I've never been a fan of condiments. Never cared for mustard or ketchup on things that most people like. I will use mustard in a sauce sometimes and the only time I buy ketchup is when I'm making TBQ sauce, the only bbq sauce that I actually like. Moe loves Chile Sauce for his Tourtiere so for the last 8 years I've been making and canning it. I use Sharon's (Chase) recipe.

This years batch. I have a few people that love this sauce too so I give half away.

What a nice gift from your friend!

DH makes salad dressing and tartar sauce, and assorted sauces to accompanying whatever he happens to be cooking.

I'm not big on side sauces or condiments. I do make pesto, but that's mostly to put on pasta, not as a condiment. Also, roasted red pepper sauce with my sweet pepper harvest, but here again that's mostly for pasta.

Not sure what qualifies as a condiment. I make chutneys, pickles, pestos, salad dressings and raitas, etc.

I used to make a few things like salsa and chipotle ketchup back when I grew too many tomatoes. I still dig up horseradish roots every fall and make 10 times more processed horseradish than we can possibly use in a year.

I love condiments, dressings and sauces! I would rather use them than S&P at the table. I make a lot of sandwiches and will put just about anything in them. With sauces and condiments, it's easy to transform simple foods into adventures. I don't can. But I can whip up something good in a trice.

While I can make perfectly good mayonnaise, I only bother when using it as a sauce on a plated dish for company (i.e., practically never). I like Ojai Cook Organic Mayonnaise which comes in glass jars. Don't store too long--it will degrade. It's really real. I also like Simply Heinz Ketchup (which doesn't have weird stuff and tastes like the ketchup of my childhood) and French's yellow mustard. There are other condiments I'll buy as well, especially "Asian" ones and complex combos I don't know, for their unique qualities, and their readiness for sandwich duty. Dressing for salads, artichokes and the like are mostly à la minute and from my imagination and spice cabinet. Cooked sauces might begin, at least, with a recipe or objective. I should do more herb sauces, like pesto, but that takes more thought, effort and washing up.... Every so often, I do make what I'd class as relishes. Caramelized onions, pickled mustard seeds, etc. They hold pretty well in the fridge.

Ann! Is that really you? I’ve missed your posts! Please keep posting 🩷

I used to make barbecue sauce from scratch, but then I found Sweet Baby Rays, so that process came to an end. The only thing I mix from scratch is salad dressing: red wine vinegar, olive oil, garlic, oregano, and red pepper flakes.

Pesto. I've been graced with an abundance of basil from a single earthbox planter, and so far, I've made a couple of quarts - most of which is in the freezer, because we can only use so much. I made some with pine nuts and some with walnuts - I think I prefer the walnuts.

P.S. An easy way to propagate fresh herbs is to use some of the cut fresh kind from the grocery store and stick a few sprigs in water until they sprout roots - I now have rosemary, basil and sage I've started that way.

It's wonderful to see you here again, Ann. Like you, I can Sharon/Chase's chile sauce every year, my kids use it for sloppy joe sauce.

I also can catsup and KatieC's chipotle catsup, various pickles from dill to bread and butter, some pickled hot peppers for Elery, sweet relish and, of course, my salsa. Also some peach salsa and habanero gold jelly for those cheese thumbprints, although that may not be a condiment.

I also put several jars of parsley pesto into the freezer when I wanted to use up the rest of the season's parsley before hard frost this fall.

Annie

Annie, I was always impressed and I still am by all the canning that you do. I definitely can't call myself a canner. Moe considers my making the Chile Sauce for him each year an act of love.

I make pesto, picked daikon radish slices and Vietnamese pickled vegetables fairly regularly, and I used to make all kinds of chutneys (loquat chutney is awesome).

I keep a bottle of Heinz around, but mostly make the rest of the basics. Mayo, kimchi, sauerkraut, salsas, chili sauce etc, Relishes but I gave up on cucumber pickles. Pesto in the freezer when I have basil or garlic scapes.

Latest favorites are garlic scape mustard and tomato jam. Of course, he adds sriracha to all of it.

I make pickled red onion quite frequently same for pickled cucumber. Pesto when the basil bushes are in full growth. I also occasionally make Sleevendog’s pickled mustard seed.

Edited to add.

I was given some lovely lemons and as I proceeded to cut some up I realized I also make pickled lemons.!

Thanks, Ann, for the compliment! I enjoy canning and grew up doing it, so it seems like a very natural extension to my annual garden. Grow it and put it in jars to eat later, LOL. I know it IS an act of love for you to make that for Moe, though, so he's right!

Neely reminded me that I also make Sleevendog's pickled mustard seed, it seems like that gets used as fast as I can make it. I also make mustard occasionally, some horseradish sauce and Elery makes Kim Chee but he just eats the stuff, he doesn't use it as a condiment.

Annie

Accord to Merriam Webster..

Well, the habanero gold is on top of the cheese thumbprints and they wouldn't be the same without it, but they're more an ingredient than a condiment. However, I also have been known to stir a spoonful into a bowl of beets as a glaze, I think that would be more of a condiment. So, a multi-purpose ingredient!

So maple syrup on pancakes would be a condiment, but what about jelly on toast? And if the jelly is a condiment, what about the butter? I've never considered butter a condiment but I guess it probably is....

All kinds of questions, LOL.

Annie

Annie, I think the butter is an ingredient because it transforms the toast, Buttered toast is the name of it on a menu, too. If you're just eating plain toast with a dab of butter added here and there just before consuming, it would be a condiment. Same for jelly, I think. But, if you're like my menfolk, who butter the whole slice then dab on bits of lumpy jam, then the jam is the condiment. Buf if you're awake enough to argue the definition of condiment, breakfast is probably over, anyway...

You are reminding me that I have a lot if maple syrup on hand. I had bought a couple of pints from my nephew and his bride who dove into syrup making last spring. Then at Christmas I was given another quart by him and another pint by a friend.

Maybe a batch of granola…

Yum, what a delicious excess to have on hand! I do drizzle it on my oatmeal, but that wouldn't use up quarts and pints! I did make some baked apple/maple oatmeal today that used half a cup, but not quarts.

plllog, I also butter the entire slice but then dip it into my soft egg. If I'm having toast with jam I don't use butter. If I'm having toast with butter I don't use jam. Odd, I know.

Annie

😁 Annie, when the mens' idea of going on a diet is butter OR jam, and one fewer cookie after lunch, it's a totally different thing. I'm with you on "or" being normal. :) So, runny egg yolk as the condiment, right?

Just to prove how differently we all think …to me an egg of what ever kind with toast buttered or not is a ”meal”/dish” without condiments. Jam on toast I’m a little unsure about but inclined to think it too is a ”dish” although jam is of course a condiment. But then the whole no butter on bread confuses me except for eating with Italian food when there is no butter.

I was just being silly. :)

neely, after my recently installed heart stent, the doctors are strongly suggesting a "heart healthy" diet, with no more than 12 grams of saturated fat daily. Since one tablespoon of butter has 7 grams of saturated fat, half of my "daily allowance", I'm trying to learn to eat dry toast, but I really don't like it.

Like you, I see no point in eating bread without butter, so I mostly just avoid bread which is probably good for my weight anyway but it doesn't make me happy!

Annie

“”Like you, I see no point in eating bread without butter, so I mostly just avoid bread which is probably good for my weight anyway but it doesn't make me happy!””

Well said and I try to do this myself.