I never had Heinz Chili Sauce despite seeing it all the time since I assumed it was legit sauce you put in your chili to make spicier, like that “Wendy’s Chili Sauce” (Now called Wendy’s Chili Hot Sauce for clarification) they used to give with their chili back in the day.
It is just tangier ketchup? Arby’s had something called “3 Pepper Sauce” a few years back that tased like ketchup except less sweet and more hot, is that basically Heinz Chili Sauce?
Not really. Different spice set and chunkier, with red and green peppers in it.
My Portland Ketchup was delivered yesterday. I had a chance to try some last night.
Two thumbs up!! It’s still ketchup, nothing exotic about it. But it’s not sweet, the spicing is well-balanced, and the overall tone is ketchup as it used to be and as it should be.
Thanks again.
In a bizarre coincidence I was at Jewel yesterday walking down the condiment aisle and observed a 20-something girl dressed in what looked like pajamas (but in the times of COVID could just be regular clothes) talking to someone on Facetime trying to locate Heinz Chili Sauce. Clearly she had never heard of it before and she was pointing the camera at the shelves until they finally found it on the top shelf above the ketchup. I was also surprised to see that there were a couple other non-Heinz brands of a similar product on the shelf with it…and they clearly were not normal hot sauces or BBQs.
Thought it was wild to see this just after this thread popping up.
I bought my first bottle of chili sauce yesterday. The store brand (Food Club) was a dollar less ($1.99 vs 2.99) but I splashed out for the Heinz. I just tried it and am overall pleased with this sauce. It seems vastly less sweet and more tomato-y with maybe a touch less vinegar than the Hunt’s ketchup I have on hand. However, the label tells a different story.
Each is on a condiment portion basis of 1 Tbsp (17 grams) and has the very same amount of sugar: 3 grams. Sodium is quite a bit higher in the chili sauce (230 vs 180 mg) though I’d have guessed the other way around. The chili sauce is thicker though the ketchup seems stickier and makes a smoother mound. The chili sauce lists vinegar before the sweeteners but I detect less of that distinctive flavor. The chili sauce really does taste like a seafood cocktail sauce without the horseradish. While the chili sauce has a more interesting & complex seasoning profile, there’s nothing spicy about it. As mentioned upthread, it would make a good meatloaf glaze base.
Ingredients:
Heinz Chili Sauce
Hunt’s ketchup
Excuse me, I believe dat’s da Jewel’s.
Shouldn’t you be comparing it to Heinz ketchup, not Hunt’s?
Heinz ketchup (“Simply Heinz”): Tomato concentrate from red ripe tomatoes, distilled vinegar, cane sugar, salt, onion powder, spice, natural flavoring.
160 mg sodium and 4 g sugar per 1 Tbsp.
Yes but Hunt’s is what I had onhand.
My condolences.
I’m a little over half through this bottle of sauce and I like it more than I expected. I’ve been particularly enjoying it for the last week on a batch of meatloaf that I didn’t glaze but have been adding the sauce cold on reheating slices. It does add a very satisfying pop to a hot slice of meatloaf: tangy, sweetened but not too much, there’s a little spice in there and a touch of pickling spices’ flavor. It’s a really nice sauce to keep around for a couple of bucks.
Happened to catch Meet Me in Saint Louis the other day, and one of the opening scenes is the mother (Mary Astor) and the cook (Marjorie Maine) making ketchup in the kitchen. Not very accurate! It looked like red soda pop it was so thin. And the grandpa wanted to dilute it even more!
I like the meatball recipe. But Heinz chili sauce, like Frank’s sauce, tend to be much more expensive than ketchup, say (not quite sure why). I presume folks wanting meatballs or wings will pay for the original thing. You only sometimes see store brand equivalents.
In my experience, Bovril works much better for all of those things.
Yeah, Bovril is good too.
Funny this should come up now. I just finished two open-faced Marmite-and-grilled-cheese sandwiches. Aside from a bowl of chicken soup, they were practically all I had to eat today.
On top of the fact that we can’t seem to pin down the differences between Heinz catsup and chili sauce, Heinz has marched ahead. I present Heinz Ketchili!
https://www.heinz.com/products/00013000001083-sweet-ketchili-ketchup-chili-sauce/
The best cocktail sauce is Heinz chili sauce mixed with as much horseradish as you like.
My grandmother made a marinade for sauerbraten using a couple bottles of Heinz Chili sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, etc. Marinated a chuck roast for 3 days. I can’t wait for cooler weather to make it in a slow cooker.
I love the stuff. A friend once compared it to cocktail sauce, and it is somewhat similar. I think it has a more complex flavor than ketchup, but I can’t really define why I like it so much. I don’t buy it very often but there was a time when I would ask for it in restaurants. I know that Ted Turner’s place always had it at the time.
Meyer’s Superior Cocktail Dip (as featured in the Travis McGee mystery “The Dreadful Lemon Sky”) consisted of Chinese mustard powder moistened to the proper consistency with Tabasco sauce. The unsuspecting would leap several feet in the air upon sampling it.
Wow, that sounds delightful. I’ll have to make some and try it.