Is Jar/Packet Sauce really evil???????

[VeniVidiVickiQV]

Well, lacking substantial flavour/nutrition/healthiness anyway

I don't use ketchup.

Ok, I use store-bought mayo (use it instead of butter on DS1's school lunch sarnies). And store-bought mustards.

We use lots - jars of curry sauces, jars of Dolimo bolognaise sauce, jars of pesto. Yummy!!

I buy some jars - Seeds of Change Sweet & Sour, Lloyd Grossman's Puttanesca, Curry pastes and Pesto

i make my own ketchup, vinaigrette, tomato sauce and pesto.

Blimey - how do you make ketchup????

I received a request from a reader for a recipe for homemade ketchup. To truly make ketchup from scratch, a person would have to grow their own tomatoes, cut them into little pieces, boil them down, run the juice through a sieve, and then add the rest of the ingredients.

However, I place that right along spinning your own wool, or making your own soap. If you have the inclination, great. Most of us just don't want to go that far. She forgot lentil weaving and knitting your own yoghurt.

It is much easier to start out with some tomato paste, thin it slightly with water and add the sugar, and spices.

Here are the basics:

1 Can Tomato Paste
1/4 Cup Water
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon Cumin
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cloves
2 Tablespoons Cider Vinegar

Mix together, cover and refrigerate. Remember that when you make things from scratch, they don't have as many preservatives (good and bad). You are going to have to use it up in a month or so.

Ooh - excellent - very cheap to make then! DD loves tomato ketchup! thank you.

festiveface, I use Jamie's very veggie pasta sauce which is also good on top of pizza's. I make a huge batch and freeze most of it, lasts for weeks and has lots of veggies in it.

Works out very economic and even though we are on a tight food budget I do buy all organic ingredients and it is still cheaper than buying pasta sauce jars.

I'll get the recipe if you're interested I just can't be arsed getting up at the mo!

make most of my own food but cant be arsed with the sauces so they come out of a jar, usually whole lot chucked in slow cooker so ready for evening meal do make my own cheese sauce though except 4 cheese pasta sauce

Yes - any recipes would be greatly appreciated - thank you!

same here! any new recipes most welcome.

Is Smash potato evil then too?

yes dh went to the facotry once
it was vile

Not evil evil, but read ingredients and compare with what you'd put in equivalent homemade sauce.

Says it all for me.

Have used Ragu white lasagne sauce in a no-milk emergency and it was not good.

if you can't be arsed doing anything fiddly, why the hell would you be making lasagne anyway?

OTOH, anyone who buys dolmio jars and isn't in full-time education ought not to be allowed near a kitchen imho. How hard is it to make a sauce out of some garlic, a tin of tomatoes and some herbs fgs?

CM, there are worse things - what about microwaveable pasta?

i use dolmio
is it really that bad for you?
so, how do you make a sauce for bolognese exactly

I buy ketchup

i make a mean pasta sauce using garted carrot and tomato puree with lots of garlic, but...

Sometimes, just sometimes, life is too short to arse about with ingredients, and I buy a jar. Nobody in my house cares.

I buy ketchup Daisy, but make everything else from scratch.

OK, I confess I do keep a Loyd Grossman Dhansak Sauce for emergencies.

the horror!! the horror!!, NQC

I buy ready made ketchup (organic) pesto sauce (Sacla) and curry paste (Patak's/Bolsts/Ferns). Can't be bothered to make them and I'm very sure my home-made efforts would be inferior as I'm no cook.

Festiveface, I make my bolognese sauce as follows:-

1 tin tomatoes (pref. Napolina whole plum tomatoes)

½ onion

2/3 small cloves garlic

squirt tomato puree

pinch of dried oregano

small glass of red wine

olive oil

steak mince

WEll, in a documentary last week, there was very compelling evidence to show that a jar of pasta had rolled itself out of a cupborad and into a child's bedroom and replaced the child's heart with the puttanesca sauce within, the heart ending up in the jar, where it was discovered next time the mother made pasta. So, yes, i would say REALLY EVIL.

Chilling as the case was, it struck me as a sort of allegory about the replacement of the heart of the home (50s housewives) being replaced by the mass produced goods of the capitalist system - i.e Lloyd Grossman.

And since i think 'puttanesca' translates as 'whore', definitely food for thought on mothers who have sold themselves to the woprkplace in order to buy ready-made sauce.

Blu