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Sauce it up
By Sandra Eagle
January 9, 2012
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 Whether you dip it, squeeze it or glorp it on your fries -- or splash it, marinate or cook with it – a good sauce adds that certain je ne sais quoi that brings depth of flavour and verve to literally hundreds of dishes, from comfort food to gourmet meals.
In the comfort food category, who has ever eaten just a plain grilled cheese sandwich? Who eats naked fries? Ketchup is a customer favourite, and Heinz Canada is appealing to this loyal base by rolling out the Canadian debut of Dip & Squeeze ketchup packets.
Heinz calls it the most significant packaging innovation for the ketchup packet in 42 years, and like most simple ideas, it smacks you in the forehead with its simplicity. The dual-function package carries three times more ketchup (24ml) than a single packet, in a versatile, portable format. The top layer can be peeled back for easy dipping, or customers can rip off the tip to squeeze the ketchup onto their favourite foods. The Dip & Squeeze uses 50 per cent less foil material than the equivalent amount of packets and replaces it with PET plastic resin.
Phillip Pavlov, Heinz Foodservice senior product manager, says, “The Heinz Dip & Squeeze gives foodservice operators the choice of four single-serve formats to meet the growing needs of their business and patrons.” The first chain in Canada to offer the Dip & Squeeze is Hero Certified Burgers, with 24 outlets in the greater Toronto area.
Flavour profile
Despite the innovation in packaging, Mike Banning, customer brand manager with Heinz Canada, based in St. Mary’s, Ont., says ketchup on its own will never change. He does explain though, that the U.S. and Canada have different recipes for their domestic ketchups. “The Canadian recipe has a slightly sweeter flavour profile,” he says. “Our ketchup is made from Heinz certified seed and 95 per cent of all our tomatoes come from the five-mile radius around our plant in Leamington, Ont.”
Ketchup is that stalwart staple, along with mustard and that Johnny- come-lately, hot sauce (to Canada anyway), that just seems to be on every restaurant table. And even though mustard seems to dabble with different flavourings and add-ins like honey and dill, ketchup stands alone -- at least until recently, when the New York Times reported that Heinz is moving uptown with ketchup blended with balsamic vinegar. The catch is that the upscale condiment will only be available through the Heinz Facebook page, before it moves into retail stores. Labeled as a “limited edition,” it will only be available until March. It may be offered permanently if it proves to be a bestseller.
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Steady spicing
As a challenger to the reign of ketchup, hot sauces are steadily gaining ground in Canada, and not just on the ubiquitous chicken wing. Long a staple of any bar worth their salt, the family of Tabasco sauces is steadily ingratiating itself in the kitchen, and not just on the savoury side of things. Chef Ralph Bettany is the corporate chef for Tabasco Brand Foodservice Canada, and he says he finds inspiration from the common folk.
“I like to speak with foodies -- people who are not professional chefs, but have a keen interest in food,” says Bettany. “It’s surprising how these non-chefs often have innovative ideas that just need to be made do-able. I think it’s because they naturally think outside the box and are not held back by what professional chefs deem feasible.” He adds that pairing unlikely ingredients tends to result in the most serendipitous results. |
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An added bonus, he says, “is that the Tabasco Original Red Pepper sauce is low in sodium, but big on flavour, as it is grown from heritage seeds. You can ramp up the flavour of a pizza or a dipping sauce without increasing sodium, which is part of a larger trend of eating healthier options.”
Wild with whiskey
In addition to hotter flavours, barbecue sauce is getting a bit of a makeover as well. Heinz’s Banning says alcohol-based barbecue sauces are gaining momentum. “We found that many of our customers were adding flavourings like Bourbon to our products at the back of the house anyway, so we partnered with Kittling Ridge, out of Niagara, the makers of Forty Creek Whiskey and we launched The Forty Creek Whiskey BBQ sauce. The whiskey just rounds out and gives the sauce a slightly different note.”
Premium spirits isn’t the only player in the market, as Heinz partnered with the Rickard’s beer family to make up a trio of sauces based on their Red, White and Dark brews. “It’s only just hit the market in the last six months, and the flavour profiles are a little more specific,” says Banning. “Our Orange Citrus Ginger and Rickard’s White sauce would naturally pair with different food categories than our Apple Butter Mesquite flavour.”
No matter what you pair them with, sauces add that special zing to make food sing.
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