111128 Sat Jul 27 21:31:22 -0700 2002 5 7 Chicago Area 0 600835 i swear i heard this on NPR this morning while driving around. i didnt catch all the details so if anyone can add to the story, please do. apparently, there was some kind of rescue effort underway in south africa. people in a pub were trapped somehow (a flood maybe?). an intrepid rescuer used ketchup to outline a helipad so the helicopter could land and pick up the rescuees. (i assume the ketchup came from the pub). the pilot said, 'that ketchup worked great, it looked like day-glo paint'!!! i'm not making this up. also, america's test kitchen, a tv show from the cook's illustrated magazine people did a blind taste test of 13 brands of ketchup. the fancy ones (extra ingredients) did poorly. first place, heinz, 2d was del monte, 3rd was my favorite, hunt's. Sat Jul 27 21:31:22 -0700 2002 0 joan 1 600839 "also, america's test kitchen, a tv show from the cook's illustrated magazine people did a blind taste test of 13 brands of ketchup. the fancy ones (extra ingredients) did poorly. first place, heinz, 2d was del monte, 3rd was my favorite, hunt's." I would take this with a grain of salt, as it's probably not terribly surprising that the most popular ketchups are the ones that taste like ketchup you've had all your life because they ARE what you've had all your life. For instance, I really like Muir Glen's organic ketchup, available at Whole Foods and such places, but I find a lot of people are thrown the first time by a ketchup that tastes like really good tomatoes and not primarily like sugar and seasonings with a vague hint of tomato. Similarly, I remember some years ago the Trib did a taste test of root beers and Sprecher's from Milwaukee came in dead last-- while first place went to the Jewel house brand. Again, I assume that people were reacting positively to something that tasted like the industrial root beer flavorings that they've tasted all their lives, and negatively to something that has the floral bouquet of real vanilla and other flavors. Or maybe the Trib was just sucking up to a big advertiser, who knows.... Sat Jul 27 22:08:03 -0700 2002 600835 0 Mike G 2 600848 hi mike, i'm sure your absolutely right about people liking what they grew up with. and chris kimball, editor of cooks' illustrated made that point on the show. he had picked del monte as his 1st choice because it was what he was he had grown up with. on the other hand, ketchup should taste like....ketchup. ie: tomatoes, vinegar, salt. when other flavors, spices are thrown in the mix it's really something else. isnt it? joan Sun Jul 28 08:20:28 -0700 2002 600839 0 joan 3 600853 At least ten years back, the Boston Globe did a comparison test of numerous varieties of gourmet ketchups, including those made from peaches, etc. As a joke, they threw in Heinz. Which won tops from every taster. There's a lot of great sauces and relishes out there, but ketchup they ain't. Sun Jul 28 11:13:03 -0700 2002 600848 0 ironmom 3 600854 Joan, You write to Mike, “you’re absolutely right about people liking what they grew up with.” There’s a lot of truth to that, of course, but I think that some of us now react negatively to specific foods (or condiments) BECAUSE we grew up with them. No doubt, many of us ate a lot of bad things as kids. Canned asparagus. Second-rate bologna. Hostess fruit pies. Unfortunately, I think we tend to consign many innocent foods to the category of “bad things we ate as kids.” But just because we ate a lot of bad things as kids doesn’t mean that all the food we ate as kids was bad. Catsup is a mainstay of baby boom childhood. Kind of like chocolate milk, peanut butter and McDonald’s French fries. I’m afraid that the reaction against some of the more egregiously awful examples of childhood foods has caused people to have a generally negative reaction to catsup in general, and varieties like Heinz in particular. But that’s not fair. My point (and I do have one) is that we sometimes tend to throw babies out with bathwater. Vive catsup! Long live Quisp! Meat loaf uber alles! (Joan, I know you like catsup, so this diatribe is not directed specifically at you.) Sun Jul 28 12:08:01 -0700 2002 600848 0 David Hammond 1 600844 Joan, I followed this breaking story with some eagerness last week. In addition to its well documented anti-carcinogenic properties, apparently the life-saving qualities of the Ultimate Condiment are endless. I've attached a link to the story. Just goes to show: you can't go wrong keeping a bottle of the rich red sauce around the house. Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/2146477.stm Sun Jul 28 00:29:29 -0700 2002 600835 0 David Hammond