Thursday 14 March 2013

Fun Online Polls: Condiments

From The Metro:

Over 1,000 people were asked to name their favourite table top condiment by shopping discount site NetVoucherCodes.co.uk...

A NetVoucherCodes spokesperson commented: "We all like a good sauce so it is interesting to see what the nation voted as its favourite. It was surprising to see that Heinz Ketchup didn’t win. A couple of respondents had put down Marmite as their favourite condiment however these we disqualified on the count of Marmite being a spread."

Top Ten
1. Hellmann’s Mayonnaise – 23%
2. Heinz Tomato Ketchup – 22%
3. HP Brown Sauce – 13%
4. Coleman’s Mustard – 11%
5. Branston Pickle – 9%
6. Daddies Brown Sauce – 8%
7. Tartare Sauce – 6%
8. Malt Vinegar – 4%
9. Heinz Salad Cream – 3%
10. Horseradish – 1%


That's my kind of poll! I can't track down the official poll results at the netvouchercodes.co.uk website, but a few things spring to mind...

* I think it's incorrect to say "We all like a good sauce", there must be a few people somewhere who don't like "a sauce" and from the point of view of such people, there is no such thing as "a good sauce", is there?

* Fair play to them for disqualifying Marmite (I like the stuff but it's not a table top condiment).

* I do wonder whether the responses were unprompted. Items 7, 8 and 10 are generic kinds of condiment and the others are specific brand names.

* Are there really people who can tell the difference between HP and Daddies? The Wiki entry says "The brown sauce is similar to HP Sauce, but without tamarind, without tomatoes and with less malt vinegar but more spirit vinegar... The brand is now owned by the H. J. Heinz Company, having been bought as part of the acquisition of HP Foods from previous owner Groupe Danone in 2005. Like HP Sauce, production of Daddies Favourite has been moved to the Netherlands."

* It's spelled Colman's Mustard without the "e".

18 comments:

Pablo said...

So Heinz make Heinz beans AND HP beans eh!

Mark Wadsworth said...

P, yup, and Daddies. It's called cornering the market.

DBC Reed said...

@MW
You are glossing over the capitalist scandal of OK Sauce which is now practically unobtainable, having been taken over by Colmans.This is a really fruity sauce even now ,though Wikipedia says the the fruit content has gone down. I have come across it round Norwich (Colman's base) funnily enough.Another reason to hate capitalism in my view: they get you hooked on stuff then won't let you have it.If State Capitalism is the answer (as Obama seems to think about Detroit) then so be it.

Pavlov's Cat said...

I've never put it to a blind challenge

But I'd like to think I could tell the difference between HP and Daddies

To me Daddies always seems to taste 'sweeter' and not quite right. I will have my bacon sandwich au-naturel if Daddies is the condiment on offer thanks very much

Anonymous said...

Interestingly, I have recently discovered that you can use Marmite as a cooking ingredient (add it to your tomato based pasta sauce!). Surely all it needs is a little thinning, and you'll have a condiment :D

Mark Wadsworth said...

DBC, I've not seen "OK" sauce for years. I think they went into publishing a celeb-based magazine instead.

PC, it must be the lack of tamarinds and tomatoes :-(

F, yes, you can use Marmite as stock, and you can buy thinner stuff in squeezable bottles, but I'm not sure what you'd put it on other than toast (or sandwiches).

Old BE said...

Daddies split the brown sauce vote!

BE

Mark Wadsworth said...

BE, well no, if you add Daddies' 8% to HP's 13%, then brown sauce would still have only come third (albeit close third rather than distant third).

Old BE said...

Yes but if brown sauce brands keep entering the market like this we'll never be rid of the awful continental mayonnaise! Mayonnaise-sceptics will end up getting a pro-mayonnaise government!

BE

Mark Wadsworth said...

BE, I am continental and I do like mayo, my gripe is that it is not a "table top" condiment, you have to keep it in the fridge between meals. Stuff like ketchup or brown sauce will happily survive on the "table top".

Bayard said...

"there must be a few people somewhere who don't like "a sauce"

Yup, and I'm one of them. Not that I have anything against sauces with particular foods, horseradish with beef being my favourite, but I really can't see the point of adding a particular condiment to everything, regardless of what it tasted before you added it. That goes for salt and pepper, too, which, weirdly, didn't get a mention and are the condiments. So yes, I think there was prompting.

Anonymous said...

Branston fruity sauce is quite a nice brown sauce, and not made by those Heinz people who took over HP, moved production to the Netherlands and removed the key ingredient which was ANCHOVIES.

DBC Reed said...

As usual too much uncalled-for levity on this, by no means trivial, subject.The fate of OK Sauce is a signal instance of the 'calamitous' ( according to Helen Mercer) consequences of abolishing Resale Price Maintenance.This small company would have had tie-in arrangements with many different British retailers who, in turn, supported a huge range of small manufacturers.After the disaster of 1964 , retailers could pick and choose,drop lines by preferring to do deals with broad-range suppliers, discount on price and make the manufacturers suffer etc.As usual barmy right wingers did more damage to British society than ever the unions did ("white as the driven snow" according to Enoch Powell).
On a lighter note I have just seen an Eat More Pies lorry.I have a feeling that this might be an even better rallying-call than Eat More Chips :its a tricky one.

Mark Wadsworth said...

AC, are there any brown sauces with anchovies any more? Don't Lea & Perrins do a thicker version of Worcester Sauce?

DBC, as you said yourself, Colman's took over OK, so how come they can get their mustard onto the shelves but not the OK?

Pavlov's Cat said...

Can't abide mayonnaise,

Partial to a bit of salad cream on occasion

Mark Wadsworth said...

PC, at barbecues, mix 50/50 salad cream and mayonnaise and ask people what it is that they are slapping over their salad, boiled eggs etc.

Bayard said...

After doing an experiment with home-made mayonnaise, I am now convinced that if you add vinegar to mayonnasie you get salad cream.

DBC Reed said...

@MW Colmans (owned by Unilever BTW) produce tons of OK Fruity Sauce but can't sell it over here and export it all.But not quite all, as some goes through wholesalers to Chinese restaurants and some Chinese shops in UK.To add to the confusion, OK Sauce can be obtained online or, wait for it! sourced ,through Hing Hong supermarkets or ,more expensively, Amazon (!?!) No, I don't understand it either.