In England, American French fries are called “chips,” and our potato chips are called “crisps.” Both are made from potatoes, of course, but somewhere and somehow the words got turned around. The English do an excellent job with chips. Such an excellent job that I order them almost every day. I’ve tried to be on a one-chip-a-day diet, but resistance is quite futile.
American French fries can vary from skinny McDonalds fries to the wonderfully lumpy Dairy Queen fries to thick-cut potato wedges. The English, however, seem to have perfected the lightly fried, thick-fingered chip (not to be confused with fish fingers, the American “fish stick,” a staple of my California childhood).
In public houses (pubs) and in most restaurants here, you’ll usually get offered mustard, vinegar, salad dressing, brown sauce, and ketchup. I’ve provided a short course in typical and not-so-typical British condiments.
The typical ones
Colman’s Mustard. Not often used on chips, but who can resist this spicy mustard on just about everything else? Jeremiah Colman began making mustard at a water mill in Bawburgh, a village near Norwich in eastern England. To give his mustard that tang, Colman blended brown and white mustard seeds brought by wagon from Cambridgeshire and Yorkshire or shipped in from Holland.
Heinz Salad Cream. A kind of mayonnaisey- or Miracle Whipey-white cream sauce with lumpy bits, like tartar sauce.
HP Sauce. A Worchestershire-type savory brown sauce that really wakes up a pile of otherwise bland chips. It’s my favorite condiment here. HP Sauce has a base of malt vinegar, blended with tomato, dates, tamarind, sweetener, and spices. It’s used with hot or cold savory foods or in soups. Garton registered the sauce’s name in 1895, calling it “HP” because he had heard that a restaurant in the Houses of Parliament had begun serving it. Other versions include:
- HP Fruity, milder version with a blend of fruits including oranges and mangoes to give a milder, tangier taste, renamed “HP Chicken & Rib” in Canada and the US.
- HP Bold, a spicier variant.
- HP Steak Sauce.
- HP Guinness, which includes Irish stout.
- A version with 25% less salt (25%) and 30% less sugar.
Heinz Tomato Ketchup. American ketchup is often available, but I’ve not seen too many people besides Americans use it with chips. Heinz as a company started in the 1870s in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The original “Tomato Ketchup” label had a gherkin pickle. Ketchups originally were made from other fruits and vegetables besides tomatoes. The present label is illustrated with a tomato. Ketchups could also be made from mushrooms, oysters, mussels, or walnuts. Ketchup is also called tomato sauce or red sauce. It is a sweet and tangy sauce, typically made from tomatoes, vinegar, a sweetener, and assorted seasonings and spices. In the United States, high fructose corn syrup sweetens ketchup. Seasonings can vary but typically ketchup include onions, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, garlic, and sometimes celery..
vinegar. I’ve seen Canadians and the French sprinkle vinegar onto their chips, but I don’t see it used much in England. A splash of it does give chips a wonderful spicy zing, but, if you’re not used to it, the vapors go straight up your nose.
The not-so-typical condiments
Tabasco. A pepper sauce first produced by Marylander Edmund McIlhenny in 1868, this Louisiana product is named after the southeastern Mexican state of Tabasco. My B&B server consistently lays this out at breakfast, though I have yet to see anyone use it..
chutney. Developed in South Asia and also called chatney or chatni, chutneys are a family of jam-like condiments, excellent with any meat, with mixtures of spices, vegetables or fruits. I had three exquisite dollops of various chutneys to accompany the ham in a fabulous ploughman’s lunch in Dorchester, though they’re excellent with any meat.
onion gravy. I was served a pitcher of excellent meat-juice-and-onion gravy with a chicken dish in Weymouth, and I also poured some over my chips. Quite tasty.
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