October 30, 2007
By Maggie Heyn Richardson
You can keep your cold ketchup.
Friday night I sat down to a homemade grilled burger and a plate of fries, but the lovely pile of food was thrown off balance by a certain pet peeve: cold ketchup. Call me petty, but the sensation of a hot, crispy French fry dipped in 50-degree pasty tomato stuff seems all wrong. Suddenly, what's supposed to be hot goes cold. Me no likey.
Ketchup, I think, belongs at room temperature. So does yellow mustard. Neither bottle specifies refrigerating after opening, after all. Still, a righteous many -- my husband among them -- believe a condiment's place is in the ice box. Countless times, he's looked at me askance when he finds the big red squeeze bottle in the pantry. My mother-in-law shares his sentiment, and wonders secretly about my upbringing. They're not alone. I don't meet too many others in the room-temp camp. But I have to believe that in all the burger joints out there, the ketchup bottles in the middle of the table aren't headed to the fridge at close of business.
When it comes to ketchup, where do you fall?
Comments
Posted by sarah on October 31 at 3:16 p.m.
I'm with ya! Ketchup should always be at room temperature. I always keep packets of it from take-out in a drawer so I have it on hand. My husband is also a frosty ketchup fan. You're not alone.
Posted by columbusga on November 3 at 10:31 p.m.
If you have ever had the opportunity to eat at a restaurant that refills their ketchup bottles, and reached the threshold where new (fresh) ketchup meets old (molded) ketchup - then you would be a fan of refrigerated condiments.
Posted by Jon_Cogburn on November 4 at 8:53 a.m.
I just discovered this blog. What a great thing! 225 is really providing a fantastic service to Baton Rouge by running Richardson's columns. The Advocate just presents puff pieces by people chuffed to get a free meal and who don't cook and have no experience of fine cuisine (whether it be French bourgeois, haute, nouveau, fusion, or that Barcelona inspired new-new stuff with tons of foams, liquid nitrogen, superheating, and weird kelp-derived congealing agents). Maggie's reviews are just incredibly food literate and informed by a great love of food. B.R. is really lucky to have her.
RE: this post. Yeah, cold ketchup is unnatural. I think European ketchup tends to have more vinegar in it. I always thought this was because their diet hasn't been destroyed by ever sweeter strains of corn and its derivatives working into everything prepackaged or fast. But now I think it is maybe to accommodate warm storage better?
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