Viable alternatives.

[dewi]

So, first of all I'm talking about kids, so please bear that in mind to what I'm saying... kiddies taste buds.

My kids like their sauces... they want their red sauce, their brown sauce and their mayonnaise. The thing is, I don't know what is in those sauces and considering we, as a family, have a varied diet of meats and vegetables... I like to know what they are eating.

So, rather than try to analyse the commercially available sauces, I've been inspired by people here who produce their own (British Red in particular) and I'd like to make a choice about the alternatives.

What can I give my kiddies that satisfies their taste buds, but contains ingredients that doesn't require a chemistry degree to identify? All suggestions considered

 

[British Red]

Sauces are not the simplest thing to make, but they are not that hard. Mayo and mustard are very simple. Ketchup not too bad. We also make a lot of thai sweet chilli sauce, hot sauce, caramalised onion chutney etc. Everything we make uses ingredients we grow or make.

Age depending but if you get them involved in the making, I bet they would love them

 

[santaman2000]

Sauces are not the simplest thing to make, but they are not that hard. Mayo and mustard are very simple. Ketchup not too bad. We also make a lot of thai sweet chilli sauce, hot sauce, caramalised onion chutney etc. Everything we make uses ingredients we grow or make.

Age depending but if you get them involved in the making, I bet they would love them

What he said.

 

[Toddy]

At it's very simplest, tomato sauce is simply passata with seasonings added. If you want it thickened up a bit, heat it up and add a little cornflour that's been dissolved in water.

Brown sauce, bit more vinegary, like a pureed chutney almost, but buy a pack of dried dates and pulp them with some liquid, there's a base and just add to that as you choose.

Indian recipe books are a great starter for sauces.

I wholeheartedly agree with British Red on this though, involve the children and help them to make their own, and it's a great way to make them aware of what they are actually eating. No bad thing in this day and age of 24/7/365 availability of plastic wrapped food. Encourage them to make good choices

Best advice for home made sauces like this is make small quantities, then you don't need to fret about safe storage and if one doesn't work out then it's no great loss, just an, "hmmm, we'll do better next time".

M

 

[Dave]

Jumping in, the one thing I miss is condiments, and I cannot find a low carb one. I got some stupidly priced ketchup, which says 50% less sugars on the front, but its still 19 grams of carbohydrates per 100grams.

[I started a low carb high fat diet. I actually do feel like ive got more energy, but havent lost a huge amount of weight yet. maybe a couple of pounds.]

 

[santaman2000]

At it's very simplest, tomato sauce is simply passata with seasonings added. If you want it thickened up a bit, heat it up and add a little cornflour that's been dissolved in water. ....

Is that catsup? (ketchup) Ours usually has a fair bit of vinegar and sugar as well.

 

[Toddy]

Yep, but the simplest base is passata. It can be made with tomato puree too, but that's a footer to break up and passata works out cheaper too. 3x 500ml for under a pound just now.

Real tomato sauce, from grow your own, skin your own, boil them up and reduce, tomatoes, takes hours to do properly.
Europe has no shortage of tomatoes, or passata

M

 

[Dave]

For Passata Just buy tins of tomatoes, open pour into a tall plastic beaker and put a hand held electric blender in. Instant passata.

They should be made to list the amount of lycopene in the tin, bottle. They vary so much in price.

 

[Toddy]

Jumping in, the one thing I miss is condiments, and I cannot find a low carb one. I got some stupidly priced ketchup, which says 50% less sugars on the front, but its still 19 grams of carbohydrates per 100grams.

[I started a low carb high fat diet. I actually do feel like ive got more energy, but havent lost a huge amount of weight yet. maybe a couple of pounds.]

Tomato puree is under 20 kcals per tablespoonful, (21 per ounce or 28g) passata is less at 32 per 100g.
Vinegar is 18 calories per 100g, seasonings like salt and pepper and chilli, or herbs, don't add much to that, neither does dried onion powder in the quantities you'd need, sugar is about 16 calories per teaspoonful……not a lot needed to give a sweetness to a sauce.

Surprising how low calorie one can make good sauce

Tinned tomatoes are inclined to be awfully watery compared to the pack of passata I find.

M

 

[santaman2000]

I had to look up passata. It appears that it's what we call tomato sauce.

 

[ged]

We aren't all worrying about this too much are we? After all it's not like sauces make up the majority of our calorie intake, and if it's kids we're talking about then you might do better to ration their pocket money rather than their sauces.

 

[British Red]

Jumping in, the one thing I miss is condiments, and I cannot find a low carb one. I got some stupidly priced ketchup, which says 50% less sugars on the front, but its still 19 grams of carbohydrates per 100grams.

[I started a low carb high fat diet. I actually do feel like ive got more energy, but havent lost a huge amount of weight yet. maybe a couple of pounds.]

Easy enough to substitute natural sweeteners like Stevia. You may need to up the vinegar slightly for preservative properties as tomatoes are borderline acidity for preservation purposes.

 

[Dave]

Ok, Red, and Toddy.

So I already have stevia. I just mix passata, and stevia, and vinegar and then the herbs that I want? [Is that sarsons malted vinegar, or the clear stuff?]

Mmm, but that would look nothing like Heinz ketchup?

Do i boil it up and reduce it or something?

[apologies for thread jack dewi]

 

[Toddy]

It will look like Heinz's if you use well strained tomato puree/passata/paste. You might need to add either lemon juice or a bit of citric acid to keep the brightness of the colour (won't do any harm to the preservation either) and the stevia, I don't know about. British Red's the fellow for information on that one.

Generally reducing tomato sauce is a right royal pain. It gloops and spatters everywhere and makes a terrible mess. The spatters hurt too, so take care if you do it that way. It makes for a richer taste, but you kind of circumvent that by not using fresh tomatoes. If you use puree and vinegar, then you're already at the 'sauce' stage anyway. Getting the seasonings right though….that's the tricky bit I think.

M

 

[Dave]

It will look like Heinz's if you use well strained tomato puree/passata/paste. You might need to add either lemon juice or a bit of citric acid to keep the brightness of the colour (won't do any harm to the preservation either) and the stevia, I don't know about. British Red's the fellow for information on that one.

Generally reducing tomato sauce is a right royal pain. It gloops and spatters everywhere and makes a terrible mess. The spatters hurt too, so take care if you do it that way. It makes for a richer taste, but you kind of circumvent that by not using fresh tomatoes. If you use puree and vinegar, then you're already at the 'sauce' stage anyway. Getting the seasonings right though….that's the tricky bit I think.

M

Thanks Toddy, I'll give it a go then.

 

[Goatboy]

We aren't all worrying about this too much are we? After all it's not like sauces make up the majority of our calorie intake, and if it's kids we're talking about then you might do better to ration their pocket money rather than their sauces.

There's an old phrase up here; "mony a mickle macks a muckle." Translated for non Scots to "A lot of little things add up to a big thing."
It's amazing the differences cutting out a number of little hidden" things make, be they speads on bread, condiments, seasoning, dressings and the likes. Some do it for health and some do it to loose weight. It's a bit like how all those ounces and "I'll just pop that in my rucksack just in case" items add up to a heavy pack.
Like Red & Toddy have said it's also.fun to make your own, and the taste can be pretty rewarding too. Things like home made pesto, mayo and tomato sauce can make all the difderence to a meal. Some like homemade mushroom ketchup or Worcestershire sauce take a bit more skill to get right without without stinking the house out.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[Toddy]

If anyone has a good mushroom ketchup recipe I'd be very interested
I bought a bottle a fortnight ago, and it's so salty that HWMBLT just can't use it.

M

 

[Herbalist1]

Easy enough to substitute natural sweeteners like Stevia. You may need to up the vinegar slightly for preservative properties as tomatoes are borderline acidity for preservation purposes.

What Red said. Stevia's great. Also consider xylitol - a sugar alcohol made in Scandinavia from birch trees. Very sweet but with very low impact on blood sugar.

 

[British Red]

Ok, Red, and Toddy.

So I already have stevia. I just mix passata, and stevia, and vinegar and then the herbs that I want? [Is that sarsons malted vinegar, or the clear stuff?]

Mmm, but that would look nothing like Heinz ketchup?

Do i boil it up and reduce it or something?

[apologies for thread jack dewi]

Dave, salt, sugar and acid are the preservatives in sauce. So if we remove one, we may have to up another or preserve in a different way (E.g by freezing, canning etc.)

The recipes are many and varied. Vinegar wise, they are all 5% acetic acid so choice is down to taste rather than effect. Increasingly I prefer less refined sugars (muscovado etc) and wine or cider based vinegars. That's a taste thing though. It's pretty much

Prep
Cook
Strain
Bottle

I can do a ketchup tutorial over Winter if there's interest.

 

[Goatboy]

If anyone has a good mushroom ketchup recipe I'd be very interested
I bought a bottle a fortnight ago, and it's so salty that HWMBLT just can't use it.

M

Morning M,
Well I was out first thing on a mushroom hunt but found nowt
Not a fan of salt so here's the recipe I've used in the past.
Place your mushrooms; sliced finely in a dish/pan building up layers. Between the layers sparingly sprinkle good sea salt (the Orkney stuff with seaweed is nice and isn't bitter like some processed salts.)
Leave for a day then give them a stir/light mash to extract their juice. Repeat for a day or two then strwin off the liquor. Measure the amount of fluid and then boil for ten minutes.
For every pint of liquor add half an ounce of fresh milled black pepper, a quater ounce of bruised ginger root, a blade of mace and a couple of cloves (cloves can be replaced with half a star anise) and a teaspoon of mustard seed.
Simmer for half an hour, remove from heat and pop in a few bruised fresh bay leaves.
Allow to cool, strain and bottle.

Nice with cheese on toast or all the other mushroomy ketchup things we do.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.