken and lettuce

Recently I had Bearnaise sauce and don't know what it is but it's delicious. I think it's made with egg yolks.

Ballymaloe relish again...

What the hell is tartare sauce anyway? I had it recently with fresh cod in Dingle o god I'm going to wake up with an ulcer tomorrow where's the cornflakes?

The only sauce you need:


Me in my element:


That chef sauce is muck though.

905 wrote:

The only sauce you need:

That looks so...industrial. It's more like something you'd lubricate an engine with than eat!

Since I like veggie stuff, brown sauce has mostly been an un-explored domain for me. I'm much more au fait with the merits and demerits of salad cream.

Hellman's or the real Heinz old faithful on a lettuce sandwich ?

cactus flower wrote:

Hellman's or the real Heinz old faithful on a lettuce sandwich ?

Chef Salad Cream, in actual fact. It really ties lettuce, cucumber, cheese, scallions, coleslaw and pepper together in a wholegrain sandwich.

Some people think brown sauce is delicious in tea you know, Ard Taoiseach.

Auditor #9 wrote:

Some people think brown sauce is delicious in tea you know, Ard Taoiseach.

But the world is full of people who need their heads and tastebuds examined for terminal malfunction.

I'm with AT on the salad cream though - Chef all the way, especially now that they are no longer owned by Nestlé. Them were tough days, them were.

So what's tartare, kate p?

And nobody mentioned tzatziki or any of that fancy kind of stuff yet. Sauces with cream yum yum yum

Does fresh pesto count as a sauce?

cactus flower wrote:

Does fresh pesto count as a sauce?

O yes yes yes. Have you ever made it? I put too much garlic in once and o god it was still nice. Got heartburn or indigestion (?) out of it, like carrying a photograph of your food around in your gob..