Take Your Seasoning to the Next Level With These Homemade Flavors
Anyone can grab a bottle of Heinz or a can of Hellman’s at the grocery store, but with a little effort, you can easily make your own condiments that are much tastier (and more impressive) than any grocery store bought. … Here are five delicious seasoning recipes to wow your guests and please your hosts.
Curry ketchup
I first tasted ketchup curry at a small beer bar in Gainesville, Florida, and my life changed forever. Store-bought ketchup can be lusciously sweet and monotonous, but this recipe from Joy the Baker cannot be blamed for such crimes. Cloves, allspice, and yellow curry powder add depth to the ketchup and make it smell amazing in the kitchen, while apple cider vinegar provides just enough acid to cut through the molasses-packed brown sugar.
Use it like any ketchup. Add it to fries, burgers, and dogs, but be careful: if you try curry ketchup, it can ruin everyone else’s life.
Milk mayonnaise
While I’ve never avoided raw eggs, I understand why some people, like this dude I’m married to, aren’t very happy with them. It used to prevent me from making a can of homemade mayonnaise, but nothing more!
Add milk mayonnaise, an emulsion of butter, garlic, lemon and all your other favorite ingredients – plus some milk instead of a raw egg. If you just follow David Leith’s recipe , they’ll be rewarded with a silky light sauce that has been described as “whipped cream in olive oil.” You can of course put it in a burger or ham sandwich, but imagine how it would sing in a potato salad or spiced eggs.
Whole grain beer with mustard
Beer and sausages are a summer marriage made in heaven, and it seems wrong to consume one without the other. I used to settle for just drinking my beer, but Spoon Fork Bacon changed the game with this whole grain beer mustard , which contains half a glass of your favorite pale ale.
The best part? This recipe requires no cooking, which means your kitchen stays cool and your mustard tastes good thanks to our good friend ethanol. It’s perfect for grilled sausages, but I wouldn’t limit myself to just meat. This sauce is hungry for the pretzel, my friends, and I hate to deny its purpose.
Argentinean chimichurri sauce
A properly cooked steak doesn’t require a lot of seasonings or sauces. A little salt, maybe a little pepper if needed, but I prefer the meat to speak for itself rather than hide it under something like sweet, vinegar steak sauce.
However : Even I find it difficult to pass up the Argentinean Chimichurri sauce, especially with fresh herbs and a little chopped red pepper like this one from Good Housekeeping. Something about the way the olive oil-based seasoning glitters on a medium-rare flank steak – or maybe something more obscure? – makes the whole frying process seem more decadent.
Thai sweet chili sauce
We are a nation possessed by Sriracha and he can give us a tunnel vision of chili sauce. I love rooster as much as the next American noodle lover, but there is a whole world of sauces to enjoy and you can even make some yourself.
If you’ve never made a hot sauce before, this Sweet Chili Sauce from She Simmers is a great place to start. Unlike some commercial chili sauces, this recipe gets its sweetness from real sugar and is perfect for egg rolls, noodles, and wings. It’s easy to whisk and doesn’t take long to ferment, which means you can start enjoying it in less than half an hour.
With so many great DIY options to choose from, one might wonder why they fiddled with bottled stuff at all. But once you start making your own condiments, don’t be surprised if you find yourself the beauty of every BBQ ball you visit.