I appreciate that. There are a lot of foods which I don’t really like which are much improved with sauce/condiments. And, given, they can make or break a sandwich. Additionally, when the sauce is a very familiar flavor, one’s brain usually reduces the impact of it so one can still taste what's underneath. That's how people who use tons of salt or slathers of mustard can still taste the food. If they'd give their taste buds a rest, assuming they're not damaged, they could cut down on use of their favorites for the same taste. Just as you can fatigue your smeller and not even be able to smell the cat box (please don't invite me in!), you can fatigue your taster and need more and more sauce, if it's worn out, to taste the sauce.

Re fillet, celebrity TV chefs, I've seen, talk about it having little flavor compared to other beef (skirt is supposed to have the most). Some say it therefore needs sauce, but most do say it needs finesse not to overwhelm it. My favorite barbecued meat as a kid was plain fillet mignon, with just some finishing salt. (My mother bought beef by the side and often enough had a spare fillet to give me when they were barbecueing steaks.) We never had sauce with beef, except maybe ketchup. Kebabs and lamb riblets were marinated, however. One of the best meats I've ever made, I've talked about here before, was bison chuck, sous vide for 3 days, then lightly barbecue sauced and finished in the oven. It was good as is, but the sauce really elevated it. And I do sauce beef/bison ribs and shortribs. I like au poirve sauce, but it's a horrible thing to do to a good steak.

Nowadays, I mostly add sauces to dishes that aren't cooked in the sauce when I'm bored. A sauce is the easiest way to transform the same old thing.

The only steak I eat is filet. Absolutely no need for a sauce.

Speaking of ketchup --- last night I had a Bravas sauce for the first time. It was served with French fries instead of ketchup. OMG! Now I need to try making my own.

"most white meat fish have little to no taste".... not my experience. Perhaps you are not getting fresh enough fish?

Saucing meat to me is no different than marinating or seasoning it. It is just changing the taste of the meat or veggie or whatever to suit ones taste. Well, not CHANGING really. Just combining flavors really. I am not a huge sauce person, but I do like some. I do not use much ketchup or mustard. I use a little of one or the other or both on hamburgers or hot dogs. I like ranch on some things. Mostly on salads of course. I do not like the taste of plain, undressed lettuce and other grazing material. Some sauces provide a contrast to a strong flavor that can be nice. For example a lot of people like sweet BBQ sauce on a very savory smoked meat. I do not, but to each their own. Or on that same wavelength, some people like a sharp, acidic mustard or vinegar sauce on it. It engages all the taste sensations, which is pleasant to some. Fried foods to me taste better with a sauce. Not that they are not delicious on their own, but again, the contrast. Aioli on fries. Tartar sauce or hot sauce on fried fish or shrimp. I make a sort of comeback sauce for my cheeseburger eggrolls that I think goes great with them, and I prefer them with it over plain.

Hot sauce to me is simply about heat IMO. I know that various sauces have different flavors, but I think a lot of people just like a lot of heat with their food and that is different than flavor. Some with really sugary sauces, its about sweetness, not the actual flavor a lot of the time, if that makes sense. Its more of a sensation than a taste.

Of course, I think some people just use other foods as a vehicle for sauce. One of my delightful nephews calls chicken fingers "ranch shovels." I often say that cake is merely a delivery system for frosting. ( is frosting a sauce?) And of course, I see how people slather ketchup all over fries and other things to the point where I would not be able to taste anything else.

I am a person who LOVES high fat and salty foods, including sauces. But I do not need them to enjoy things. I can not think of a sauce that I would like on a steak. I too like the taste of the grill on a steak, no sauce needed. But if I ordered a steak and it came covered with a lusciously, buttery fatty sauce, I would certainly not turn my nose up at it.

And of course, sauces can be lifesavers when dining on bland food. I find a lot of restaurant food bland now.

Many sauce made with fat, and butter.

I only use butter and fat when I cook for others. I don't use butter, and I don't eat fat. Bacon fat, duck fat, etc I use those for fertilizers. When I buy steak, I look for the ones which have the lease amount of marbling.

dcarch

So, sauce in specific, and heat, there's the whole Huy Fong debacle (https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/19/how-did-the-huy-fong-foods-sriracha-shortage-happen.html). There are certain times when the sweet viscosity of the original American sriracha is the best choice, additives and all. I've been conserving mine. Besides the times it was the best choice, there were also the times it was convenient. A spiral or freckles in a sandwich stay in place and don't drip. Ricky's right, however, that the heat is the thing in a sandwich. For drizzling on food, in place of tobasco, which I don't really like, I love habanero sauce. Similar shaker bottle, similar viscosity and heat level, but that lovely, floral habanero flavor. For everything else, there's homemade (though the local peppers just now are kind of wimpy), salsa picante, dried pepper flakes, etc., as well as all the other hot sauces. I like Sky Valley sriracha as a hot sauce—it's nothing like Huy Fong. Some of the local go-tos have been bought by mega companies and have all sorts of junk in them to make them cheaper. Ugh.

But this points out my relationship with condiments: I have no desire to make them!

Every time I see fish drowning in sauce, I comment to my husband, "I just want to see, and taste, the fish". A drizzle of butter, a squeeze of lemon and call it good 👍

I agree about not saucing fish. I'm lucky to live where there is an abundance of really wonderful fresh fish and I never sauce any of it. I mostly eat wild caught salmon, sablefish (black cod), halibut and true cod. I also eat a fair amount of fresh scallops (those aren't local, but from Maine or Alaska) shrimp, mussels, and Dungeness crab. No sauce on those either, though I will sometimes make a Jacque Pepin sauce for crab cakes that combines mayo, ketchup and wasabi and a few other things. I don't usually order a slab of fish at a restaurant, because I like to order things that I cannot easily cook at home. So, something that combines seafoods like cioppino or paella which, of course, are somewhat sauced.

We like a squeeze of lemon on most fish but if it’s breaded a tablespoon full or so of a good tartare sauce is nice.

Love mushroom sauce with a steak, also love green and black peppercorn sauces not heavily creamed just a splash. I do like a béarnaise with steak but honestly can’t be bothered to make it anymore. A good restaurant will serve a good one. I guess there are reasonable jarred versions but haven’t investigated.

This doesn’t mean we always have a sauce but sometimes as a point of difference. As some have mentioned a good steak perfectly cooked with nothing is good as well.

Bottled oyster sauce is a must for me when cooking some Asian stir fries, and of course we can’t forget soy sauce and sriracha.

Pie and sauce is an iconic Australian meal meaning a chunky beef pie with tomato sauce/ketchup.

Eta ... forgot to mention love the Bravas sauce for fried potato chunks or just on fries. Made with pimentons (sweet and spicy) not tomato based.

Eta ... forgot to mention love the Bravas sauce for fried potato chunks or just on fries. Made with pimentons (sweet and spicy) not tomato based.

The one I had tasted like there was smoked Spanish paprika, but it was also tomato based.

How do you make yours?

I think sauces can enhance foods, but I know many people over-sauce many things. I'll count dressings in too- particularly ranch dressing. There are so many things that have ranch with them now.

I use sauces along with other seasonings, but not everything needs sauces. I'm not fond of ketchup though.

I seldom have sauce on seafood (finfish or shellfish), other than a little butter or lemon juice. Good seafood is sublime, flavors are often subtle, I don’t think sauce improves it at all. SWMBO grew up eating only heavily-sauced fish, partly a cultural thing and partly because she also grew up eating dry, over-cooked fish.

For meat, I like playing with interesting sauces (Grand Marnier with tenderloin, red wine reduction with ribeye, Amaretto with pork) but it is just an accent. First couple of bites are to enjoy the sauce, then you get down to the meat. Again, SWMBO grew up with thick gravies on meat, and again, I think it’s partly because the meat was overcooked. We don’t eat meat as much nowadays, so my sauce repetoire has stagnated.

Poulty ditto, although lots of gravy on the sandpaper-dry Thankgiving turkey and choking-hazard stuffing is almost a necessity. Chicken can be rather boring on its own, and I like dishes where the flavor is “cooked into” (colloquially, not in any accurate food science sense) the chicken (braising, e.g. the awesome mustard chicken I had at the cabin, or dry rub then grill, or marinate). A sauce added after the fact would not be my choice, but cooking the chicken in the sauce could be.

As for sauce and Q, I‘m not much for it. I do pork ribs that end up very saucy, but in the cooked-in-way. For putting sauce onto barbequed meat, I will brush a tangy sauce on as the meat is grilling, but that isn’t actually Q anyway. I used to go to an amazing BBQ place called the People’s Pig, a shack on three open lots where they grew veg and tended a platoon of smokers, it was the best Q ever - sometimes they had beef belly, like pork belly but even better. People’s Pig was all about the incredible, unctuous, melty meat. I can’t recall ever noticing any sauce, though I suppose it was available. It couldn’t last, of course. Developers bought the lots and now there are crappy Sketchup-designed apartments there.

P.S. Pork rib recipe. Loosely stack ribs into pressure cooker (I like standing then on end), fill remaining volume with stock and white wine, pressure cook 1 hour, let cool until ribs can be handled without falling apart, carefully move ribs to chill in refrigerator until meat and gelatin firm up nicely, usually overnight. Reserve the cooking liquid, reduce by 2/3rds or to spoon-coating consistency. Heat oil in deep pot, deep fry the ribs until crusty. Drain ribs, then stir fry in wok while coating in the reduced liquid - that’s the ”sauce”! Could instead sous vide with stock and wine in the bags, or slow cook, but you need to produce a significant volume of tasty cooking liquid. There’s no need to add sugar, tomato, or anything really to the liquid.

Ketchup, BBQ, chili etc aren't so much sauces as condiments. A sauce is a thing of loveliness - usually taking so long to produce what with reductions, additions etc........ I agree with John about cooking flavour into meat. A lovely complimentary sauce example is the sauce vièrge I posted the other day with the fish.

For anyone wanting a pretty instant Béarnaise, I found one years ago that is a killer and really easy. http://rita-may-recipes.blogspot.com/2010/05/easy-bearnaise-sauce.html

Neely, thanks for sharing.

To me, the difference between a sauce and a condiment, is a condiment is generally made like any other goop we'd call ”sauce” but is served on the side and added by the diner, usually in small quantity. But currently in fine dining, at least in the USA, meals are often plated with a sauce or puree which is meant for the diner to use like a condiment in lieu of ketchup. :) True fact.

A good sauce in moderation can truly enhance a protein (best served under the protein, not over, to allow the diner to adjust). I'm talking about pan sauces, reductions and such that can elevate a dish, recover the fond and intensify/enhance meaty flavors. Even compound butters can really enhance a quality cut. I've had some fine cuts of meat, and the most simple treated almost all could have benefited by something more.

On the fish, fat helps transport flavor, and acid helps brighten. Thus butter and lemon make the white fish flavors come out, without additional seasoning beyond s&p (or the sauce vierge example, with olive oil in place of butter, or a beurre blanc, or aioli on the side).

We are TeamSauce, but more important TeamChoice. We just had house guests for 5-6 days and LaborDay mutual friends joined. Last Saturday i made two BBQ sauces, three salad dressings, French salsas--red and green. A creole reumelade for shrimp (yogurt). And two Purvian green sauces.(all greens, no fat) Miso/sesame dipping sauce. Kimchi and kraut

No ketchup or yellow mustard in my house. No judgement for friends pre-teens or adults that want ketchup and gluey American cheese on their burgers. I keep a glass cookie jar in my pantry that has the small packets of all the various sugars for coffee and ketchup, mustards, mayo, --from work take-outs stuffed in their office kitchen drawers. Even malt vinegar, sweet soy based sauces for ramen, tiny bottles of tobasco, a commercial sweet bbq sauce. etc.

I cook for both our families during holidays as a gift to my mother and MIL. Lots of dietary issues so many choices with sauces on the side. This past week was all about grazing. Not grazing boards, but a grazing kitchen breakfast table in full rotation of choices all meals.

I prefer the recent 'no-recipe' recipes. "if you don't like garlic, cilantro, blue cheese, leave it out". Or add more. Or less. Make it the way you like it.

Jacque Pepin, in his recent cooking at home series says, 'You are the chef, it is your kitchen. Make it the way you and your family and friends like it'.

I have a good filter. I ignore any CulinaryKaren that tells me i have to stick to a specefic 'authentic' recipe. "aint no beans in chili" (eye roll).

Put a few hot sauces on the grazing table. We all have different heat tollerances.

We like fresh sauces. Homemade dry brines.

Sauce Vierge

I call it French salsa.

La sauce vierge is a French 'salsa' but seems to just mean 'fresh' virgin. Various herbs from the garden. Basil, thyme, mint, or what is available. Peruvian green sauce is all greens like carrot tops, celery tops, basils, mints, cilantro stems....the cream is from the 'milk' of lettuce cores/leaves. The milky stems of lettuce. No butter or fats.

A summer of Pervuvian fresh green salsas...and green and red mexican and French salsas and creole remoulade for shrimp salads and all seafood cakes, grilled shrimp, etc. No ketchup/sick sweet shrimp cocktail...

A summer of Peruvian green sauces.

We don't all sauce with ketchup and sweet commercial shelf BBQ sauce and use commercially made dry rubs.

Well, if your white fish doesn't taste like much, I'm wondering what varieties you choose? I wouldn't say that Dover sole (the real thing, not the cheaper soles sold as 'Dover') and Chilean seabass are flavorless. Hamachi (yellowfin) isn't flavorless, whether raw or cooked.

Chefs who use too much sauce - or too many, the current fad out here being two and even three sauces on a plate, all fighting with one another for supremacy - are bad cooks, period.

Quality ingredients are best treated with restraint, methinks.

Although....I admit lots of gravy was a necessity for my MIL's turkey, which was so overcooked when I went to carve it, the breast meat actually shattered into shreds under the knife!

Fresh fish, shellfish, lobster, etc. need only butter and lemon. JMO

I love a good quality steak without sauce. Occasionally, I like a tad bit of sauce served under the steak.

Love many variations of Hollandaise sauce for eggs bennie.

Interestingly we just hosted our annual Pig Roast (smoked whole pig). For the last 10 years, I have always made several BBQ type sauces to go with it, everything from traditional BBQ sauce, NC vinegar, Alabama White, a Cajun BBQ sauce and an assortment of fruit BBQ sauces.

This year I got lazy and served bottled but locally made BBQ sauces and no one ate them! I guess our guests are spoiled. I will admit neither the pig nor the brisket needed any sauce. LOL

Never use ketchup or mustard as a condiment but I will may use them as an ingredient in a recipe.