‘This sauce will change your life!’ 30 brilliant condiments to transform your tired lockdown dishes

guardian ^ | 3/1/2021

[mylife]

When you’re barely allowed out of your home, let alone your neighbourhood, you have to mix things up whenever you can. From Chinese XO to Romanian mujdei and Filipino banana ketchup, these spicy sauces will bring the whole world into your kitchen

Feeling saucy ... Crystal hot sauce, Walkerswood jerk marinade, Best Ghana shito, Lao Gan preserved black bean chilli oil and Maggi liquid seasoning. Feeling saucy ... Crystal hot sauce, Walkerswood jerk marinade, Best Ghana shito, Lao Gan preserved black bean chilli oil and Maggi liquid seasoning. Composite: Simon Leigh/The Guardian Britain is splashing out on condiments like never before. To alleviate the grind of lockdown cooking, we are raiding the global larder way beyond ketchup and brown sauce, to unlock a world of hot, concentrated, punchy flavours with the ability to transform a meal in seconds.

Specialist retailers report booming sales, with the importer MexGrocer shifting double its usual amount of Valentina hot sauce last year. At one stage, sales of Lao Gan Ma chilli oils were up a staggering 1,900% at the online shop Sous Chef, a repository of revelatory sauces. But what should you try next?

We asked leading chefs and food obsessives for their homemade sauce hacks and store cupboard secrets, most of which are readily available online if you cannot get to an Asian or African supermarket or a continental deli. Please note: no one suggested serving roast chicken with mint sauce.

[Jimmy The Snake]

HB Sauce from England. Kind of like a sweet A1 sauce

[mylife]

Hot for hots sake is retarded.
I love hot, but demand flavor.

[Bob434]

Thats OK, they grow protein in a la b now

[rktman]

“Lockdown”? Oh, brits. Carry on.

[mylife]

I quite agree.

[dainbramaged]

Mae Ploy sweet chili sauce from Thailand is a fine condiment. Very mild heat, good flavor.

[deport]

Gravy with Shito
(at top, green, red and black)

Never seen green but
have seen red and black....

[mylife]

Mae Ploy makes good stuff.

[mylife]

Mae Ploy makes good stuff.

[CardCarryingMember.VastRightWC]

“I’ll have All-Sauce, Lorraine.”

[Bob434]

Anyone try the filipino banana ketchup? I can’t do tomatoes unfortunately? Does it have tomato too?, guess i could look, it up lol. Sounds interesting though, wonder if they mean a and peppers though, prob not

Prefer teriyaki myself to soy sauce on rice at least. A yoje have a good catchup alternative without to to 🍅? It stinks that I can’t enjoy this gs like chili, spaghetti sauce, etc anymore, also have issues with garlic sadly 😢 I became allergic to it somehow. Get pretty sick, shaky, weak, dizzy and it takes days to leave. Life is a downer when you Gant have tomatoes and garlic, ruins so many dishes for me. Even going g out to eat, chefs just love garlic on everything practically

[mylife]

I think banana ketchup has tomato, banana and fish sauce.
teriyaki is just soy sauce mixed with sugar

[Hatteras]

"Feeling saucy ... Crystal hot sauce, Walkerswood jerk marinade, Best Ghana shito, Lao Gan preserved black bean chilli oil and Maggi liquid seasoning. Feeling saucy ... Crystal hot sauce, Walkerswood jerk marinade, Best Ghana shito, Lao Gan preserved black bean chilli oil and Maggi liquid seasoning."

Boy! You can say that again!

[rlmorel]

AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

My first thought as well!

[clashfan]

My two favorite hot sauces are Gray’s Authentic Jamaican Hot Pepper Sauce and Grace Hot Pepper Sauce. They are both made in Jamaica and have very nice flavor, not just heat. Walkerswood is one of several good Jamaican jerk marinades. The Grace brand is a very good one.
A very nice all purpose seasoning is Grace “Caribbean Traditions” Chicken Seasoning, which I especially like to use on cabbage. We buy ours at the local Kroger, but not all Krogers have Caribbean items.

[central_va]

Dave's Insanity Sauce. I can't use it. One drop is overwhelming...

[OldCountryBoy]

My new favorite is Marzetti Sriracha Bourbon Sauce. I had to buy 2 gallons of it, but everyone that tries it loves it, and I give them a bottle full.

[mylife]

Grace is also my go to.

[Yo-Yo]

[clashfan]

I have had Dave’s Insanity Sauce. As I recall, it’s mostly heat not flavor. I no longer seek out the hottest I can find. It has to taste good too.

I eat a lot of Jamaican style steamed cabbage/onion/carrot along with rice or cornbread or both, so I find the Grace hot pepper sauce indispensable. Some fine eating!