condiments | Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants)

Trader Joe’s Imported FRENCH DIJON MUSTARD (@ bargain prices)

Imported From France. One of the best buys at Trader Joe’s has got to be the real French Dijon mustards they sell. A steal at $1.69.

I love both varieties, both the smooth and grainy versions are terrific. I really love the grainy “Whole Grain” Dijon Mustard with whole grains of mustard seed. The two bottles used to be the same price but now the grainy is $1.99, still a bargain. If you learn how to make a basic “vinaigrette” salad dressing you are set for life and will never have to buy salad dressing, you’ll make restaurant quality dressing in 5 minutes. Either of these Dijon mustards will work great for all kinds of food. The regular Dijon has a kick. The grainy one a bit less. Besides being great on their own, you can use either mustard to marinate and/or coat things to grill, for example, chicken breasts, salmon, or meats. Making sandwiches with Dijon will up your game. Steak with Dijon mustard is the French way and goes great together. Cheese? Yes please. These two are absolute staples for your fridge. Mine always has both.

https://www.seriouseats.com/pantry-essentials-dijon-mustard

Trader Joe’s ORGANIC KETCHUP

RAVE

Great tasting ketchup

My wife thinks anything “organic” tastes better, while I think some things marked “organic” do, but some things don’t taste any better. This is one of those cases where yes ORGANIC is in fact better. Or should I just say that TJ’s Organic Ketchup is a great tasting ketchup, period, and possibly “the best” I’ve had. Now like most Americans Ketchup has always meant “Heinz” as I’ve been eating Heinz ketchup since well, forever, and it was probably the first ketchup I ever had in my life. When my wife brought home the Trader Joe’s organic ketchup and I tasted it (with doubts) my tastebuds did somehow react with something like, “wow, now this is ketchup”! I was pleasantly surprised and I had to admit to my wife yes this organic version was better tasting. She gave me a “I told you so” looks. Now I know Heinz switched from using sugar in their ketchup recipe to using high fructose corn syrup in their (regular) ketchup years ago, like most companies, as sugar is more expensive than corn syrup. Heinz has now come out with another version, a more expensive Heinz ketchup they call “Simply Heinz” (hah!) which does use sugar not corn syrup and the ingredients look more or less similar to Trader Joe’s. However for one thing all of Trader Joe’s ingredients say Organic. Interestingly also is the fact that TJ’s ketchup spells out the actual spices in their ingredients while Heinz just lists the generic word “spice” (why singular, not “spices”?!) TJ’s ketchups says organic spices than spells out: allspice, clove, red pepper, paprika and salt. Frankly I had no idea what specific spices were in ketchup, so maybe it’s the spices at least in part that makes TJ’s ketchup taste so good. In short, in our house we have switched brands to now buying only TJ’s ketchup. Sorry Heinz. This is better. And probably cheaper than Simply Heinz. TJ’s ketchup is $1.99 (24 oz) and for “certified organic” that’s not bad.

So if you’ve never tried TJ’s Organic Ketchup it is well worth giving a try. You just might switch brands too.

TIP: Want some Spicy Ketchup? I just mix this with as much or as little Sriracha as your taste buds are in the mood for. So good! Especially with burgers….