Author Topic: What's your favorite french fry condiment?  (Read 19680 times)

Offline Kd5000

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Re: What's your favorite french fry condiment?
« Reply #10 on: October 04, 2007, 11:33:10 am »
Well if there made from really good potatoes, I usually don't like to use condiments.  I usually sprinkle salt and some Cajun seasoning (Cayenne pepper).

Of course, I use ketchup at a fast food place. That's about it. Not very edgy huh. I'd tried vinegar with french fries. Maybe they do that in England. I found them soggy.

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: What's your favorite french fry condiment?
« Reply #11 on: October 04, 2007, 11:33:27 am »
Gee, not that I'm going to change my choices, but I just noticed that salt, salt, and more salt was on the list. Didn't even occur to me to think of salt as a condiment. I just sort of took it for granted that there was salt on the fries before anything else.  :-\
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Offline loneleeb3

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Re: What's your favorite french fry condiment?
« Reply #12 on: October 04, 2007, 11:36:38 am »
Well if there made from really good potatoes, I usually don't like to use condiments.  I usually sprinkle salt and some Cajun seasoning (Cayenne pepper).

Of course, I use ketchup at a fast food place. That's about it. Not very edgy huh. I'd tried vinegar with french fries. Maybe they do that in England. I found them soggy.
You should try:



I didn't think of it but I love it on my fries! Sometimes I just mix it with the mayo!!
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Offline MaineWriter

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Re: What's your favorite french fry condiment?
« Reply #13 on: October 04, 2007, 11:44:16 am »
Well, I would say, you can't go wrong with salt, ketchup, gravy, gravy with mushrooms, curry sauce, chili sauce, chili con carne or chinese sweet and sour sauce on your fries. Not everything a once, though...   ;D
I don't know what Old Bay Seasoning tastes like, but it sounds good, too!   :)



Obviously, it's your German heritage coming through, Anke! From the Old Bay website:

Old Bay Story
The secret’s out. Once a staple enjoyed only by a lucky few along the Chesapeake Bay, Old Bay Seasoning is now available across the country to anyone who wishes to experience a distinctive big, bold taste. Best known as the definitive seasoning for crab, shrimp, and other seafood dishes, today Old Bay seasoning is earning its stripes as the “secret” ingredient for great hamburgers, chicken, and vegetable dishes. It’s easy to add the romance and flavor of the Chesapeake Bay to your meals every night of the week with this versatile seasoning.

Old Bay Seasoning was founded more than 60 years ago: a man named Gustav Brunn arrived in the United States from Germany with a hand-held spice grinder and a dream of starting a spice business. In 1939, Brunn settled in Baltimore and developed his secret recipe, which would later become Old Bay Seasoning. This unique blend of more than a dozen herbs and spices was created for a population passionate about steamed crabs, and has since become synonymous with the Chesapeake Bay and its locals.


Celery, bay leaves, and mustard combine with the heat of red pepper and ginger to tempt palates from grilled fish and steamed shrimp to fried chicken, potato salad, and vegetable dips. This unique spice blend evokes images of seaside dining, salty sea breezes, and sandy beaches. Yet this fantastic blend is also at home adding flavor to bounty that’s fresh from the farm as well as the sea.



Hm, they never mention french fries! LOL. I had Old Bay on fries in a crab house in Newark, Delaware. Since my husband is from Baltimore, Old Bay is a staple in our spice cabinet.
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Offline Pipedream

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Re: What's your favorite french fry condiment?
« Reply #14 on: October 04, 2007, 11:53:44 am »
Haha. Cool! I gotta try it one day!  :)

And guess what! I just found out that there really is (or rather was) such a thing as catsup! This is from www.heinzketchup.de:D


Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: What's your favorite french fry condiment?
« Reply #15 on: October 04, 2007, 12:15:12 pm »
In 1939, Brunn settled in Baltimore and developed his secret recipe, which would later become Old Bay Seasoning.

How 'bout that? So Old Bay isn't that old after all.  :-\
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline MaineWriter

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Re: What's your favorite french fry condiment?
« Reply #16 on: October 04, 2007, 12:25:32 pm »
I found this on World Wide Words:

[Q]“Why is ketchup also called catsup?”

[A] Ketchup was one of the earliest names given to this condiment, so spelled in Charles Lockyer’s book of 1711, An Account of the Trade in India: “Soy comes in Tubbs from Jappan, and the best Ketchup from Tonquin; yet good of both sorts are made and sold very cheap in China”. Nobody seems quite sure where it comes from, and I won’t bore you with a long disquisition concerning the scholarly debate on the matter, which is reflected in the varied origins given in major dictionaries. It’s likely to be from a Chinese dialect, imported into English through Malay. The original was a kind of fish sauce, though the modern Malay and Indonesian version, with the closely related name kecap, is a sweet soy sauce.

Like their Eastern forerunners, Western ketchups were dipping sauces. I’m told the first ketchup recipe appeared in Elizabeth Smith’s book The Compleat Housewife of 1727 and that it included anchovies, shallots, vinegar, white wine, sweet spices (cloves, ginger, mace, nutmeg), pepper and lemon peel. Not a tomato in sight, you will note — tomato ketchup was not introduced until about a century later, in the US, and caught on only slowly. It was more usual to base the condiment on mushrooms, or sometimes walnuts.

The confusion about names started even before Charles Lockyer wrote about it, since there is an entry dated 1690 in the Dictionary of the Canting Crew which gives it as catchup, which is another Anglicisation of the original Eastern term. Catchup was used much more in North America than in Britain: it was still common in the middle years of the nineteenth century, as in a story in Scribner’s Magazine in 1859: “I do not object to take a few slices of cold boiled ham ... with a little mushroom catchup, some Worcester sauce, and a pickle or so”. Indeed, catchup continued to appear in American works for some decades and is still to be found on occasion.

There were lots of other spellings, too, of which catsup is the best known, a modification of catchup. You can blame Jonathan Swift for it if you like, since he used it first in 1730: “And, for our home-bred British cheer, Botargo, catsup, and caveer”. [Caveer is caviar; botargo is a fish-based relish made of the roe of the mullet or tunny.] That form was also once common in the US but is much less so these days, at least on bottle labels: all the big US manufacturers now call their product ketchup.

Simple question: complicated answer!

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-ket2.htm
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Offline dot-matrix

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Re: What's your favorite french fry condiment?
« Reply #17 on: October 04, 2007, 12:27:38 pm »
I like Ketchup and lots of salt, sometime I will use Lawry Seasoned Salt or Popcorn Salt.  Cheese and Emerils Essence is good too, especially when your having them while watching a movie instead of popcorn... And sometimes I just love old fashioned buttermilk ranch dressing for dipping them.  Never tried Old Bay on my fries, love it on seafood tho. 
;D
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Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: What's your favorite french fry condiment?
« Reply #18 on: October 04, 2007, 12:30:40 pm »
Not a tomato in sight, you will note — tomato ketchup was not introduced until about a century later, in the US, and caught on only slowly.

Maybe because in 1727 tomatoes were still believed to be poisonous?
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Offline Penthesilea

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Re: What's your favorite french fry condiment?
« Reply #19 on: October 04, 2007, 12:43:42 pm »
My fav is ketchup, but I also like mayo. And sometimes both, ketchup and mayo on one portion. And sometimes I like gravy with my fries, but not too often.

Mustard on fries sounds like a sacrilege to me  ::) (Hi L  :laugh:)
The thought of vinegar on fries makes me squirm, lol  :laugh:
But cheese on fries makes me curious. I don't know how to picture it. Melted cheese? Or cheese from a tube? (I've seen cheese from a tube in American series  :-X)