Cutting the mustard

From table staples such as ketchup and mayonnaise to artisanal concoctions steeped in tradition, our fondness for condiments is both growing and evolving

- Joseph Nesbitt-Larking

HERE'S SOMETHING to bring up the next time you want one of those old-fashioned, spirited conversations/disagreements in the pub: what is a condiment? Shelve the smartphones momentarily and ask each person to define the word.

Chances are that each will differ and the debate will descend into secondary squabbles about sauces, seasonings, pickles and dips.

In the midst of such animated exchanges, compromise is rarely found. In all likelihood there is no satisfactory definition of a condiment. Instead, there exists a sort of taxonomy of gastronomy in which a condiment can be (but is not always) a sauce, a spice, a seasoning or a pickle and so on ad nauseam. However, something that appears largely consistent between most interpretations is the notion that condiments are commonly added by the diner to a dish that could otherwise be considered finished.

Someone famed for straight talking is Sir Winston Churchill. “No gentleman eats ham sandwiches without mustard,” he once declared. One story goes that on a 1929 tour of the USA, Churchill dined at the home of the Virginia governor. When Churchill requested mustard for the Virginia ham, the butler apologised but there was none. The governor's wife even offered to have somebody go and buy some, and was visibly irritated when Churchill accepted the offer and the entire diplomatic dinner was delayed for mustard’s sake.

There is evidence of condiments gracing tables worldwide since before antiquity, though British condiment culture as we might recognise it today evolved in the 16th century. ‘The use of sauces blossomed in Britain before and during the Elizabethan period. Some were simple constructions; others were complex, rich and strange. Sauces were often made separately and served in ‘saucers’, hence their name,’ writes Andrew Smith in Pure Ketchup (1996).