Serious Eats
Serious Heat: Ketchups to Set Your Mouth on Fire
Editor's note: On Thursdays, Andrea Lynn, associate editor of Chile Pepper magazine, drops by to drop some serious heat.
Even the biggest food snobs among us love ketchup. When I was in culinary school, a chef/instructor scoffed at the need for a ketchup recipe in our homework binder. "How can you improve on Heinz?" he asked. Well, we've discovered one way--add the power of chiles. While Heinz makes their own spicy ketchup spiked with Tabasco, we prefer these chile-ketchup concoctions, all highlighted in the March issue of Chile Pepper.
Scott S. Clinton
Dixie Delight reigns as a thick, robust ketchup-flavored hot sauce that will bring a little love to meatloaf.
Melinda's offers a whole lot of ketchup craziness these days: The banana ketchup is ideal for lovers of the crescent-shaped fruit with a sweet-tart blend; in the chipotle version, ketchup plays second fiddle to the smoldering smokiness of the chipotle; the jalapeño ketchup is a hot and powerful blend of tangy heat; and the habanero variety won us over with a hint of clove and spicy sizzle that made magic with our sweet-potato fries.
Miss Anna's Sweet and Sassy Sauce, from the Virgin Islands, has a host of ingredients, from beet sugar to vegetable juices like carrot, celery and watercress. The end result is a ketchup brimming with flavors for a tangy, heat-filled, salty perfection.
Rick Daddy's Spicy Ketchup has that familiar tomato flavor we all love with the delightful addition of the power and pep of red savina. Bring on the burger!