The month of October is one of the highlights in the British foodie year.  The British game season is underway; there is an abundance of fresh British fish including mussels and oysters, as well as all the stunning autumn fruits on offer from bramley apples to quince. Not to mention it is the month when British Egg week takes place. So let us not pollute our platters of all things British with origin-less condiments.

There has been a catalogue of incidents that has led me to write about condiments. Namely - mint sauce, apple sauce and horseradish.  The first occurred when I was cooking an enormous roast for twenty people to celebrate a special birthday.  For this meal, I bought two legs of locally bred lamb from the nearby butcher. The potatoes, spinach, carrots and peas were from the garden.  What a true British feast I hear you cry.  Then I ruined it all.  In my haste and to be honest governed by fear I decided to buy the mint sauce.  I once tried to make mint sauce and it was such a vinegary assault on the mouth that it really put me off trying again.  As I was decanting the jar into a ramekin, I gazed at the label and realised there was no origin for the reconstituted mint.

I had bought this rather beautifully packaged jar of mint sauce from a local market and so asked the producer, the following week, to confirm the mint was British. They couldn't do that straight away, as they had to check with the wholesalers who sell the mint. The reason I am not going to name and shame this mint sauce producer is that they are at this very moment in the process of changing mint supplier to a British company.  The fact they are doing this confirmed that their wholesaler couldn't guarantee British mint.  I subsequently looked at supermarket shelves and whilst Colman's proudly pronounces English mint, as does the Tesco Finest range for example, a standard jar of mint sauce generally provides no origin.

The second incident happened when I started to investigate a couple of sheepish members of my family's fridges.  I discovered jar upon jar of mint sauce, horseradish sauce and apple sauce.  Not just one jar but also several of each type.  Many with crusty lids.  And origin-less ingredients.

In fact, what pushed me into preaching to you was that some friends have just slaughtered their own pig.  In true Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall style they reared the pig, fed it up and then last weekend they butchered it themselves.  They cut up and prepared every bit of that pig.  They made black pudding, sausages, chops, the lot.  They celebrated by serving roast loin of pork on the Sunday.  The apple sauce was from the local supermarket.  The apples had no origin.  I could not believe my eyes, dear reader.  It is the season for British apples!  How hard can it be to make apple sauce, I piously and ungratefully announced.  All it entails is slow cooking some peeled British apples in butter.

It occurs to me that many of us are spending time sourcing good local produce to create wonderful British dishes and then at the last minute are dashing out to grab a jar of sauce under the illusion that there is no time to spend on condiments.  It's not about the sauce anyway is it, that's just the little extra. But it is about the sauce. These condiments are important.  The flavours that the horseradish brings to the beef, the apple to the pork and the mint to the lamb are what make these dishes British. Many times these sauces can be the heroes of the meal – they can disguise slightly overdone beef or soggy vegetables.  It is said one can tell much about a person by the shoes they wear; similarly, one can tell a lot about a roast by the standard of condiment.  These sauces are the British roast's key accessory and have been for many hundreds of years.

Ironically, Elizabeth I decreed that mutton and lamb should only be served with bitter herbs in the hope that this would deter her subjects from eating it. She could not have foreseen the culinary marriage of lamb and mint that would come about as a direct result.

Horseradish has been popular in the UK since medieval times.  It is an integral ingredient of Tewkesbury mustard – a condiment mentioned by Falstaff in Shakespeare's Henry IV – as well as the traditional sauce made from grated horseradish root, vinegar and cream.

There are some sauces that, due to their secret recipes and integration into British culture, have to be bought.  These include HP sauce, Colman's English mustard and Worcestershire sauce.  But, if we can't source a national condiment such as apple or mint sauce that guarantees its key ingredient is British, we shouldn't simply close our eyes and buy an inferior jar.  We should hold our heads high, go home and make it ourselves using mint from the garden and apples from a British tree.

For some truly British condiments visit Colmans [click here].

The horseradish sauce from the Welsh Mustard Company contains a hint of British honey, which makes it utterly delicious. [click here].

For some stunning Tewkesbury mustard produced by Mrs Darlington & Daughters [click here].

British sugar producers, Silver Spoon have a fantastic recipe for a quick apple and mint jelly [click here].

This month, The Sauce makes Mint Sauce…

The Sauce

Mint Sauce

• What ingredients did you use and how readily available were they?
  1. 40g fresh mint from a friend's garden
  2. 2 teaspoons of caster sugar from the store cupboard
  3. 1 tablespoon of boiling water
  4. 2 tablespoons of white wine vinegar from the store cupboard


• What was the sum total cost of this meal?
  A big fat zero


• How many people did it actually feed?
  It filled a ramekin.


• How long did it take and how easy was it?
  It took no longer than an hour from start to finish.  I picked the mint and then pulled off the leaves and finely chopped them. I put the chopped mint with the sugar in a jar and then added the boiling water.  I left it for 5 minutes for the sugar to dissolve.  I then stirred in the vinegar and left it at least 30 minutes before tasting it.


• What did you and your guests think of the sauce?
  Thankfully it was not too vinegary.  They were very impressed by it and all felt inspired to go and make their own.


• Would you cook it again?
  Apart from the chopping, there really is minimal effort and cost involved with this recipe.  I will definitely endeavor to make all my own condiments in the future.  This mint sauce is quite sharp and I have a sweet tooth so I am going to try and make mint jelly next time.  To do this, all I need to add to the recipe is ½ cup of sugar, a sachet of pectin and some lemon juice.

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