Brown sauce??jm wrote:Any comments about brown sauce
Salt and malt vinegar, and if you really must - Heinz tomato ketchup.
[mutter]Brown sauce on fish and chips, hells bells, what's next...[/mutter]
Post by BillyB » Mon Dec 05, 2011 12:03 am
Is that brown sauce as in HP type sauce?jm wrote:Any comments about brown sauce (using local ingredients obviously)?
Post by mookuy » Mon Dec 05, 2011 12:38 am
Yes, I did realise exactly where you were coming from and the reading you'd already done. I just went ahead anyway! I read that How to cook perfect battered fish article recently and thought it was a good one.jm wrote:Thanks for the links Mookuy, but if you'll go back to the OP you might surmise I've read this stuff, I just wonder why the grease-merchants in town don't bother to.
Post by mookuy » Mon Dec 05, 2011 12:44 am
I've never seen this before:What are the main ingredients of HP Sauce?
Nothing but the finest quality ingredients sourced from around the world make HP what it is. Sharp, musky Malt Vinegar, sweet Molasses, rich Dates and some other exotic specialities are blended together to a carefully guarded secret recipe. That's what gives HP its uniquely distinctive flavour.
What are the best foods to eat HP sauce with?
HP adds spicy fruity flavour to absolutely everything. Purists love it with traditional favourites like bacon sarnies, all over a full English breakfast, or with shepherds pie, or bangers and mash. It's pretty marvellous on chips, jacket spuds and baked beans too.
Post by mookuy » Mon Dec 05, 2011 12:49 am
Post by Lucky Lucan » Mon Dec 05, 2011 12:54 am
I wouldn't agree. I don't think it's essential or anything, but what else is brown sauce supposed to be for other than fish & chips and other food of that ilk?mookuy wrote:I agree with the others though: it's odd to mention brown sauce in a fish and chips thread.
Post by mookuy » Mon Dec 05, 2011 1:31 am
Aye.jm wrote:Seems to be mostly an Edinburgh tradition.
Like most of the UK, Scotland uses salt and vinegar only on chips and suppers. Some places also put mushy peas over the chips. Some use ketchup. However, where I came from (the Edinburgh area) it was unique in the land for using brown chip-sauce, a thinnish brown spicy condiment whose recipe is a closely-guarded secret and is likely derived from bottled brown sauce such as A1, HP, Hammonds or a Scottish brand. Usually water and/or onion pickling juice or malt vinegar (or all) is added to thin it down and tone down the spiciness. Being thinner, it also runs over the chips in the bag and makes it delectable. To me, this way of eating chippie food, with chip-sauce, is the best ! What makes them even more delectable is eating it all straight out of the wrapper with your fingers.
...
Apparently, the thin brown chip sauce I mentioned is particular to Edinburgh and SE Scotland. It was a standard condiment in my home town Musselburgh (Mussaburry had many chip- shops and mobile vans), plus the surrounding area where I’ve had suppers or chips, such as Dalkeith, Prestonpans, Seton Sands, North Berwick, Dunbar etc. I could have sworn it was used in West Lothian too, such as Broxburn. I also thought I had it with chippies in Fife (such as Cowdenbeath, Kelty, Kirkcaldy, Glenrothes, the Dunf and Aberdour) and parts of the Borders (such as Galashiels, Selkirk, Melrose, Hawick etc) but I could be wrong. When I was a lad in the 1960’s and our family used to drive through to Kintyre in our Bedford Dormabile (with 2 canoes on top and towing our boat containing creels and net !) for 2 weeks during the school holidays, we always stopped off there and back at the chippie in Harthill on the old A8. I’m sure they had brown sauce there.
I’ve had chippies in Cambeltown, Oban (I bet the same one on the Esplanade as you went to Woot !), Ullapool, Portree and beyond, but I can’t remember if they chip sauce or not. I was highly surprised to learn recently that other places in Scotland don’t use ‘The Sauce” ! For someone brought up with chip-shop chip-sauce, if it’s not there in my supper, there’s something missing. It’s difficult to explain chip–shop brown sauce, if you try to make it yourself, somehow it’s never the same as what they splash over your chips in SE Scotland chippes. Chip-shops sometimes offer bottles of their own secret concoction for sale.
I have heard that it’s made from the cheapest brown sauce you can find – Gold Star Brown Sauce is apparently often used, mixed with some water (2 parts sauce to 1 part water) to thin it down. It is said they don’t use A1, HP, Daddy’s, Branston or other spicy brown sauce as they’re too spicy and too expensive.
I'm going to try it. (I bet deep-fried Mars bars are good too.)my first Saturday job was in a chippy and one of my more technical tasks was mixing the right amount of water with the sauce before pouring the mixture into Globe bottles (with a hole pierced in each of the metal lids)
Post by Playboy » Mon Dec 05, 2011 10:13 am
Okay, now I have to have Fish and Chips (with mushy peas, of course) for lunch today, no option now after ready this thread.Playboy wrote:Damn it, now I want dish and chips !
Post by gavinmac » Mon Dec 05, 2011 10:40 am
They serve fish and chips at the Sisowath High School cafe?Playboy wrote: Okay, now I have to have Fish and Chips (with mushy peas, of course) for lunch today, no option now after ready this thread.
Post by Playboy » Mon Dec 05, 2011 10:41 am
Of course not, The High School cafe is for breakfast, not lunch.gavinmac wrote:They serve fish and chips at the Sisowath High School cafe?Playboy wrote: Okay, now I have to have Fish and Chips (with mushy peas, of course) for lunch today, no option now after ready this thread.
Post by Buscador » Mon Dec 05, 2011 11:02 am
I think you will find the fish and chips at be Vespa to be exactly what you described in your first post. I seriously doubt you will like them. I don't, although GV is one of my favorite restaurants due to the many items I think they do quite well at a reasonable price. OTOH, LPB seems to love them.jm wrote: I didn't think Fish's version were special. I have high expectations for Vespa's, will try to give it a go soon.
Post by Florida » Mon Dec 05, 2011 11:17 am