Condiments are each and every one. Your favorites don’t just add flavor to a finished dish, they enhance it, transform it into something new, combine the flavors into a harmonious whole, and turn smart food into wonderful food. The best condiments help turn a single bite into an absolute flavor bomb. There’s an explanation for why each and every fast food chain lives and dies because of their sauces, but don’t forget that smart condiments and sauces are just a fast food or a matter of a place to eat, you deserve to have your own arsenal of secret weapons in your pantry that help deepen the flavors of your home kitchen.
With so many features in the market aisles beyond ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise, it can be hard to separate the smart stuff from the bad stuff. That’s why we’re here to give you some winning tips from our food writers. From the foreign aisle to the online marketplace, here are all our favorite condiments and sauces we can’t live with.
Why We Love It:
Bachan is essential. A delicious light teriyaki-like sauce that is perfect for finishing dishes or for basting while cooking. It’s salty, it’s sweet, and it’s well made. The ingredients list is sparse, as it should be: just soy sauce, cane sugar, mirin, tomato paste, ginger, green onion, rice vinegar, garlic, sea salt, and a hint of sesame oil, which helps to deepen the flavor of anything you’re cooking.
Anything you add, whether it’s over rice or steak for browning, will take on that sweet, umami-rich flavor that will please your taste buds.
How I Use It:
In everything! If I’m making a stir-fry, I’ll throw this in it. If I’m looking to brighten up white rice, I’ll pour this all over the place. If I’m cooking some meat, I’ll pour this all over the place. Hell, I’ve even marinated poultry on it, Bachan’s BBQ sauce is a workhorse in the kitchen that works in everything.
Where I do it:
A few years ago, it was a little harder to place Bachan in the local market, but now it’s discovered everywhere from Walmart to Target, Whole Foods, Kroger, and Costco. And there’s an explanation for this expansion: because it’s delicious. .
Find your nearest store stocking Bachan here, and if you want an extra kick of heat be sure and try the “hot and spicy” version.
Why We Love It:
Mae Ploy offers a glorious balance between sweet and very spicy flavors. Let me make things clear, this sauce is rarely a very spicy sauce; It will not inflame your palate or form sweat on your forehead. But it has enough flavor to be addictive and draws you in.
The flavor starts caramel with a hint of spice before the warmth starts to build up in the aftertaste. If you like egg rolls in a restaurant, you’ll probably dip them in a sauce that looks a lot like this one. The list of items is simple: sugar, water, pickled red pepper, vinegar, garlic, salt, and xanthan gum to keep the sauce stable.
How I use it:
The ostensible way to use it is to dip egg rolls in it, but I like to take a tablespoon after making a stir-fry and toss it in my bowl for a little extra sweetness and mild spiciness. Because it’s an undeniable sauce, this product works with just about everything.
Where I do it:
You’ll be Mae Ploy in the overseas aisle of major markets. Click here to buy it at a store near you.
Why we love it:
I live in Southern California, so I’m lucky to have access to more Mexican restaurants than I’ll ever eat in a lifetime. That means there are about 50 other random sauces in my refrigerator at any given time, so at most I mostly prepare my meals with salsa from my favorite Mexican restaurant. On the rare occasion that I run out of salsa, or if they’ve been in the refrigerator too long, Mrs. Renfro’s Jalapeno Verde Salsa is my favorite.
I know it’s a Texas-based brand, so I’m betraying my California roots, but I have to hand it to the Lone Star State: this sauce is the best.
It’s thick with a mild vegetable spiciness that adds brightness to meat dishes and a dark, savory finish to meatless meals. In addition to the earthy, toasty flavor of the jalapeno, you also get a healthy dose of onion and garlic here, which adds a lot of complexity for you to spill out.
How I use it:
Anytime I make homemade nacho fries. There is something about the way this salsa soaks into homemade fried potatoes that just tastes like heaven on Earth. Cut up some potatoes and fry them, top it with some freshly seared carne asada, beans, cheese, cilantro, and avocado, top it off with Mrs. Renfro’s, and BAM you’ve got a meal that is going to make everyone on Instagram jealous.
And post about this dish because it looks so good.
Where I do it:
You have no problem placing it in the sauce segment of your local market. Find your nearest store that sells Mrs. Renfro here.
Why we love it:
Everyone’s spicy honey is first honey and then warmth. It’s warmth first (it’s classified as chili crunch), but boy, is that sweet touch captivating and multi-layered. It feels like a reversal of the spicy honey trend and maybe that’s why. I use it a lot. It’s much more flexible because it’s not too sweet and at the same time adds floral and honeyed notes.
How I use it:
It’s going to replace your life. . . ready? Roast a bird. Get to the point where you are with forty-five minutes to go. Lather it up with a spray brush and roast for the last forty-five minutes. The hot honey bird you create will keep your family satisfied for an entire week.
Where I do it:
Find Momofuku cuisine here.
I reviewed this product when it first came out and in the year since, I’ve only grown to like it more! Here’s my original review:
Don’t touch me yet. . . It smells like the inside of a pizza oven that has been used thousands of times. You get fleshy, earthy notes. There’s a bit of funk, but it’s smooth enough to possibly come from some stray mushrooms and cheese that slipped into the depths of the oven, as well as a super-scientific procedure invented through Noma Projects.
Most commonly, it tastes like mushroom broth with. . . A little more. There’s a little bit of smoke. There’s some funk. It’s a less original fish sauce but without a fishy flavor. There’s a meaty side. This is the taste of this product to tame the maximum “meaty without genuine meat”. There is a slight fermented note.
After taking a spoonful, I wrote this: “Remember, however, that we don’t want ‘fake meat’ to mimic beef and pork. We already have mushrooms.
It’s also stinky and pronounced enough that once you get used to it, you can discern its presence (like fish sauce), rather than just employing it because you believe in my opinion or accept Noma’s prowess as true. I like that it doesn’t disappear absolutely on a plate.
How I use it:
Here’s how I used my bottle of mushroom garum when it ran out:
Where I do it:
I’ve never seen this in stores, I think you have to go to the NOMA website.
Why we love it:
I love meatballs. Steamed or fried. Stuffed with red meat or vegetables, poultry or shrimp, it doesn’t matter, I need to eat them. If you put a plate in front of me, I will inhale it and possibly not leave you a single one. I will order them from anywhere, at any time, day or night. I’ll ride the exercise all the way to Chinatown when it’s 20 degrees and snowing just to eat my weight in Shanghainese soup dumplings at Nom Wah Tea Shop, and possibly not I don’t feel bad at all about ordering takeout at the time.
Choumai?Goiza?Postickers?Frozen ravioli from my supermarket? I’m going to eat them too.
Naturally, as a self-proclaimed dumpling enthusiast, I know that the most productive way to enjoy them is with the right sauce. You can follow the classic soy sauce direction (trust me, I do too), but nothing brings out the flavor of the filling or complements the dough like salty, sweet, spicy, or spicy. Most have a dash of sesame oil that complements the flavor with a bit of nuttiness, and there’s a barely caramel aftertaste that’s a bit more satisfying to the senses than straightforward soy sauce.
There are many ravioli sauces in this world, but my favorite is Wei-Chaun. I prefer the stinky flavor, but a mild edition for those who can’t stand the heat.
How I use it:
I literally top my ravioli with this thing. Since it complements the herbal flavor of the meatballs, I want it in each and every bite. But you can use this sauce for much more than that. Pour some over a burger fresh off the grill. Do you eat vegetable and meat skewers? Dip the assholes in this sauce as well.
Where I do it:
You can find certain brands and styles of ravioli sauce in the foreign food segment of most grocery stores, and there’s Amazon. But for more variety, head to your local Asian market.
Why we love it:
Fish sauce, especially Squid Brand, has been a component of my life for a long time. I’d like to say that I started using this fishy smelling juice when I was living in Southeast Asia in mid-August, but I still hadn’t been using it for years before. I’ve been aware of fish sauce (I grew up in the Pacific Northwest where a big bowl of hot soup or fried noodles was never far away) and then started employing it a lot for myself in Prague in 2003.
There is a gigantic Vietnamese network in Prague (mainly due to the fact that either of those countries had communist regimes in the 20th century), which means that there are some markets on the outskirts of the city that are loyal to imports from Vietnam and Southeast Asia. in general. These places led me to a lot of smart food. My addiction was greatest when I lived and worked in Southeast Asia.
These days, fish sauce is something I use all the time. So much so, that I buy the big bottle of Squid Brand — the one that’s the same size as a whisky bottle. And it only lasts about as long as a bottle of good whiskey. Put simply, it’s one of the most versatile condiments/flavor enhancers there is. It’s like Worchestershire times a million or soy sauce with a nice funk that’s somehow lighter while also bringing more umami.
A must-have for any home cook.
How I use it:
One trick I learned while working in European kitchens is that chefs used Squid Brand fish sauce instead of the more beloved anchovies in recipes from across the continent (fish sauce was once very prevalent in Roman cuisine, for example). It is ~essentially~ anchovy essence which is also natural umami. So I started adding it to yolk-based dressings. It also works on things like meatballs when you need that extra savory kick. Pour some over the rice as you fluff it up to give it new depth. Hell, pour some over freshly popped popcorn.
Of course, there are soups, stews, and dried noodles. One of my favorite uses is a bloodless noodle look made with just fish sauce, crushed garlic, chopped green onion, brown sugar, sesame oil, and sesame seeds. Drizzle it all with lemon juice and you were given one of the most productive aspects for a fillet or salmon.
The thing is, yes, it is a must if you are looking to try dishes from the eastern regions of Asia, but don’t stop there. Umami is a key flavor detail in cuisines around the world (anchovies were a vital industrial product of my father’s family in the Salish Sea before the Europeans arrived) and fish sauce improves almost anything. .
Where I do it:
Usually, the Costco-type store where I do my weekly shopping sells Squid Brand for about $4 for a giant bottle. You can do this at any Korean, Chinese, Thai, or Vietnamese supermarket in the United States if you’re on a domain where they appear.
Otherwise, you can get a bottle on Amazon.
Why we love it:
Growing up, I didn’t pay attention to the various brown liquids in my mother’s pantry besides the xì dầu (soy sauce) and nước mắm (fish sauce). In our house, the soy sauce that my sisters and I loved on our rice and eggs, lived in a small bottle with a bright yellow label and red lettering spelling out “MAGGI.”
How I use it:
In 2006, I was fortunate enough to travel to France and Italy at the end of my senior year of high school as part of a special for the AP governor. As I was getting ready for myArray, my aunts asked if I could bring Maggi to them. Sauce. of France and to “ensure that it is the French version”. I was surprised that of all the things they asked me to buy, they asked for something that could be easily obtained in our supermarkets.
Only then did I know that Maggi is not soy sauce at all. Maggi is a seasoning sauce (made from hydrolyzed vegetable protein instead of soy) and other countries produce other editions. For my aunts, the French edition is the most productive. and was not yet available in our markets at that time.
I like to use Chinese Maggi in my cooking – it has a strong, salty umami profile that pairs well with stir-fries and soups.
Where I do it:
Fortunately, nowadays you don’t have to go far to see the other editions of Maggi. They are easily found in supermarkets and online. As a condiment alone, I prefer the French edition Maggi Arome Saveur, which is a bit softer. If you manage to get your hands on the Mexican edition “Jugo Maggi Limón”, you will be able to enjoy an excellent shot of lime in your seasoned sauce.
However…I have yet to get my hands on the Filipino version of Maggi, which is supposed to have more of a garlic flavor to it. Perhaps a trip to the Philippines is in order, post-Covid. As high school me learned: This is a sauce worth traveling for.
Why We Love It:
A friend brought me this product from the Asian market a while ago and I haven’t had it in the fridge for a day. It’s wonderful because as much as I like everything very spicy, my abdomen and intestines don’t. I agree. These things are “very spicy” and “sweet,” but in reality neither is what I would call “spicy. “They have a deep, rich, concentrated, and highly spiced flavor that I can eat as much as I need to without worry. He put me in the bathroom all morning.
How I use it:
Frying up garlic is something that you *can* do on your own, but having it pre-prepared in a jar is my kind of labor saver. I most often use it on salmon, pork tenderloin, or noodle soups (ramen, pho, etc) but I’ve yet to find a food that it doesn’t improve.
Where I do it:
I bought mine from the Asian market in Fresno, but it’s available on Amazon.
Why we love it:
During my brief tenure as a waitress in New York City, I worked at a trendy restaurant in the West Village called Bar Bolonat. It was the sister restaurant to the highly acclaimed Balaboosta, owned by the most feisty, daring and vivacious woman I know. I’ve met chef and cookbook Einat Admony.
It was in this small restaurant specializing in Israeli and Mediterranean cuisine that I learned the price and meaning of harissa, a beautiful and colorful red pepper paste that lit up my mouth the first time I topped it with a slice of roasted eggplant with some tahini, togarashi, and crispy shallots. I was hooked!
Spicy and aromatic, harissa is commonly used in North African and Middle Eastern cuisine. The recipes for the condiment vary from country to country, but the classic components are usually the same across the board: hot and smoked chili pepper, olive oil, garlic, and a blend of spices like cumin, caraway, and coriander.
My waitressing days are behind me, and Bar Bolonat no longer exists (you can still visit Balaboosta, though!). So now I get my harissa fix via Les Moulins Mahjoub, a Tunisian company that produces a variety of tasty natural grains and spices.
How I use it:
Use as a spread. Use it as a sauce. Mix it into your soups and stews. Use it to marinate your grilled meat and fish, too. Do you have bread? Pick it up and put it in your mouth. There’s no way to use harissa, however, one of my favorite tactics for using the seasoning is to drizzle over baked poultry legs and thighs. Brush it on the bird with a little salt, pepper and garlic. Pop it in the oven for forty-five minutes and BOOM!- Dinner is served.
But be warned: This seasoning ranks first on the highly seasoned and very spicy scale, so a small amount goes a long way.
Where I do it:
I order jars of harissa from my favorite online artisan grocery store, My Panier, but you can buy Les Moulins Mahjoub and other brands at Whole Foods and Middle Eastern Markets.
Why we love it:
In Costa Rica, they have those bagged beans, also made in Lizano, which are popular with backpackers (and enjoyed locally!). Especially among surfers. And since the other styles of beans (red, black, and pinto) aren’t exported, the only way to get them is to bring them back or have someone bring a few packets of them on their visit. At my wedding, two friends brought me a whole suitcase. Unfortunately, it never made it through customs.
For years, I’ve been looking to figure out what makes Lizano beans so good. Most of the time I thought it was lard. And I’m sure it’s true. But when I reached out to the company for an item, I found that this sauce is also a staple ingredient. Since that discovery, I have consumed this product almost every day.
How I use it:
I pour some into the bases of many of my foods; It’s a bit like a liquid soffrito. It’s in every single bean-based recipe I make, bar none. I also put it in my ground beef while cooking if I’m making tacos or Sloppy Joe’s. Used as a classic condiment, without cooking, it is quite potent. I add some to a dish of rice and beans for umami flavor or use it as a topping for vegetables. It’s also fantastic as a complement to your guacamole or any store-bought salsa.
It’s a little vinegar, a little oniony, a little sour, a touch sweet, and it has a hint of spice. But above all, it’s a true umami bomb (basically it’s vegetarian broth, reduced down to a syrup) that I refuse to live without.
Where I do it:
There are advertising sites in Costa Rica that offer it (and beans!), but the shipping prices are exorbitant. I rely most on Amazon, which sells the full-size three-pack for $22.