More honey than mustard, “uniquely sharp” it ain’t. Probably better used as a glaze or to impress a dainty mother-in-law. Bees carry an electrostatic charge that is used in pollination. Honey pot has a myriad of meanings from sexual to scatalogical to technological. Egyptians used honey for embalming purposes. Made in Canada.
From the dweebs who brought the world BaconSalt. Not as silly as it sounds; using fat drippings for making mayo has been around forever. Hard to say whether Jon Stewart gagging on it will hurt or help. The BLT is perhaps the greatest American sandwich. In the States, per capita consumption of bacon amounts to 18 pounds a year. Squeal like a pig?
Pretty much started the habanero craze. Both the green and red versions owe their brightness to artificial coloring, the Kutbil-ik version is naturally colored and hot as hell. The Scoville test involves diluting pepper extract into sugar water until five testers can no longer detect the burn. Chiles are fruits, not vegetables. Yucateco has its own pepper fields down in the Yucatan and was quite pleased when a wire service photo showed Barack Obama enjoying their product. Sí, se puede.
This cult fave from Sheffield is not a relish at all but a vinegar based sauce that can be found in local fish and chips shops. The Yorkshire dialect is not slang and goes back to Old English. Sheffield is England’s musical ground zero and has produced countless bands of international stature. It’s all in the sauce, apparently.
Easy to make, silly to buy. The etymology is fuzzy and somewhat sad. Jimmy McCurry? James C. Hurray? “Give me the curry?” More likely is some Italian bastardization since the sauce’s roots are firmly planted in northern Italy. Gauchos suffer more existential angst than your average cowboy and prefer red wine to whiskey.
Made in Mexico for the gabacho market who gladly pay double for the wooden cap. Could be blamed for the cute marketing of hot sauces along with that certain poster by Jennifer T. Thompson; no surprise that she has since turned her attention to microbrews. Yawn.
Not to be confused with the cheaper “non-brewed condiment” vinegars popularized by killjoys back in temperance era England. Regardless of religion, fish and chips is a traditional Friday night meal throughout Britain. Bradford, Halifax and Keighly form the “Haddock Triangle”, cod is an increasingly rare find everywhere else. In a fit of Victorian branding the founder’s son renamed the product “Sarson’s Virgin Vinegar”, but it has since returned to a more humble label in a squeezeable brown bottle. Salt and vinegar, simply marvelous.
Allegedly went west in covered wagons and was loved by Honest Abe. Like many other condiment makers, Eugene R. Durkee started as a druggist and wound up in Brooklyn. Durkee got ahead of the competition by registering his trademarks, not common at the time. Durkee’s hexagon shaped chili sauce bottle is the holy grail for bottle collectors.
Straight outta East Cork Ireland. “Country” relishes run the gambit ingredient-wise but in Ireland they are generally tomato based. Ballymaloe’s celebrity chef Tim Allen was convicted of downloading kiddie porn back in 2003 but has made a nice comeback with a recent spread in Town & Country. The Holy Joes are not amused.
From Angola/Mozambique to Portugal to Brazil to Newark’s Ironbound, the African birdseye is one hell of a pepper. Nandos, a South African chicken chain has done much to popularize “peri-peri” but their food is mediocre at best. Most Portuguese and Brazilian restaurants make their own piri-piri, often with an opening that only allows a dribble; feel free to unscrew the cap and let the lava flow.
