Remember the days when the thickness of ketchup was a selling point? Those days, of course, are long gone. It’s got to be soupy to get of the squeeze bottle.
Guldens mustard. A very nice, spicy enough but not pretentious brown mustard. Soup now. The jars hold the same soup that they need for the squeeze bottles.
Today, I was in the mood for tartar sauce on my fish. Hadn’t had it in a while; it was time. Various brands of tartar sauce soup in squeeze bottles were my only option. Not one single brand available in a jar.
Heavens forbid that I should have to use a knife, fork, spoon, or even tap the bottom of the bottle to get condiments on my food. Of course, pretty soon my pork chops and applesauce will come conveniently pre-mixed; just squeeze onto my plate and microwave for 30 seconds.
I haven’t noticed any change in the thickness of Heinz or Guilden’s. The squeeze bottle was designed to squeeze out thick condiments, not the other way around (why would Heinz or Guilden’s mess with their recipe?).
You do tend to get the watery part when you first squeeze, but that always happened – it’s just that the watery part was on the top and could be mixed in (with mustard. With ketchup, you used to get that if you didn’t shake the bottle first).
Can’t speak for Gulden’s, but Heinz doesn’t seem any less thick. I sometimes need to use whole bottles of ketchup to make barbecue sauce, and when you rip out the nozzle, it still takes a bit of banging to get that stuff out. I end up pouring in cider vinegar and shaking it up to get it all out. From what I can tell, it’s as thick as it always has been.
Actually, ketchup was served in squeeze bottles when I was a kid. The holes were even smaller than they are now, but there was never any problem getting it onto you hamburger.
The only problem with the upside-down bottles is that the vinegar separates and thus you often get a vinegary mess on first squeeze. But the condiment itself is no thinner.
Heinz ketchup is as thick as ever. Even with the upside-down bottles, you still have to tap it on the table a few times to get it to dispense without splattering.
These days many come in bottles that can stand on their lids, so all the sauce runs down to the bottom and is near the lid when you open it. It’s just as thick as ever, and only takes a little squeeze to get it out (and any liquid gathers on top of the sauce, away from the lid.) Much better than the old days of glass bottles, where nothing comes out, then the whole thing comes out at once.
I haven’t noticed any difference in thickness lately. However, I refuse to use squeeze bottle tartar sauce. I use Bennet’s or Hoffman House tartar sauce; they are in jars.
I hate that pickle relish comes in squeeze bottles now. You can still get it in jars, but at some “add your own condiments” places, the relish is in squeeze bottles. So you get a big dose of relish tasting liquid and a couple of pickle chunks no matter how hard you shake the damn thing.
Shake and shake the ketchup bottle,
First a little, then a lot’l.
– Ogden Nash
Heinz used to make a small, squat ketchup bottle with a wide mouth. I thought it was the best invention ever; you could spoon it, pour it, or even stir it for consistency, and unlike a narrow mouth bottle, you could control the pour. Haven’t seen this packaging for decades.
Glass packaging results in more breakage and higher transportation costs to transport the product, due to increased weight. I haven’t noticed a difference in the consistency of the product in condiments since to the switch to polyester bottles about 8-10 years ago.
Yeah, those things suck. I end up squeezing a glop of relish onto a plate, then transfering the good parts to my burger. Nothing like dirtying up another plate just because the relish people think they’re being helpful.
A whole bunch of liquid and a couple of chunks, until all of a sudden it gloops out three times as much as you want. Someday, someone will invent a way to make a squeeze bottle for relish, but it hasn’t happened yet.
I had a long, vulgar, rant-filled post written out but decided to delete it, but I hope that Frank will not mind a brief hijack to ask if anyone knows of a decent tartar sauce that dosen’t taste like it has 18 pounds of sugar (or corn syrup or any other sickly sweet additive) dumped into each bottle?
I don’t use tartar sauce too often, as I usually stick to lemon juice and a dash of a quality Louisiana hot sauce, but once in a while (especially with fried fish) a little tartar sauce is a nice touch. In most restaurants TS is usually quite good, and does not have the overwhelming sweetness that most jars of tartar sauce from the stores all seem to have.
Anyone know if a good brand I should seek out? (I have tried Heinz, Skippers and a few other random brands and have been grossed out with each one)
