My grandma's 1950s meatloaf glaze called for either ketchup or chili sauce, and I went with the chili sauce last Sunday, which gave it a much deeper, almost smoky flavor that my kids actually ate.

Has anyone else found that swapping one old-school condiment in a forgotten recipe can totally change the dish?

2 comments

2 Comments

That chili sauce swap sounds great. Read a food blog once where someone used steak sauce instead of Worcestershire in a pot roast gravy. It made the whole thing richer and less salty. Those old recipes have a lot of room for little changes like that.

andrew_smith23d ago

Actually, steak sauce is mostly just Worcestershire with extra sugar and tomato. So that swap patricia_morgan32 mentioned is really just adding sweetness. It can work, but it's not less salty because the base is the same. The real trick for less salt is to use a low-sodium broth or just skip added salt since the sauce brings plenty. Those little changes are fine, but you have to know what you're really swapping.