Road Tips

National Mustard Museum - Middleton, WI

If you're a regular reader of Road Tips, you'll know that I'm somewhat of a condiment junkie - I've even dedicated a whole condiment category on this blog. Both our refrigerator and pantry are filled with jars and bottles of barbecue sauce, mustard, horseradish and other interesting toppings that I've come across during my travels, much to the consternation of my wife. She just cringes when I come home with some different type of olive spread, steak sauce or spicy giardiniera. Of course, for a guy like me who loves the taste sensations of a good condiment on my food, there has to be a place to celebrate condiments and that place is the National Mustard Museum in Middleton, WI.

Now, if you're like me, who in the hell would start a museum that was dedicated to the history of mustard from around the world? It's actually a pretty compelling story.

Barry Levenson, a native of Massachusetts, was an assistant Attorney General for the State of Wisconsin in 1986 and he found himself wandering aimlessly down the aisles of an all-night grocery store a couple hours after his beloved Boston Red Sox lost the World Series. He suddenly stopped in front of the mustard display at the store and was mesmerized by the amount and different types of mustard on the shelves. It was then he had an epiphany for all things mustard.

The next year, Levenson went to Washington to argue a case before the Supreme Court. Before he went before the court to argue his case, he saw a small jar of mustard on a room service tray in the hallway of his hotel. Levenson picked it up, stuck it in his pocket and proceeded to win his case before the Supreme Court. Thinking that the mustard brought him good luck, Levenson began to collect mustard and archive the history of mustard.

Levenson's passion and collection grew to a point that he ended up quitting his post with the State of Wisconsin in 1992 and he opened the Mount Horeb Mustard Museum in Mount Horeb, WI, about 20 miles south and west of Madison. Levenson used a combination of kitsch, pop culture and history to tell his story of the history of mustard. And what better state to do it in - Wisconsin is the home of the North American bratwurst. And what is better with a bratwurst than mustard? Well, OK - mustard and sauerkraut with a bratwurst...

Levenson's collection grew so large that he was forced to move to a larger location in 2000 just across the street. Buoyed by a growing interest from people from around the world, Levenson's Mustard Museum was a regular stop for tourist buses and those curious people who happened to come into Mount Horeb off of Highway 151. Over 30,000 people would visit the Mustard Museum annually.

Mount Horeb, itself, was a sort of tourist community in its own right with it's famed "Trollway" - the main street through town was decorated with dozens of troll statues as the town paid homage to its Norwegian roots. A number of small shops and antique stores sprang up along that street, as well as a neat little brew pub called The Grumpy Troll. My wife and I have spent some time in Mount Horeb in the past, even visiting the Mustard Museum a few years ago. It really was rather interesting.

Someone, and I forget who, e-mailed me a long while back and said that I should go to the Mustard Museum in Mount Horeb and write about it on Road Tips. On a trip to Madison last fall, I drove into Mount Horeb and armed with my GPS directing me to the museum. I pulled up out front of where I remembered the Mustard Museum, only there was no Mustard Museum. I thought that maybe Levenson had run out of money because he charged no money to visit the museum and relied upon donations as well as the sale of assorted mustards and other condiments, shirts, mugs and other kitschy items from the gift shop.

I happened to be in Middleton, WI one evening a few weeks ago and I was looking for a place to eat dinner. One place that I had pinpointed for dinner was closed that evening and as I was regrouping to figure out where to go for Plan B, I looked over and to my surprise at the corner of Hubbard and Parmenter was the Mustard Museum (see map). Only it was now called the National Mustard Museum. The next day, I had a little time to kill after doing a morning training for American TV and decided to go see the new Mustard Museum.

It became apparent that Levenson was going to move his museum in 2009. Mount Horeb was shriveling up as many of the shops closed and storefronts became vacant. He wanted to go somewhere that had more of a central business area in a larger city. Downtown Middleton has been going through a transformation of a sleepy little suburb to a dynamic shopping and entertainment destination in the greater Madison area. Armed with a $50,000 relocation grant, Levenson moved into downtown Middleton in the fall of 2009.

The new building, which was renovated by a $1.4 million dollar gift from the city of Middleton to the owner of the property, effectively tripled the floor space of Levenson's old museum in Mount Horeb. The main floor houses the gift shop which features the mustards, sauces and other condiments (no ketchup!) the National Mustard Museum sells to help keep the door open. The displays were set up with different types of mustards - foreign made mustards, horseradish-based mustards, local Wisconsin mustards, hot mustards and even fruit mustards. A small counter near the center of the L-shaped main floor allows for periodic tastings of featured mustards. There are also a number of gift boxes of various mustards available to buy at the Mustard Museum. Seriously, it gave me a couple ideas for Christmas gifts later this year.

Levenson's sense of humor shows bright with a collection of shirts, mugs, teddy bears and other quirky items celebrating the Mustard Museum's fictional school of higher mustard learning, "Poupon U". The gift shop at the museum doubles as the "campus bookstore" for Poupon U as they also sell hats, baby bibs, pennants, can koozies, and even Poupon U diplomas. Some of the products were sort of ingenious but I definitely refrained from getting any of that stuff.

Down the stairs toward the back of the Mustard Museum, you'll find the museum itself loaded with over 5000 different types and brands of mustards from all over the world. One whole wall featured mustards from all 50 states and Canada (below left). The collection was even more impressive than I remember it to be when I first visited the original museum in Mount Horeb years ago.

The National Mustard Museum also features two large displays of French Dijon-style mustards (above right), including Amora mustard, one of my favorite of all the mustards in the world. When I go to France I always pick up a jar or two of Amora mustard. It has a sweet and tangy taste to it and goes great with just about anything. But I truly have to say that while I knew there were a lot of French Dijon mustards, I didn't know there was this many.

Of course, there had to be a display paying homage to the king of all mustards, Grey Poupon (below left). It had different styles of jars and containers from over the two plus centuries Grey Poupon has been in existence. Even though the Grey Poupon name is gone from France, it is still a strong identifiable brand in the U.S.

Some of the more historical exhibits at the National Mustard Museum included a large collection of antique mustard seed tins from the 19th and early 20th centuries (above right). This was how a lot of people made their own mustard years ago before prepared mustard became available en masse. I wouldn't have the faintest idea how to make prepared mustard from seeds, but it appears it must have been a popular way to do it given the amount of mustard seed tins on display.

Toward the back of the museum was a small theater that had a short film on the history of mustard. I wasn't about to sit there through the whole presentation, but there were more displays from mustards from around the world. This particular display (below left) had mustards from China, India, Russia and New Zealand. If there is a mustard made any where in the world, the National Mustard Museum has it on display.

Before going back upstairs, I had to take a look at some of the more wacky items on display in the Mustard Museum. This picture (above right) is a full-sized costume of a mustard container. I could almost imagine how uncomfortable wearing that mustard bottle suit really was.

And before leaving the National Mustard Museum, I had to stock up on some mustards that they had to offer in the gift shop. I picked up a bottle of Bertman's Ball Park Mustard, out of the Cleveland area. We went to see a game in Cleveland a few years ago and I remember that the hot dogs absolutely sucked, but the Bertman's Ball Park Mustard was very good. I also picked up a jar of Weber's horseradish mustard from Buffalo, NY on the recommendation of one of the ladies in the gift shop. I've had the Silver Spring brand of horseradish mustard before and it was OK. But when I asked the lady about horseradish mustard in general, she didn't hesitate. "Weber's is the best horseradish mustard," she said. "Great on brats, great on beef. It's super in homemade potato salad, too. You get both the taste of yellow mustard and the taste of the horseradish." (I've since tried it - it's pretty basic mustard, if you ask me. I didn't get much of a horseradish taste to it at all.)

I also picked up a jar of Maui Onion mustard from Hawaiian Plantations in Hawaii, really for no special reason other than it was Hawaiian mustard and we really enjoyed our time in Hawaii last year. And finally, I knew that we were getting low on good ol' regular yellow mustard so I got a large bottle of Koops' mustard to take home. Koops' is, basically, the official mustard of the state of Wisconsin.

While the National Mustard Museum might not be a place that most people would stop just to see all the mustards on display, it combines a sense of humor with a good grasp of history on something as mundane as mustard. It's worth the trip at least once to go in and look around for a half-hour or so, and to pick up something in the gift shop. There's a lot more to see than just the pictures I've included in this entry. The National Mustard Museum is a slice of Americana that is truly one of a kind.

 

The Return of Atomic Horseradish

It had been a while since I had gotten any Atomic Horseradish - the delectable and extremely pungent concoction that I first had about 20 years ago.  We like it on steaks and I have a great recipe for horseradish encrusted salmon.  It's great to stick in mashed potatoes and bloody mary's, too.

When I've ordered it in the past from a couple different places, I've had it shipped when it sits somewhere over the weekend.  Because Atomic Horseradish is so strong, they say you can only have it out of refrigeration for up to 72 hours.  There's been times when I've ordered it and it's been five to six days before it's gotten here.  It loses a lot of it's "zip" when it's kept out of the cold. 

We were down to the last couple of jars of a twelve pack I bought about a year ago and what we had left of the horseradish had lost it's zip.  I ordered some from Cosmic Chile from Montana over the weekend a week ago, just to make sure that it could be sent out on Monday and be here within three days.  It didn't get here until Friday.  But, thankfully, it has been cold enough between here and Montana so the horseradish wasn't out of the cold all that much. 

I decided to get a couple of New York strips for dinner on Friday night.  With it, I made up a side of mashed red potatoes with garlic, cream cheese, chives and horseradish.  Very easy to make.  (Cube and boil about four or five small red potatoes for 20 minutes; drain the water and put the potatoes into a mixing bowl. Then add a quarter stick of butter; 4 oz. of cream cheese; two or three cloves of garlic - chopped; two to three tablespoons of chopped chives; and a heaping tablespoon of ground horseradish.  Or if you have Atomic Horseradish, an even teaspoon.  I'm serious - it's that strong when it's fresh!  And then mash 'em all together.  Serves two very easily.)

I cooked the steaks on the Weber grill, and made up the potatoes.  Cindy got home from working out and we had a bottle of the Chateau Thomas Pinot Noir (a very surprisingly good wine, by the way).  We got the steaks on the plate along with the garlic/horseradish mashed potatoes and dug in.

From the first whiff of the Atomic Horseradish, I knew it was overly fresh.  And the first bite of my steak with a dollop of Atomic Horseradish on it confirmed it.

I literally lost my breath.  My nasal passages instantly cleared.  I was pounding on the table from the over zealous taste sensation I was experiencing.  It was the real stuff.  I don't know why I put myself through the pain, but Atomic Horseradish is absolutely the strongest - and best tasting - horseradish I've ever experienced in my life.

As I said, I put a heaping tablespoon of Atomic Horseradish in with the potatoes.  It was too much.  You couldn't taste the garlic, couldn't taste the chives, couldn't tell if there was cream cheese in with the potatoes.  It's that strong when it's fresh.  Cindy even thought it was too overpowering.   

All of the sudden, I'm afraid to eat the stuff.  But once I know what to be weary of, I'll be fine.  The initial "hit" took us both by surprise. 

Atomic Horseradish is not for the meek.  Those who are not used to overpowering horseradish should take only very small amounts of the stuff when it's fresh.  I'm telling you, there is nothing like it any where.  If anyone says, "Oh, it can't be that hot."  Well, it is.  And I have convinced and converted a lot of horseradish lovers to Atomic Horseradish over the past few years.         

Amora Mustard

Before my first trip to France over three years ago, my buddy, Steve Weiner from Abt Electronics in suburban Chicago, asked me to bring back some Amora Dijon Mustard.  He said it was the best mustard that he's ever eaten.

Amora's history dates back to the 18th century when mustard was sold from large crocks on the streets of France.  Mustard salesmen would fill small crocks of mustard for the people while they made their rounds.  Amora then became a family enterprise in the late 1890's and became one of the more popular Dijon mustards in France.

Amora mustard is now owned by the big European food and cosmetic company Unilever, who also owns such well-known American condiments as Hellman's mayonnaise, Wishbone salad dressing and Country Crock margarine.  They also own such diverse brand names as Lipton teas, Slim-Fast, Lifebuoy and Dove soaps, and that good ol' American bathroom staple - Vaseline. 

During my first trip to France, I did find a couple 10 oz. jars of the stuff in a small grocery store in Paris and I bought them.  One for me and one for Steve.  The taste of the Amora Dijon mustard is strong and goes well on ham sandwiches.  But I don't eat ham sandwiches all that much and the Amora Dijon mustard doesn't keep well past three or four months after it's been opened.  I used about a quarter of the jar before I had to throw it out. 

This time, I found a number of different sized jars at a Casino super market near our hotel in Saint-Etienne.  I grabbed three of the above size, not only because they were small, but because they looked like they could be used as juice glasses or something like that after the mustard was out of them.

I did pick up some ham slices after I got back this week and I made a ham sandwich yesterday with Amora mustard.  Man!  Just new out of the bottle, the strong mustard and vinegar taste is just explosive.  It doesn't overwhelm the overall taste of the sandwich, but really adds some zip. 

On the label, it says, "Fine et Force".  That means "Good and Strong" in English.  They sure as hell aren't kidding.  They also make a "medium-strong" Dijon mustard that is somewhat smoother than the "Good and Strong" stuff, but I'll take the stronger tasting stuff any day. 

And I have a recipe for a good French Dijon vinaigrette that I want to try with the Amora Dijon Mustard.  If I like it, I'll probably be upset that I didn't get enough this trip. 

Unfortunately, Amora mustard is very tough to find in the United States.  I looked for it during my trips to Jungle Jim's outside of Cincinnati, but they don't have it in their French area. 

There are a couple web sites that show Amora Dijon mustard.  One of them - French Feast - is an American site that shows the mustard, but doesn't have it yet.  They say they're still working on getting some.  Another site is a British site - French Gourmet Store - which shows the medium-strong Amora Dijon mustard on their site. 

Amora mustard - Par Amour du Gout!  (For the love of the taste!)  And it is damn good stuff...

Italian Giardiniera

I've had a couple three e-mails from people who have all asked the same question after reading my Italian Beef Recipe, "What is giardiniera?"

Giardiniera (pronounced JAR-din-era, or if you're really Italian it's ZJAR-din-era) is nothing more than pickled vegetables in vegetable oil (or olive oil).  The primary ingredients are chopped baby carrots, green olives, cauliflower, celery and peppers - both sweet red peppers and the hot little bastards that really give giardiniera its zip. 

The giardiniera you find in Chicago and the Midwest isn't exactly like true Italian giardiniera, but everybody calls it Italian.  It was developed in the 1920's in Chicago by Pasquale (Frank) Scala, an Italian immigrant who worked at a bakery/deli.  It is as Chicago as the Cubs, Sears Tower or Michigan Ave.  Real Italian giardiniera doesn't use hot peppers or green olives, but they use onions and pickle the vegetables in pure white vinegar. 

Pascuale Scala in the Lucca Bakery and Deli, 1925

It's primarily used as a topping on Italian sandwiches, but I've heard that some people like to throw it on top of a slice of pizza, too.  I've never done that and as much as I do like giardiniera, it's something I don't know if I'd like it on pizza.

There are a number of companies in the Chicago area (and elsewhere) that manufacture mild and hot giardiniera - Marconi, Dell'Alpe, Scala's, Tenuta's, Il Primo, and Racconto, to name a few .  You can generally find giardiniera in the pickle aisle of most Midwestern grocery stores.  The mild giardiniera has a bit of a bite to it, but I like the hot better.  They add some of those little hot "sport peppers" (also known as "piquant peppers, found mainly in the Balkin region of Southeastern Europe) all chopped up in the concoction.  Sport peppers are the little peppers that they throw on Chicago-style hot dogs to give them that hot and spicy flavor. 

Years ago I worked with this old guy, Ben Klouda, would make his own hot giardiniera.  Except he would use jalapenos and those sweet cherry peppers in there instead of sport peppers, plus he would also throw in cubed up pieces of summer and Thuringer sausage.  Oh, man!!!  Was that stuff ever good!  Everytime he'd bring in a huge jar of that stuff, it would be gone in an hour. 

The problem with giardiniera is that if you let a jar that has been opened sit long enough, the oil starts to kind of crystalize and it really loses it's flavor.  I'd say that once you open a jar of giardiniera, it has less than 30 days of a shelf life in a fridge. 

I found a recipe once where you empty a jar of mild giardiniera and a jar of hot giardiniera in with a 4 to 5 lb beef roast in a crock pot and let it cook for about seven hours.  Oh man!  My stomach is doing jumping jacks just thinking about that!

But giardiniera is a great condiment to use on Italian beef sandwiches.  If you can't find any in your area, you can order directly from the manufacturer's whose links I've provided above. 

Geez, Italian beef sandwiches.  That sounds great for dinner!

Dorothy Lynch Salad Dressing

I was first exposed to Dorothy Lynch salad dressing by an old college buddy, Kurt Nyffeler, who grew up in Columbus, NE - the home of Tasty Toppings, the manufacturer of Dorothy Lynch dressings.

Actually, there was a Dorothy Lynch and she first made her homemade dressing at the restaurant she and her husband ran in St. Paul, NE.  After a time, the demand was so great for Lynch's dressing that people were coming in with glass jars and containers to take home.  She ended up selling the recipe and the rights to manufacture the dressing to Tasty Toppings in 1964. 

Dorothy Lynch salad dressing is a tomato base with an ample amount of sugar and vinegar.  There's other seasonings in there - mustard, garlic, celery seeds.  In fact, my friend Kurt could make the stuff.  He said that his parents knew someone who worked for Tasty Toppings who gave them the basic recipe for Dorothy Lynch.  His homemade Dorothy Lynch dressing was actually the first time I tasted Dorothy Lynch dressing. 

Dorothy Lynch is available in nearly every state west of the Mississippi and can be found in the Midwest at Hy-Vee stores and most Wal-Mart Super Centers.  Or if you'd like to get some directly from Dorothy Lynch you can click here.

It's good stuff to put on a salad.  We don't have it around here as much as we should because I'd probably eat more salad if we did.

Daddies Brown Sauce

I was traveling through the Midwest with Dominic Baker, the British chief designer for Focal loudspeakers, a little over a year ago.  We had a lot of windshield time that we accrued over a three day period, so the conversations were a little all over the place.

I was telling Dominic about my love for HP Sauce and he said, "Really?  You can get HP sauce here in the states?"  I told him it was sometimes a chore finding the stuff, but, yes, it was here.

He said, "Well, if you really like HP, I'm sure you'd like Daddies sauce."

I said, "What's Daddies sauce?"

He said, "It's similar to HP, only different.  It's a little more vinegary than HP.  A little more of a bite to it.  They're owned by the same company, but that's the only thing I can tell you.  You'll have to try some for yourself."

Dominic tried to send me some Daddies sauce from England, but it never showed up.  We figured it got confiscated by customs when it got into the U.S.  He said he was going to bring me some when he came back for CEDIA this last September, but he wasn't in England before he came over for the trade show.

I was traveling from Indianapolis to Lexington, KY in the early fall and I decided to go down through Cincinnati and stop off at Jungle Jim's.  Geez, the place SHOULD have Daddies sauce, I thought. 

And they did.  I found Daddies sauce in the Great Britain aisle and I was absolutely floored.  I grabbed two bottles and went on my merry way.

That weekend, I made pork chops on the grill and got out both the HP Sauce (regular) and the Daddies sauce. 

The HP Sauce was a little more zesty, while the Daddies was a little more sweet and not as thick.   They both had the malt and vinegary taste sensations to them, but Daddies stood out in the vinegar.  But Dominic was right - they were both the same, but Daddies had a little more of that vinegar bite to it.

I e-mailed Dominic and told him that I was in possession of Daddies sauce.  He wrote me back and he was floored.  He said, "I can't believe that you found Daddies!  That's great!" 

I'm probably partial more to the HP Sauce, but Daddies is very good, as well.  It's just one more condiment that I'll have to put on my "must have" list.

Cookies Barbecue Sauce

Tiny Wall Lake, Iowa has two claims to fame - first, it's the birthplace of singer Andy Williams; and second, it's home to the maker of some of the best barbecue sauce in the world - Cookies.

Cookies has a sweet, smoky flavor to it that enhances any type of barbecue you want to have with it.  We even use on our meat loaf and as a base for my Cold Fusion Baked Beans.   It's thick, but not so thick that you can't slather it on the meat to give it a little more "oomph" in taste.

Cookies started out in the Wall Lake kitchen of L.D. Cook in the mid-70's.  His friend, Speed Herrig, liked the stuff so much that he took off on the road and tirelessly promoted the sauce to stores and restaurants all over the state of Iowa and beyond.  Today, Cookies is produced in a facility that is a little over 100,000 square feet in size. 

Cookies makes a number of varieties of barbecue sauce, but we're partial to the Cookies Western which has a little spicy zip to the taste.  I like taking Cookies Western and adding a little more cayenne pepper than what they put in it, some Worcestershire sauce and some garlic powder to it.  Ummm, boy! 

Cookies also has taco and wings sauces, too.  I'm not too keen on those as I am the barbecue sauce.

I've been to the Cookies plant in Wall Lake, but found that they aren't too "visitor friendly".  They don't have a showroom, per se, or a gift shop where you can pick up sauce or shirts or anything like that.  At least they didn't about five years ago when I purposely drove through Wall Lake going between Carroll, IA and Sioux City. 

Cookies can be ordered on line or can be found at Hy-Vee stores throughout the Midwest.

Country Bob's

When I was growing up, I liked to put ketchup and Worcestershire sauce on my steak, much to the consternation of my father and my Uncle Jack.  I liked the combination of the tastes of the condiments with the meat.  I was never an A1 fan, nor did I care for Heinz 57.  But I liked the combination of the sweetness of the ketchup with the tangy bite of the Worcestershire sauce.

As I grew up and my tastes became more refined, I quit putting much of anything on my steaks.  A lot of it had to do with the lack of what I thought was a good steak sauce.  But I still pined for that ketchup/Worcestershire sauce taste.    

A mild epiphany in life happened when I was visiting my brother and sister-in-law in west central Illinois about 12 years ago.  We had steak one night for dinner and my sister-in-law, Becky, put this bottle of Country Bob's All Purpose steak sauce on the table.  I'd never heard of the stuff before and she said, "Oh, this is the best steak sauce in the world."  I tried some and it hit me - this was the combination of ketchup and Worcestershire sauce that I had been looking for!  And it was in one bottle!  I had to get a bottle to take home with me.  

Country Bob's got its start in the late 1960's in Mount Vernon, IL when "Country" Bob Edson came up with a homemade steak sauce that friends and family raved about.  After giving it away for nearly 9 years, Edson started to sell the steak sauce in small jars and bottles.  It wasn't until 1982 when Country Bob's actually became a company opening a small plant in Irvington, IL.  The problem was that Bob Edson didn't know anything about food manufacturing or retailing - he was in the fuel oil business.  

Pictured left - "Country" Bob Edson

He turned to his banker and good friend, Al Malekovic, to help him get started in the business.  Edson's son, Terry, and Malekovic's son, Reed, were both working in the construction business, but the fathers were able to convince the young men that they could run the company.  While Bob Edson continued to work in the fuel oil industry for the time being, Terry Edson became the CEO of Country Bob's, Reed Malekovic became the VP of Operations, and Al Malekovic was the chief financial officer and the director of marketing for the company.  

The group made a few mistakes along the way, but the learning curve was long and gradual.  At first, Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce was sold in small independent rural grocery stores.  However, the sauce grew a following and more larger stores began to sell the steak sauce as the independents slowly went out of business.  Today, Country Bob's is found in places like Walmart, Kroger, Hy-Vee and other grocery store chains primarily in the Midwest and South.  

Bob Edson passed away in 2001 and Terry Edson and Reed Malekovic continue to run the operation today which is now located in Centralia, IL.  (Update - Country Bob's opened a new manufacturing facility just south of Centralia where they not only manufacture their sauce lines, but the bottles the sauces go into.  They were having trouble with suppliers keeping up with the demand of bottles they needed.  The new plant took care of that problem.)

About the only problem I have with Country Bob's is that they wear religion on their sleeves a little too much for me.  I'm not a religious person, but I do appreciate the fact that they believe Christ is their "C.E.O".  I'm of the opinion that religion - like politics - is not something that should be discussed in public.  And it should be left off of steak sauce bottles.

I understand that Country Bob's now has a "spicy" sauce to go along with their original sauce.  I don't know if I could handle something more zippy than the original Country Bob's.  I might have a serious meltdown in pure joy.  I can't wait to find the stuff.  I'll be sure to report the results when I do come across it.  

Tabasco

I'm going to talk about something that I probably use every day that I cook - Tabasco sauce. 

Everybody knows about Tabasco - a dash or two will zip up any dish.  And it's been that way for over 130 years, ever since Edmund McIlhenny made his first Tabasco sauce at Avery Island, LA by allowing his peppers to ferment, rather than boiling his concoction. 

With the boom in spicy foods in the 70's and 80's, Tabasco became a condiment that rivaled ketchup and mustard in it's use.  And as more and more hot sauces came onto the market - other small or regional hot sauce makers, the novelty sauces with names like "Ass in the Tub", "Rectal Rocket Fuel", and "Colon Cleaner", and national purveyors who have entered the market with their own hot sauce - Tabasco has had to evolve to make itself more broad in it's appeal. 

In addition to the regular Tabasco sauce (of which we keep a 12 oz bottle in our fridge at all times), they've come up with a number of other spiced or seasoned sauces, condiments and marinades to broaden their appeal.

One new Tabasco product that I found not long ago that is quickly turning into one of my favorite things to put on or in food is their Chipotle Pepper sauce.  It's not spicy as much as it is sort of smoky in taste.  When I don't want to add heat to a dish, but want to give it a little bit of a smoky zing, I use the Chipotle Pepper sauce.  I've had a 5 oz. bottle around here for about a month and it's already half gone.  The taste of the Chipotle Pepper sauce is very smooth and adds a shot of that wonderful smoky chipotle taste to meats, poultry and seafood.  I'm hoping they'll begin to market the stuff in the 12 oz. bottles. 

Another new one that I found at Jungle Jim's during my last visit is the Tabasco Garlic Pepper sauce.  They use three different types of peppers in the Garlic Pepper sauce.  It's got some zip to it and it's wonderful in Bloody Mary's and as an addition to some beef dishes.   

Speaking of Bloody Mary's, Tabasco makes a Bloody Mary mix that is about as close to pouring and drinking as the original Bloody Mary recipe from Harry's New York Bar in Paris (see my review).  They mix up tomato juice, Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce, lime juice, and Tabasco sauce so all you have to do is get a glass with a shot (or two) of vodka and pour in the mix.  I like to spice mine up with a little more Garlic Pepper sauce and a dollop of Atomic Horseradish.  God, that sounds kinda good right now! 

In addition to those products, they also have steak sauces and marinades, and have partnered the great Tabasco taste with such diverse products as A-1 sauce, Cheez-it's, and Vlasic pickles. 

Tabasco just announced a new sauce - a sweet and spicy sauce that can be used on Chinese food.  I'm going to have to find some of that and take it with me to one of our favorite Chinese restaurants.

One of these days I'm going to go down to Avery Island and make a visit to the McIlhenny plant and tour the Tabasco factory.  I've talked to people who've done that and they said it is just great.  I understand that a Tabasco museum that was scheduled to open in New Orleans in 2006 has been put on the back burner due to on going issues with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. 

There's a lot of hot sauces out there, but none better than Tabasco.

Maytag Blue Cheese

Blue Cheese is probably not a condiment, but it is a delicacy that keep around the Veber house from time to time.  And there aren't too many blue cheeses available on the market that are better than Maytag Blue Cheese. 

Maytag Blue Cheese (notice it's the Anglo version of the French "bleu cheese") is made just outside of Newton, Iowa.  E.H. Maytag, whose father, Fred, founded the Maytag Company, built the Maytag Dairy Farm in 1919 and raised Holstein cows not only for their milk, but to show at nationwide expositions.  In the 1930's, Maytag's Holstein's were recognized as some of the best cattle of their kind any where in the world. 

In 1941, E.H.'s son, Fred II, heard about a process for making blue cheese from dairy scientists at Iowa State University.  The process was time consuming, but through time, the Maytag Dairy Farm began to produce some of the best blue cheese in the world.  It wasn't long before the finest restaurants throughout America were using Maytag Blue Cheese as their exclusive blue cheese.

As a kid growing up and going to school in the Newton Community School District, you're sentenced to tour the Maytag Dairy Farm when you're in the fifth grade.  I think that's wrong - as a 10 or 11 year old, your "give-a-shit" factor about cheese is pretty low.  Other than the fact that you do get out of school for half a day, it was sort of pointless to send a bunch of kids through the place.

Then on top of it, you have to go through the room where they curd the cheese in these big vats.  The smell is not of this earth.   It's actually rather nauseating and disgusting.  At the end of the tour, they give the school kids a cracker with a dollop of blue cheese on top.  I knocked my blue cheese off in the garbage and ate the cracker, as did about 98% of the thousands of school children who have toured the place over the years.

The smell was bad enough to make me swear off eating blue cheese for years and years. 

One time, however, my old boss, Mike Cannady, ordered a salad at a great Italian restaurant, Villa Francesca, that we were eating at in Boston and he asked if they had blue cheese, explicitly, Maytag Blue Cheese.  Well, the restaurant did have Maytag Blue Cheese, and he ordered his salad with oil and vinegar with a bunch of crumbled Maytag Blue on top.  It looked good and it actually smelled pretty good.  So the next time I went to a restaurant and found that they had Maytag Blue, I ordered a salad the same way.  I've never looked back.

I especially like a grilled beef tenderloin filet topped with melted Maytag Blue Cheese.  I first had that combination at the Twin City Grill at the Mall of America in Minneapolis at the suggestion of my friend, George Miller.  It's a great taste combination.  There are also some places out there that make a good blue cheese burger, but more than likely they're not using Maytag Blue. 

Maytag Blue Cheese is still reknown worldwide.  People still order Maytag Blue, as well as their White Cheddar, their Edam, Swiss and cheddar spreads from all over the world.  I send a bunch to my boss and his wife in Quebec every Christmas - not because I'm looking for favors or buttering up the boss, but because I know they truly enjoy the stuff with a nice bottle of wine. 

Blue cheese is an acquired taste, for sure.  But once you have Maytag Blue Cheese, you'll want no other type of blue cheese.

HP Sauce

Years ago, my mother used to get HP Sauce at the old Younkers gourmet food shop at their flagship store in downtown Des Moines.  I loved the stuff - it had a malt and vinegary taste to it that was great on pork (almost too overpowering for beef, however).  Growing up, it was a staple among the condiments in the Veber household. 

As I got older and moved out of the house, I didn't have access to HP Sauce as I didn't go to Des Moines  to the Younkers store downtown.  I remember, however, one year for Christmas, my mom did give me a couple bottles as a gift.   How sweet!

HP Sauce became harder and harder to find as time went on.  Whenever I'd find some, I'd always get a couple three bottles just to tide me over until I found more. 

One time, Cindy and I were on vacation in upper Michigan and into southwestern Ontario and we stopped at a grocery store in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario and they had HP Sauce in there.  But not just ANY HP Sauce - they had HP BOLD!  Oh, my God!  I was hooked!  HP Bold had a little more spicy bite to it than regular HP Sauce - not enough to burn, but enough to have the taste sensation kicked up a couple notches.

So now, I'm on a mission to find HP Bold.  It turns out that it's not available any where but in Canada.  In the states you could find HP regular and HP Fruity (which kind of sucks - the fruit flavor doesn't go well with the vinegar and the malt).   

When I was hired by a company from Canada, I thought I'd be able to have someone from the office in Montreal to find HP Bold sauce for me and ship it to me.  No dice.  Obviously the Francophiles in Quebec didn't care for HP Sauce as much as the Anglos did. 

I did find *a* bottle of HP Bold when I was in Montreal a couple years ago.  Except I didn't buy it.  The reason?  I wanted THREE bottles of HP Bold.  I should have taken what I had found - I couldn't find any other HP Bold while I was there. 

Thankfully, one of the guys in our office, Simon - bless his heart - went out on a weekend long scavenger hunt for HP Bold for me earlier this year and found four bottles.  I'm on my third bottle in less than six months. 

But I won't turn down HP Sauce either - I found an 850 gram bottle (30 oz.) of HP Sauce at Jungle Jim's outside of Cincinnati earlier this year.  They actually had a 64 oz bottle there that Cindy wouldn't let me buy.

All I can say is that HP Sauce is the nector of the Gods when you throw it on some pork. 

   

Boetje's Mustard

One of the things that I found when I first moved to the Quad Cities in 1991 was an instant infatuation with a locally made mustard called Boetje's (BOAT-jees).  They categorize Boetje's as Dutch stone ground mustard and the recipe is pretty simple - water, mustard seed, sugar, salt and distilled vinegar.

But a lot of people mistake it as a horseradish based mustard because when you take the top off a new jar of Boeje's and take a deep whiff, it cleans out your sinuses just like a good ground horseradish will.

I was first turned on to Boetje's on my first visit to the Belgian Village Inn in the Olde Towne area of Moline.  The taste sensation of the Boetje's Mustard with the VandeReuben sandwich was fanstastic.  I soon found that Boetje's was great on brats, ham sandwiches, and could be used in a number of dishes as an additive. 

Boetje's is available in 27 states, mainly in the Midwest or the Southeast.  For more information, see an article from 1998 here.

Atomic Horseradish

If you like horseradish, there is none better than Atomic Horseradish.  It is truly nuclear in its flavor.  I've never had anything clear out my head the way Atomic Horseradish does.  This product from Southern California's Morehouse Foods has been around for over 50 years and the not-so-secret reason for its hot taste is that they grind parsnips into the horseradish which controls the natural bitterness in the taste bringing out more of the heat in the horseradish.  The result is a mind-numbing, nostril-clearing explosion with each bite.  

Of course, there's personal stories behind Atomic Horseradish.  And I've got three of them to tell you.  

The first time I was exposed to Atomic Horseradish, I was eating at The Steakhouse in Circus Circus in Las Vegas.  I have to tell you - if you ever get the chance to go to Las Vegas, take the time and go to The Steakhouse at Circus Circus.  I know, I know.  Those of you who have been to Vegas and are thinking, "Circus Circus?!", the Steakhouse is like an anomaly, an oasis of great food in a sea of the crappy side of Las Vegas. 

I was out there for the Consumer Electronics Show in the late 80's and having dinner with my boss at the time and a colleague.  My colleague got the prime rib that evening and the waiter brought out creamy horseradish.  He asked the waiter if he had any thing more potent - not the stuff you give to tourists.  The waiter brought out a small bowl of pure ground horseradish.  My co-worker took a dab, slathered it on the piece of prime rib he just cut off, and took a bite. 

His eyes immediately got wide, his face got red and he started making this "mmmmMMMMM!" type of noise.  He had just gotten a full hit of horseradish.  He asked the waiter, "This is the most POTENT horseradish I've ever had in my life!  What is the name of it?" 

The waiter said, "Atomic Horseradish, sir." 

My colleague said, "No, really, is that the name of it?  Or is that what you call it?" 

The waiter said, "No, sir, that's the brand name.  I'll get a jar and show you." 

So the waiter goes back into the kitchen.  In the meantime, I'm having a filet tenderloin that is, literally, a 3" cube of meat.  It's so thick that in order to make it medium rare they had to char the outsides.  And it's cooked perfect.  So I asked if I could try some of the Atomic Horseradish and he slides the bowl over toward me.  He warns me, "Take it easy, it's lethal!"

I put a little nickel size dollop on the piece I just cut and took a bite.  OH-MY-GAWD!!!  It was like a taste explosion in my mouth.  My eyes started to water, I lost my breath for a second, my nose cavity had drained, it was like nothing I'd ever experienced. 

In the meantime, while I'm trying to recover, the waiter comes out with a jar and right on it, it said, "Atomic Brand Horseradish".  We were just stunned. 

So, suddenly, I'm on a hunt.  I look everywhere for the stuff.  We had to stop in grocery stores all over Las Vegas.  Couldn't find it.  Turned out that it was only available in restaurants in Las Vegas.  I was bummed. 

Jump ahead to 1994 - Las Vegas again.  This time, I was working for another manufacturer's rep firm and we were invited to dinner by one of our manufacturers to the venerable old Phillips Supper Club, a place that was one of the finest places to eat for years in Las Vegas.  (Since Las Vegas has been overrun with five star restaurants over the past 10 years, the old 60's style supper clubs like Phillips Supper Club have gone out of existence.  According to a friend who had been living in Las Vegas since the early 80's, Phillips, at one time, was THE place to eat in Las Vegas.) 

There were some other things going on that other people in our company had to attend, so a co-worker and I went as representatives of our company.  We sat at a table with 6 other guys who were with a representative company out of New York.  And, of course, being from the Midwest, they were picking on us all night.  "Hey, Iowa!  If you order the steak, does that mean you can butcher the cow yourself?"  Stuff like that...

I had eaten at Phillips Supper Club a few years before and remembered the prime rib was outstanding, so I ordered that.  When it came out, I asked the waiter for some high octane horseradish.  The loudmouths from NYC started in again, "Hey, farmboy!  Whattsa matta?  You can't handle the horseradish?"

I said, "No, I'm looking for the hotter stuff." 

So the waiter brings out a little container of fresh ground horseradish.  I put a dollop on a piece of prime rib and took a bite.  Immediately, the taste sensation that I remembered from about six years prior came back.  And my face turned red, my eyes watered and the guys from New York were having a good laugh at me.  "What's the matter, Iowa?  Can't handle the high octane stuff they gave you?"

I said, "Oh, no!  That's great stuff.  I wonder if it's Atomic Horseradish?"

One of the guys said, "Atomic Horseradish?  What the hell you talkin' about?"

I said, "I've had this stuff out here called Atomic Horseradish.  It's almost lethal.  I wonder if this is the same stuff." 

Another guy said, "Oh, now the farmboy can tell differences in horseradish.  That's something I've never seen.  Do they teach you how to tell horseradish apart in the Future Farmer's club?" 

I ignored that guy and waved down the waiter.  I said, "Is this Atomic Horseradish?" 

The waiter said, "I don't know.  But I'll check for you." 

One of the NYC guys goes, "Yeah, go check so you put his mind at ease, would ya, buddy?  I don't want the midwest boy to fret over his horseradish." 

So the waiter leaves and comes back with a quart jar of - yep, you guessed it - Atomic Horseradish.  The eyes of the guys from New York all got real huge when they saw the jar.  "Holy shit!  There really IS shit called Atomic Horseradish!  Jesus!  The guy knows what he's talkin' about, here!" 

I said to the waiter, "You know, I've been trying to find some of that stuff for a long time, but I guess it's not available in stores.   I'd like to get some if you know where I could get it."

The waiter reached across the table and handed the jar to me.  He said, "It's yours!" 

I had to keep it on ice the rest of the time I was out there because you can't let it go unrefrigerated for up to 60 hours at a time.  It loses it's power. 

Oh - and the guys from New York?  They left me alone the rest of the night.

My wife and I took a drive up the Pacific Coast Highway around 1997.  We stopped in Ventura, California, the home of Atomic Brand Horseradish, to see if it may be available in stores there.  Nope.  Still only available in Las Vegas restaurants.

Finally, one time around 2000, I was perusing the internet one night and put in a search for Atomic Horseradish and found a place in California named Smith and Smith that was selling 6 oz. jars of the stuff.  I immediately ordered six jars and a couple days later showing up on my doorstep were the six jars of Atomic Horseradish.  I was in heaven! 

Cindy thought it was a little too strong at first, but she got used to it. (Nowadays, when we have steak or any beef product, she lays on the Atomic Horseradish.  And I've got a great recipe for Horseradish encrusted Salmon that is to die for. 

By the way, the place I was buying Atomic Horseradish from - Smith and Smith - was bought out by a guy who ran a site called Chile Head Salsa.  He had even more varieties of Atomic Horseradish.  He had Onion Atomic Horseradish, Mustard Atomic Horseradish and my favorite, Roasted Garlic Atomic Horseradish.  He also had Atomic Brand Shrimp Sauce.  I bought one of those one time and got a half pound of shrimp to eat one night when my wife was gone visiting her sister or something.   I dipped a grilled shrimp into that stuff and HOLY SHIT!!!  Now, I can handle hot stuff, but this was FREAKING HOT!!! It was so hot it was inedible.

Unfortunately, the company who was making the Atomic Horseradish sold out to another company.  The new owners informed Chile Head Salsa that they were not going to make the Atomic Horseradish available to sell over the internet any longer.  Not to be deterred, the guy from Chili Head Salsa, Ron Ellis, went out and found a purveyor of horseradish that he could package as his own.  This became Nuclear Horseradish.  I'm not kidding you - I've got the jars in the my fridge in the garage. 

I asked him via e-mail if the Nuclear was better than the Atomic and he wrote back and said, "I think it is."

I wrote back and said, "Well, I wouldn't expect you to say anything to the contrary."  So he sent me out a three pack of the Nuclear regular horseradish, the Onion and the Roasted Garlic.  They did seem to have a little more of a head clearing kick to them.  So I ordered up a case of Roasted Garlic (they make wonderful little gifts for friends and clients). 

Just the other day, I went through another jar of the stuff and I went out to the garage to get another jar.  Whoops!  I'm down to TWO left?  Holy crap!  I'd better look into ordering more.  So I go to the Chile Head Salsa site.  Not there any longer.  I e-mailed Ron Ellis.  The e-mail got bounced back to me.  In a panic, I tried a Google search for Chile Head Salsa.  Nothing.  Uh, oh...

So I did a search on Atomic Horseradish and it took me to a couple places.  The one that looked the most interesting (because they were selling other sauces and condiments on the site) was Cosmic Chile out of Bozeman, MT.  I e-mailed the place to make sure this was one and the same Atomic Brand Horseradish and Eric Vinje wrote me back and said that yes, indeed, this was the same stuff that Smith and Smith was selling up to the time that Chile Head Salsa took over the web site. 

He told me he didn't know what happened to Chile Head Salsa, but his business has picked up since they went away. 

(UPDATE November 2015 - Since it's been 10 years since I wrote this entry, there's now a number of places to buy Atomic Horseradish on-line.  True Natural Taste out of Agoura Hills, CA has it available by clicking here.  Or it's also available from Amazon by clicking here.  It's best to do the two-day option - as I said, it can't be out of refrigeration any more than 72 hours.  When I order it to be delivered to my home, I do it in the winter time so the jars will at least be cold in the trucks.)     

(UPDATE April 2016 - Late last year, my wife took me to Lucky's Market in Iowa City, a specialty grocery store chain based out of Boulder, CO.  We were looking around and I remembered that I needed some fresh ground horseradish.  When I got to where they had the fresh horseradish in the refrigerated section of the store I couldn't believe my eyes.  They had Atomic Horseradish!  Then a couple three weeks later, my step-son sent me a picture of a jar of Atomic Horseradish and asked if this was the stuff that we liked to get.  I told him it was and he said that he found it at The Fresh Market in Cedar Rapids, part of a chain of upscale grocery stores based out of North Carolina.  If you have a Lucky's Market or a Fresh Market location near you, you may want to check it out.)

One final story on Atomic Horseradish - Earlier this year, my company is out in Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show.  We're all eating in a restaurant in the Golden Nugget and I ordered a steak and asked if they could bring out fresh ground horseradish with it.  They brought out my steak and the horseradish, I took one bite and immediately knew it was Atomic Horseradish.

One of my colleagues ordered the prime rib and he asked to try it.  I said, "Have you ever had this stuff before?"  He said he hadn't.  I said, "Don't take too much."

So he put a fingernail sized chunk of Atomic Horseradish on a piece of the prime rib.  He took a bite and he immediately got red in the face, he started coughing, he was gasping for breath.  He said, "That shit is LETHAL!" 

Lethal seems to be the term most used in conjunction with Atomic Horseradish.

I took about three times the size he used on his piece and put it on a piece I'd just cut on my steak.  My co-worker said, "Oh, there's no way.  You're just showing off, now." 

I said, "No, I'm used to this stuff.  I've been eating it since 1988 and regularly for five years at home." 

I took a bite, and - as usual - my face went red, my eyes started watering, my nose cavity cleared, I lost my breath.  I'm pounding on the table trying to get my senses back to square one and when I finally did, I looked up and everyone is sitting there with a big smile on their faces.  I said, "Now, that's the way to eat Atomic Horseradish, boys..."