It's now the turn of condiments to do battle! I thought this would be an easy poll to compile as I believed I knew what a condiment is and what condiments are popular. How wrong I was!
A condiment, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is "something used to enhance the flavor of food." And, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, a condiment is "a substance such as salt or pepper, used to flavour food." More expansively Marky's, a gourmet food company, stated on its website:
"A condiment is a sauce or other preparation that is added to food to enhance its flavor or appearance. Condiments are usually added after the food has been cooked and can be either dry or wet. Common condiments include salt, pepper, vinegar, mustard, ketchup, and mayonnaise."
It seems, much to my surprise and maybe your surprise too, that a condiment includes sauces, dips, herbs, seasonings, spices and even oils that are added to food to enhance its flavour. This definition doesn't leave much out! I just thought condiments are what's on a restaurant table which may vary from restaurant to restaurant and from country to country. Here, it's usually salt, pepper, ketchup and vinegar. Or it's a condiment, like chilli flakes and olive oil, that you can order free of charge to accompany the ordered dish.
But I will go with the expert definition of a condiment even though I've never considered, for example, butter, coleslaw, gravy, guacamole, salsa and sour cream as condiments. And though I've long regarded salt and pepper as condiments, others may not. But what do I know about food!
However, I'm only including condiments that normally accompany savoury foods; I'm excluding condiments that accompany sweet foods like chocolate sprinkles, cinnamon, marmalade, raspberry coulis and sugar.
Also, even though mayonnaise can be regarded as a salad dressing, I'm giving it a separate poll option as mayonnaise is widely used as a condiment with non-salad dishes.
My favourite condiments that I've tried are aioli, brown sauce (especially on sausages), chilli powder/flakes (particularly if generously sprinkled on a pizza), chilli sauce (particularly sweet chilli sauce with a fish dish), English mustard (essential with a good steak; neither the American nor French versions cut the mustard in my book), guacamole, hoisin sauce (crispy shredded duck is nothing without this plum sauce), horseradish sauce (a must with roast beef), ketchup (has to be Heinz though), mango chutney (perfect with an Indian papadum), mint jelly (great with roast lamb ), sour cream, tzatziki (fantastic with Greek grilled food), vinegar (on fish and chips) and Worcestershire sauce (an essential with cheese on toast or Welsh rarebit if you want to be posh), with white pepper being my best condiment (it gives a much bigger kick than black pepper) - see photo below. I sprinkle white pepper on almost every dish before tasting it.
White pepper:
My least favourite condiments are cranberry sauce, lime pickle, miso and salad cream (a disgusting British synthetic concoction trying to resemble a salad dressing), with tartar sauce being my worst condiment - see photo below. The flavour of fish, in my book, is not enhanced by this very tart sauce, unless enhancement takes the form of making fish taste better in comparison to the disgusting taste of tartar sauce. Tartar sauce needs to be banned from kitchens; the United Nations needs to act now!
What is your most and least favourite condiments?
Do you agree with the definition of condiments I've taken with this poll? If not, why not?
Do you routinely add condiments to a dish before tasting the food?
I regularly add condiments to a dish before tasting the dish. The exception is salt which I only ever add if I feel it needs adding after first tasting the dish.
Below is a poll where you can anonymously select your most favourite condiment. Unfortunately only one pick is allowed in the poll. I fully realise that one's choice of condiment is highly dependent on the dish being eaten. But this poll is about your favourite condiment regardless of what dish is being served.
But a poll on this site can only have 20 answer options. There was no room for ajika (a Georgia hot, spicy dip), ajvar (a Balkan condiment), alfredo sauce, anchovy paste, béarnaise sauce, béchamel sauce, brown sauce (eg HP sauce), butter, chimichurri (a South America meat sauce), cocktail sauce (aka seafood sauce), coleslaw/slaw, cranberry jelly/sauce, furikake (a Japanese condiment), garum (a fermented fish sauce), ginger oil/paste/powder, hoisin sauce (a Cantonese sauce), Hollandaise sauce, honey, horseradish sauce (including khrenovina sauce and wasabi), hummus, kawal (a fermented leaves condiment often eaten in Chad and Sudan), lemon juice, mắm nêm (a Vietnamese fermented fish sauce), maple syrup, marinara sauce, mignonette sauce, mint jelly/sauce, miso (a Japanese paste), monkey gland sauce (a South African sauce not made from monkey glands), muhammara (a Syrian hot pepper dip), nước chấm (a Vietnamese dipping sauce), oyster sauce, raita, redcurrant jelly/sauce, salad cream, sesame oil/seeds, shichimi (a Japanese spice mix), ssamjang (a Korean spicy paste), sumbala (a West African fermented bean paste), tahini, taioro (a coconut-based condiment), taramasalata, tartar sauce, teriyaki sauce, tkemali (a Georgian plum sauce), truffle oil, tương (a Vietnamese bean paste), tzatziki, umami paste (a Japanese condiment), velouté sauce and Worcestershire sauce.
I think ketchup will win the poll. But mayonnaise, pepper, salad dressing, salt and vinegar may feature in the poll.
I want to thank @EnigmaInitiative for her helpful advice in compiling this poll. For the record, she disowned my approach to this poll. Obviously, any mistakes with the poll are my mistakes.
Please see the first comment below to see what has won each battle of the food and drinks so far. STOP PRESS: after some last-minute voting, green tea has edged out English breakfast tea to win THE BATTLE OF THE TEAS.
Tartar sauce:
13
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