The Official French Fries Pages:
Condiment Reviews: Formula 9 Ketchup
Franck Labbe, a French-born chef-turned-entrepreneur, decided that ketchup should not be some back-of-the-refrigerator condiment, especially not for a sauce with such a rich history. Even more importantly, he decided to put his ketchup where his press kit is and sent us a box of his four ketchups to put to the ultimate French Fry test.
Although we did talk to Mr Labbe over the telephone, we didn't actually interview him. However, he was nice enough to send us a press kit along with the ketchup, so we lifted the next quote from that.
"I think it's time for ketchup to go premium," said Labbe. "and I'm betting that people will welcome upscale, adult flavors as a change from the sweet tomato taste we've been limited to for more than twenty years."
Well, we like the sweet tomato taste of "standard" tomato ketchup but we'll try just about anything once (except probably that awful idea that now four people have told us about involving chocolate milkshakes).
The Select Ware Laboratories, Culinary and Food Technology Division, as scientific as ever, tested the ketchups with the following equipment and products:
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Fry Daddy self-regulating-temperature control frying unit |
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Spatter screen |
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Serving Plate (from Crate & Barrel, discontinued) |
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Ore-Ida Golden Fries straight-cut French Fries |
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Wesson pure vegetable oil (fresh stuff so as not to impart any other flavours) |
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Salt (We forget which brand. Sorry. However, extensive testing confirmed it was more than 99.83% NaCl, so we're pretty sure that the brand of salt is not a major factor in this experiment.) |
We prepared the French Fries according to Ore-Ida's instructions. We then drained them on paper napkins and salted them. A sample of each ketchup was poured on the test plate
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| Comprehensive taste-testing was done with these ketchups. Too comprehensive, actually. It was so comprehensive we had to make more Golden Fries to re-test the results just to be certain of our judgements (and this only a couple hours after the testing of microwave French Fries!). We were astounded! We were amazed! These ketchups really are as good as the press kit says!
We're not even saying that just because Mr Labbe sent us all this ketchup, although we wouldn't complain if he sends some more! |
143 seconds later |
The results:
Ketchup |
Comments |
Average
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Ginger |
As stated above, this ketchup was thinner than the others, but that may have been due to the ketchup being at room temperature. While the aroma of this ketchup has a slight curry-like quality, one taste tells all: real
ginger. If you're not a big fan of ginger, this ketchup is not for you. But if ginger|s zour thing, this is your nirvana.
Our judges disagreed on the suitability of this ketchup for use as as French fries condiment. Despite the one judge pointing out it really is a ketchup with tomato as the primary ingredient, another judge refused to be swayed and judged this ketchup's suitability accordingly. This proves that our judges are committed to giving honest opinions and remain steadfast in those opinions except maybe when a cash bribe is at stake. |
6.8 |
Roasted Garlic |
A thick ketchup, the judges disagreed over this one a bit. This is certainly not to be overlooked by garlic fans. However, the garlic flavour, although strong, is not overpowering. Our judges once again disagreed on the suitability of this ketchup as a French Fry condiment, although they agreed on some other uses.
The same judges had the same arguments, after which, the one who thought it was an appropriate French Fry condiment told the one who didn't that maybe that silly judge ought to try eating French Fries with chocolate milkshakes or bleu cheese or ranch dressing since so many people use those as condiments to which the other judge responded in a way that we will not print for fear of a Congressional subpoena. |
7 |
Cranberry |
The dark horse of the pack, the Cranberry Ketchup poured thick and had a very rich and unique flavour. Quoth one judge (the one who doesn't always know what makes a good condiment), "This is really good. I like it a lot. The flavour grows on you fast." The more experienced judge gave this one a "10" the first time around and all judges agreed with this rating after a second tasting. | 10 |
Roasted Red Pepper |
The thickest, heartiest and overall Best Of Show, The Roasted Red Pepper Ketchup is our hands-down overall winner. It really is Super-Ketchup. It is just amazingly good stuff. We are at a loss for words and find ourselves hard-pressed to make comments, humourous or otherwise, about this, other than, "Wow!"
This ketchup scored a "10" from all judges on the very first taste. Even more amusing, after all the French Fries the judges ate today, some mozzarella sticks were thrown into the fryer. One of the judges tried dipping it in the Roasted Red Pepper Ketchup since another judge (the one who knows condiments better) forgot that there was no more mozzarella stick sauce. This judge immediately told the other judges that we already had another use for this ketchup and it was realised that this ketchup will not be around very long in the cold storage unit. |
10 |
Another thing we like about these ketchups is that there are no chemical flavour enhancers, stabilisors, emulsifiers, regulators, preservatives, gums to add consistency, or anything else like that. You could make this ketchup with ingredients you have in your own kitchen. Probably. Except that you're probably not a French Chef like Mr Labbe and you probably never worked for Wolfgang Puck. And you might use more than nine ingredients; these ketchups don't. Nine. Count 'em. We did. We're even willing to bet that you can pronounce every one of the ingredients (the hardest word is "balsamic").
Update (2007): We are sorry to report that Formula 9 Ketchups are currently out of production. If they return to production we'll not only report it here but already have our orders in before you can click on the headline.
The Formula 9 ketchups are available in a few shops in Texas, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., and Florida, as well in New England Stop-&-Shops. We think they can be also obtained directly from Califrance. Try calling Susan Vash at (310) 440-0729 or send a fax to (310) 440-0879.
This was the last straw. We've had many problems with UPS before and this was it. Since this incident, we have, without even being paid to do so, designated Federal Express as the Official Shipper of the Official French Fries Pages. That's not to say that we won't accept sponsorship from them, but we're not trying to pull anyone's chain here. We have NEVER had a problem with FedEx. We basically have to say the opposite about UPS. We're so mad we named them directly instead of using a reference like "that company with the brown vans".
Of course the box was marked "Fragile"!
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