Be Excellent To Each Other

Tiptrees, famous for their excellent jams have decided to dip their toes into the murky world of ketchup. Or "tomato sauce" as they call it.



Encased in a pleasing glass bottle, I thought I'd give this a go. After all, it was the pleasing glass bottle that got me hopelessly addicted to Fentimans Cola.

The taste, well slightly like tomato puree. It doesn't taste as much of vinegar and salt as Heinz. And it is as pleasingly thick as Heinz used to be.

I've only had one meal with it. I think it is marginally more expensive than standard fare, but one to keep around for a gormet bacon sandwich or a special meal. Heinz for the day to day though.

Initial impression? 902 Bananas (subject to revision).

I think there are standards as to what you are allowed to call tomato sauce and what has to be ketchup. Presumably, how much tomato sauce is in it.

I tried a bottle of this a few months ago. It was too sweet for my liking.

Looking at it, it is quite high in sugar content.

I really wouldn't use it for day to day, but am looking forward to trying it on a bacon sandwich. There is the sweetness, but it tastes of tomatoes far stronger than Heinz.

I've never understood ketchup being sold in glass bottles. It always seems to end up far more awkward as a result.

And pretty wasteful too.

I had that one once, when it was on special offer. Went very nice with a good burger.

Of the sauce, or glass? Glass is quite recyclable, I thought, but getting all the sauce out is a pain.

Mind, it's still better than the platic bottles with the squidgy valves; the ones requiring a certain amount of pressure before anything comes out, but way too much pressure to have any control over exactly how much does.

Totally, they suck utter ass. The ones where if you forget to shake the bottle EVERY time you use it you end up with a jet wash of tomatoey water on your chips.

I really dislike ketchup, brown sauce and the like, but



is quite a good game. I like to see how much mess I can make accidentally on purpose when making smiley faces out of food, the most basic face being cornish pasty mouth and blobs of ketchup for eyes. The pasty can be placed either way up depending on how happy/angry you are with Craig whoever.

I only realised I sorta like tomato sauce a few months ago when I had it on a roll and slice. I'd still rather not have it though

ketchup is rank. Brown sauce rules. So much more flavour and it goes with anything. ANYTHING

Has to be ketchup with fried egg butties..

Brown sauce with every thign else..

I believe that this is the ketchup that Gordon Ramsay uses at his restaurants where appropriate, notably at Plane Food (Terminal 5 place) on the breakfast menu. Absolutely lush with grilled tomato, and doesn't have the cloying acidity you get with Heinz.

I approve.

Things do seem to taste better from glass bottles though.

Agree. I don't mind the glass bottles and at least you can recycle them. If only they made them a bit bigger like the passata jars, with wide necks so you can stand them on the lid..

That's because it tastes like Tomato Jam.

Glass is also nicer to hold and feel. More 'pleasingly tactile' you could say.

The best ketchup in the world is Ass Kickin' Ketchup.

Looks less chavvy than a large squeezy bottle of Heinz on the table, too.

I made chilli ketchup just after Christmas. It started when I boiled a ham in Coca-cola, and MyFinger and I decided we wanted to use the pan juices. We added vinegar, minced chillis, garlic, a tin of tomatoes, blended, and reduced. We were aiming for a sort of chilli barbeque sauce but we vastly overdid the chilli, so we ended up adding three more tins of tomatoes to get it back down to table sauce temperatures. It's very nice now.

Also, American ketchups are almost all made with high fructose corn syrup rather than sugar, and aren't very nice. Danielle loved our ketchups so much she took a bottle home with her!

Their chocolate is shit, too. And their cheese. And their cars.

I made chilli ketchup too recently. Started with a bottle of expensive organic tomato sauce, added a tablespoon of Dave's and stirred well.

My old boss was an Yankee and his parents, after a visit were so impressed with British condiments in general that they took a load back with them. Ketchup, brown sauce, Branston etc.

So that's one thing we do right.

Yes.

I must be king chav with my 1.2kg squeezy Heinz ketchup, then.

I put Branston Chili and Jalapeno relish on my sausage and chips last night.

I had to laugh when you were talking about that last weekend, as I'm a big Stephen Colbert fan, and he goes on about High Fructose Corn Syrup all the time.

There are established rules for this kind of thing, you know? Brown sauce on sausages, ketchup on bacon. I thought we all knew this?

Ketchup on Bacon?



Get out.

Ketchup on everything. I thought Zio would understand this, given how indiscriminately he gets his sperm everywhere.

Great. Now my brain has associated ketchup and cum.

That's the tipping point man. I'm out of here.

Tomato Sauce... on Bacon?

*shakes head in disbelief*

Is that chavvy or americanny or spends too much time looking at porny?

I am with you brown sauce on bacon!!

The Gush is a terrible affliction.

I'm frankly staggered by the lack of condiment ettiquette on display here.

Please, no ketchup criticism or you'll get your wrists slapped.

Saucy!

I think we're straying off-topic here. Less brown noise and more red signal!

Thank you. I go out for a day and the entire thread descends into a mess.

Sainsburys do a "The Best" (or whatever they call it) tomato sauce. Worth trying?

The only ketchup I'll have apart from Heinz is Daddies. All others are in one way or another wrong. Lots of people in work are saying that Branston is good, in the same way that Branston beans are somehow better. I didn't really like them much.

I dont like katsup or brown sauce, only BBQ sauce!

This stuff is quite pleasant and surprisingly hot for Heinz:

Although I like both so much I end up making two egg sarnies and having one of each

I got some Heinz mayo yesterday with lime and green chilis. And it's bloody lovely.

Then you simply have to do everything you can to get some Jack Daniels BBQ marinade. The smokey mesquite one is utterly to die for.

*Intrigued*

What's katsup?

Milk?

I actually got the brand

Doh ! It's actually made by Branston and it looks like this. (see pic).

It tastes very zesty and has a lovely stinging kick to it. It's so nice I am just about to go and make a sandwich with it in