condiment lifetime

[mindstalk]

As a child, I thought of condiments as lasting forever. Not just in the sense of not going bad, but in the sense of one container lasting a long time.

I have since realized this is mostly because we didn't use them very often.

mayonnaise: occasional tuna salad

mustard: occasional knockwurst, occasional Welsh rarebit

ketchup: occasional knockwurst and baked beans

How occasional? Probably much less than every two weeks, unlike the regular Thursday alternation of steak and lamb chops. (Either my parents were particularly dedicated to lamb or it was somehow much cheaper at our supermarket than it is now.)

I later learned my father used ketchup as a component of his taco filling, which suggests we actually went through that faster than I realized; not like I was doing the shopping.

Whereas now, actually using ketchup or mustard to spice up continuous batches of beans, they run out much faster...

Comments

[thomasyan]

Do you eat salad? A dressing with ketchup, soy sauce, garlic powder, salt, and sesame oil or some other oil can be quite tasty. Maybe a touch of vinegar, too.

A similar mixture (but probably better to mince garlic than use prefer) is good on fish

[mindstalk]

I do, and often, but pretty much always a base of olive oil and 'balsamic' vinegar. Or just applying those directly to the lettuce shreds.

Forgot about soy sauce. That's a condiment that still lasts a long time in my kitchen. :)

[squirrelitude]

They also mostly do keep forever. :-)