When I was assessing the ketchup assortment at Straubs recently and bemoaning the fact that today’s version of the old condiment is greatly watered down—(I suppose so it can get through the tiny hole in the squeeze bottle)—I spotted a new offering. Traina Homegrown Gourmet Classic Ketchup made in Patterson, California from sun dried tomatoes.
The label boasted: “Slow is Better,” a pace that I agree with when it comes to ketchup and school crossings. But get this: there’s 4 pounds of tomatoes in every 16-ounce bottle! What’s more, there’s no corn syrup and it’s low in sodium. I bought a bottle.
When I open the ketchup, I had a flashback to my mother’s kitchen. She would occasionally make ketchup, when the garden produced a bumper crop of tomatoes. Like her sauce, Traina is thick, rich and bold—like God intended.
Tomatoes drying in the California sun
It can be used as a dipping sauce for fries, a topping on your eggs, favorite wraps, grilled fish and meat dishes.
I’ve not offered it to a child yet. Having underdeveloped taste buds and years of exposure to watery ketchup, they might not find it appealing.
More Gourmet Varieties
Their Sriracha Sun Dried Tomato Ketchup packs in the equivalent of 3 pounds of Roma tomatoes along with a jolt of hot sauce. There’s also Sicilian Tomato and Herb Ketchup, Sun Dried Apricot BBQ Sauce and Sun Dried Plum BBQ Sauce.
According to their website, only Straub stores in Clayton and Webster Groves carry Traina and just the Gourmet Classic variety. Others can be purchased on line.
Kitchen Note: Is there a difference between catsup and ketchup? No, just different spellings. Heinz made the ketchup version popular, when they used it to distinguish their product from catsups.
