homemade condiments

Save Money by Making Your Own Mustard?

Marla Walters — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 12:00:12 +0000

I use a lot of mustard. Before embarking on this project, I took a jar count in the refrigerator. I already owned five different kinds. However, I can easily rationalize this. You need different types of mustard. I use Dijon in many sauces. Whole grain on a ham-and-Swiss panini is great. French's is a necessity on a hot dog. Well, you get the idea. This seemed like a perfect make-your-own condiment opportunity.

To review, here are my criteria for make-it-yourself stuff:

Is the product I make better?
Is it cheaper?
How much time did it take?

When I first decided to try making mustard, I happened to be on a whole-grain mustard kick. I had found a recipe involving sausage and coleslaw that my husband was crazy about — but I needed whole-grain mustard. A 6-oz. jar was $5.50 (ouch) but it was perfect in the recipe.

Once I recovered from the sticker shock, it seemed like a good idea to try making my own whole-grain mustard to save money. I found a recipe online and bought the mustard seed, as well as other ingredients. It looked quite a bit different from the stuff in the jar. It also tasted a lot different. It was awful. I made my daughter try it, just so I could have a second opinion. She said, "Eewww." I chucked it.

I went back to the drawing board. For my second attempt, I decided to try a more basic mustard. I bought some mustard powder ($4.50) and tried again. Even after a week of "mellowing," it was inedible. I was beginning to get discouraged.

For attempt number three, I decided to consult the Penzey's catalog — a wise decision. Not only was mustard powder much more affordable, but they also had a handy recipe. I couldn't resist tasting it right after making it, even though the recipe said it would need to mellow. WHAM! It just about took my head off. I eat a lot of wasabi and wasabi has nothin' on fresh mustard. Whew! The flavor was better, though. I let it mellow a full three weeks before re-testing it. We made some corn dogs and got down to work. How was it? HOT.

The results:

Is it better? If you like the spicy type of mustard that comes with Chinese food, I think you'll like it. I like flavorful mustards, but I have a pretty low tolerance for spiciness.
Is it cheaper? I would say no, unless you can find really inexpensive powder or mustard seed in bulk. I now have a real appreciation for "gourmet" mustards and won't whine so much about the cost.
How much time did it take? Ten minutes, tops, per recipe.

I was happy with the quality of homemade mayonnaise and ketchup. However, that is where I would draw the line. Mustard will not be in my repertoire.

Next post: I make my own salt! Just kidding.

This article is from Marla Walters of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

5 Best Money-Saving, Healthy, Homemade Salad Dressings

Sonja Stewart — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 15:00:16 +0000

Salad dressing is a ridiculous expense. The non-refrigerated kind have all sorts of unpronounceable additives, and the healthier jar type found near the produce aisle run at least $4 a jar — and they usually turn bad before I finish them. A solution? Make your own salad dressing, and only the amount you'll use within the week. Not only are you saving money, you're eating healthier. Here are the top five healthy dressings to add to your recipe stack. (See also: 8 Swanky Sauces to Glamorize Dinner)

Wanna-Be Ranch Dressing Without the Fat

12 servings

1 1/2 lemons, juiced
1 cup nutritional yeast
2 teaspoons garlic salt
3/4 cup non-fat sour cream
1 cup non-fat milk

Directions
Mix together lemon juice, yeast, garlic salt, and sour cream until smooth. Stir in milk, adjusting the amount or adding a little water, to make the dressing as thin or thick as you like. Cover and refrigerate 8 hours, or overnight.

Honey Mustard Salad Dressing

16 servings

1/2 cup vinegar
1 cup non-fat sour cream
1 teaspoon prepared mustard
1 teaspoon agave nectar
1 clove crushed garlic
1/2 cup honey
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Directions
In a small bowl, combine the vinegar, sour cream and mustard. Add agave, garlic, honey, salt and pepper. Slowly pour oil into mixture while mixing briskly with a wire whisk. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Thousand Island Salad Dressing

12 servings

1 cup non-fat sour cream
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 cup ketchup
1 cup sweet pickle relish
1 pinch salt
1 pinch ground black pepper

Directions
In a small bowl, mix together the sour cream, ketchup, relish, salt and pepper until thoroughly combined, and serve.

Balsamic Vinaigrette

6 servings

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1 clove crushed garlic
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon ground mustard
1 pinch salt
ground black pepper to taste

Directions
In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, thyme, basil, oregano, honey and mustard powder. Season to taste with salt and black pepper. Stir in minced fresh sage if desired.

Spicy Italian Dressing Mix

16 servings

1 tablespoon garlic salt
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon celery salt
1 tablespoon salt
1 Tablespoon chervil
1 tablespoon dill

Directions
In a small bowl, mix together the garlic salt, onion powder, cumin, oregano, pepper, thyme, basil, celery salt, regular salt, chervil and dill. Store in a tightly sealed container. To prepare dressing, whisk together 1/4 cup white vinegar, 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, 2 tablespoons water and 2 tablespoons of the dry mix. (This mix can be sealed in an airtight ziplock and you can use it for meat seasonings, like chicken, as a rub.) The cumin gives it a more distinct flavor and adds color to the normal Italian version. Also, cumin is an excellent antioxidant which helps to fight Alzheimer's.

The freedom of making your own dressing means you can adapt the ingredients to fit in with whatever diet restrictions you have. Take these dressings and add them along with super salad add-ins and you're all set to have an inexpensive healthy side dish...on the fly!

This article is from Sonja Stewart of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Make Your Own Ketchup

Marla Walters — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:00:24 +0000

Welcome back to Marla’s Test Kitchens. As mentioned in my previous post about homemade mayonnaise, I am experimenting with making my own condiments. In this post I tell you about my adventures, and misadventures, in ketchup-making.

A recent news items about the H.J. Heinz Company modifying its ketchup recipe to reduce sodium levels spurred my interest in make-my-own-ketchup. Since it is my favorite brand of ketchup, and the recipe is changing, I thought I should have a back-up plan if we did not like the new recipe.

My criteria for make-it-yourself-stuff:

Is the product I make better?
Is it cheaper?
Is it (relatively) fast?

For this project, I consulted with my friend, Lloyd, who used to make his own ketchup. Unfortunately, over the years, his recipe was lost, but we were able to find one he thought seemed similar. Featured were ripe tomatoes, green peppers, onions and habaneros peppers. We had a slight disagreement over the number of peppers. Lloyd “snacks” on habaneros peppers. I, on the other hand, would die if I pulled a stunt like that. As it happened, I could not find (really!) habaneros on my shopping excursion and substituted jalapenos.

As you might have guessed, this recipe involved a lot of chopping and dicing. It also required me to slip the skins off of the tomatoes after dipping them in boiling water. At this point, noticing that they were very mealy, I had to admit that making fresh ketchup in May was probably not good planning. Texture was also a problem for me. Even with the blender setting on “annihilate,” I could not get the ketchup smooth enough.

We tested this version of ketchup with hamburgers and French fries on the same day that I made it. How was it? Well, I have not included the recipe, if that gives you a hint. With stronger spices, we decided it could have made a decent barbeque sauce. Lloyd will probably tell me it is because I didn’t use habaneros, and he may be right. It was also not cheap, after purchasing all of that fresh produce.

Not willing to be labeled a quitter, I took to the Internet again. There seemed to be a bit of buzz about a particular recipe that looked really easy. It is, and it is included here with the permission of Susanne at Hillbilly Housewife. The beauty of it is that it uses tomato PASTE. That’s right, no chopping or dicing. It is a great, easy recipe:

We tested it twice and then my husband, a big vinegar-lover, made some tweaks to suit his preferences. Here is the “Vinegar-Lover’s” version:

1 6-ounce can tomato paste
¼ cup tap water
4 tablespoons white vinegar
¼ teaspoon dry mustard
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
1 pinch cloves
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon corn syrup

The results:

1. Is it better? My taste-test teams liked the tomato-paste versions, but were not unanimous. My daughter thought the homemade version would be better as a dipping sauce for foods like shrimp. However, the rest of us, hungry boyfriend included, liked it.

2. Is it cheaper? This depends on where you live. Susanne’s version cost her only fifty cents for twelve ounces. However, the cheapest can of tomato paste I could find was seventy-nine cents. That made my twelve-ounce batch cost more like a dollar. I would still consider this to be economical to make, especially if I could find a sale on tomato paste.

3. Is it fast? It took twenty minutes. It was very easy to put together.

Would I recommend you make your own? Sure, particularly if you are interested in controlling your ingredients. Susanne, the creator of the recipe, points out that you can easily change the sugar or sodium content, which is a very healthy way to go.

Do I need to take a break from eating French fries? Definitely.

Next post: Mustard!

This article is from Marla Walters of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Cut-Rate Condiments: Homemade Mayo

Marla Walters — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 12:00:14 +0000

In my fantasy kitchen, I have an entire refrigerator devoted to condiments. I think meals are made so much more interesting by adding condiments. What is a hot dog without mustard, or french fries without ketchup? As I mentioned above, though, condiments are certainly easy to buy. So why would I try to make my own?

Well, first off, because I am cheap.

Secondly, because I love a challenge.

Lastly, because circumstances dictated that I try. When the price of my beloved Best Foods (also known as Hellman’s, for you folks east of the Rockies) rose to over $6 (30 oz.) here, we switched to a store brand. It was slightly different, but it worked. That got me thinking: could I make this stuff?

The second “hmmmm” moment occurred when I read a news item about the H.J. Heinz Company changing its famous Heinz Tomato Ketchup recipe for the first time in nearly forty years. The newer recipe is 15% lower in sodium. Would it be good? Or would the classic product be ruined? (We have not yet had the opportunity to try the new version.) In the interim, I started wondering about whether I could make ketchup that we would like as well.

To round out my condiment-making experiment, I decided that if I am making my own mayonnaise and ketchup, how can I leave out mustard?

As you may know from my previous posts about yogurt and beer-making, I have three criteria about “make your own” products.

1. Is the product I make better?

2. Is it cheaper?

3. How much time did it take?

The time factor is the least important. Quality is foremost, to me. Cooking experiments are my idea of a good time; and yes, I know that is odd.

This first post is about my attempt at mayonnaise. I have to admit that we use a lot of it. We usually eat sandwiches for lunch; I use it in my homemade salad dressing; and then there are recipes such as potato or pasta salad that call for mayonnaise. It is quite the popular jar in our fridge. Unfortunately, it is a condiment high in fat: even “light” mayonnaise contains 5 grams of fat in one tablespoon, one gram of which is saturated fat.

In beginning my search, I talked to two field experts: my Auntie Joyce and my neighbor Flora. Both are in their 80’s. They had very similar comments:

1. “Get the freshest eggs possible.”

2. “Making mayonnaise is not difficult.”

3. “During the War, we had to make our own.”

4. “It’s really much better. I can’t remember why I quit making it.”

I then headed to my cookbook shelf, which offered a few recipes, but nothing that really intrigued me. That led to an Internet search, where I found many more possibilities. Maybe this was truly doable. I also am somewhat picky about the ingredients in my food, and like the idea of being able to control those.

The recipe I chose to attempt is from BigOven.

I liked the idea that the recipe calls for a little red pepper and paprika, as I figured it would be a nice color (which was correct). It also did not look too difficult.

To verify the freshness of your eggs, you can do this handy test.

I also used a fresh lemon, instead of bottled lemon juice.

For the first test, I used olive oil, simply because I had a large Costco bottle of it, and I like it. For the second test, I used canola oil. I think the canola oil made for a lighter mayonnaise, although not as flavorful.

Actual preparation is not at all difficult, which made me glad I chose this recipe to try, first.

The results:

1. Is it better? We had a split vote in the Walters Test Kitchens. My daughter and I love it. Unfortunately, it is SO good, we could eat a lot of it, and that would be a bad idea. We tested it on baby carrots right after the first batch. It was great. I happened to have leftover ahi, to which I added the mayo, capers, avocado and lettuce. That was a pretty amazing sandwich. However, the naysayer was my husband, who prefers the old standby store-bought. He did concede that he thought would be good on a crab cake, or in a dip.

2. Is it cheaper? Not the first batch, because I used olive oil, which is pricey — $22 for four quarts. The second batch, using canola oil, was a little cheaper ($6.99 for 48 ounces of oil). I needed a cup and a half of oil, or $2.06 for olive and $1.75 for canola. Eggs are $2.00 a dozen; I needed two, which adds another 33 cents. The rest of the ingredients I had on hand. I would estimate I used fifty cents’ worth of dry ingredients. So, one pint of homemade mayonnaise cost me $2.90 to make with olive oil, and $2.60 to make with canola oil. I could have used a cheaper oil, such as vegetable oil, but I wanted to keep the mayonnaise as heart-healthy as possible.

3. How much time did it take? Including clean-up, the first batch took about 20 minutes. The second time was faster, about 15 minutes.

Have I quit buying mayonnaise? Nope. With usually only two of us at home, I am afraid I would eat it all by myself. However, when I want something fancier, now I make my own. To me, it is definitely a better quality, and I really like the fresh taste. I think it is also great in salad dressing. It only keeps for a few days, so I like the fact that it only makes a pint.

Would I recommend you make your own? If high quality is important, and you have fun messing around in your kitchen, then yes, try it. If you value the savings of your time more, then no, don’t bother.

Next post: Ketchup!

This article is from Marla Walters of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread: