Baking with savoury condiments - the how to
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“ … condiments are all special on their own. They allow you to travel the whole world in a simple jar” Claire Dinhut (The Condiment book)
When I was at university in London and somewhat strapped for cash, I discovered firsthand how good food does not require all that much. How all you really need are good quality ingredients (even basic ones like dried pasta or tinned fish) and that the key to transform these ingredients into delicious dishes rests not just on good cooking technique but a well-stocked pantry and fridge full of delicious and good quality spices, condiments, fresh herbs etc. I learned how something as simple as some leftover rice, some fried eggs and some sliced cucumber could be turned into a delicious meal with just a few spoons of crispy chili oil or sambal for example. Or how a spoon or two of miso paste could add wonderful depth and complexity to vegetarian ragù. In short, I discovered how condiments manage to transform ingredients into something so much more than the sum of their parts.
While I probably have Yotam Ottolenghi to thank for introducing me to condiments like miso paste in the first place, I think all credit is due to Anna Hansen (The Modern Pantry, The Providores etc) for opening my eyes to the frankly limitless possibilities of using modern pantry staples like miso to transform our cooking, savoury and sweet. While the rest of the world seemed to be distancing themselves from 90s fusion food in the early 00s (often mocked as “fusion confusion”), Anna Hansen was in fact happy to fully embrace the fusion label - cooking food “driven by the desire to please and excite the palate”. She considered her pantry global in nature and says that there are “no cultural or culinary boundaries in her kitchen”, instead using ingredients from across the globe such as tamarind, miso, fresh turmeric, umeboshi plums, yuzu and liquorice for example (Source). (And I have lost count of the number of times I went to The Modern Pantry for brunch - each time wanting to order the entire delicious menu!).
This week I decided it was about time we covered condiments and how to use them in cakes, desserts and other sweet treats on my Substack! But first things first. What do we actually mean by condiments?
The word condiment has its origins in Latin and the concept of preserving, pickling or seasoning (with condimentum meaning spice, seasoning or sauce). Merriam Webster defines a condiment as “something (such as a seasoning, sauce, garnish, or topping) that is added to food usually after the food is prepared and that enhances or adds to its flavor”. The definition is so broad as to not be particularly helpful. So I have decided that for the purposes of this post (and to stop this post from getting even longer than it already is), we will focus on the following condiments - given their popularity and accessibility:
Miso, Soy Sauce and Fish Sauce
Ketchup, Mayonnaise, Mustard (+ Wasabi)
Vinegar
And yes, not including the likes of gochujang, crispy chili oil and other hot condiments might seem like a glaring omission but I have decided they need their own separate newsletter - so watch this space!
Now, you would be forgiven for wondering why we should bake and create desserts and other sweet treats using these types of savoury condiments in the first place. To which I will simply say that I cannot be the only one guilty of having not just a shelf in my fridge door but also an actual shelf in my fridge dedicated to all sorts of condiments (with a few more jars taking up precious real estate in my small pantry). And while there are many I have to restock frequently, others can languish in my kitchen for far too long - a clear sign I am probably not making the most of them! And as someone always on the hunt for the next delicious flavour or delicious flavour combination, I cannot help but look at each new condiment jar and ponder what delicious things I can tease out said jar beyond the classic uses. (Sure, there is also a zero waste aspect but given the typically long shelf life of most condiments, this is not my prime motivation for finding delicious alternative ways of using popular savoury condiments).
Miso, Soy Sauce and Fish Sauce
What do soy sauce, miso and fish sauce have in common? They are all fermented condiments, deeply savoury in flavour and add a kick of umami to anything they touch. And if you love a sprinkle of sea salt on a batch of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies or a lick of salted caramel sauce on your ice cream then I am pretty certain you would equally enjoy desserts made with soy sauce, miso or fish sauce.
Miso
Shortly after I started cooking with miso I also started incorporating miso in sweet recipes. In fact, I developed somewhat of an obsession with using miso in cakes, desserts and other sweet treats - stirring miso into homemade marshmallow fluff; dusting churros, morning buns and French toast with Bon Appetit’s miso sugar; preparing banana miso custard tarts; adding spoonfuls of miso to mugs of hot chocolate and making jar after jar of Bon Appetit’s miso apricot jam. Below are some recipe ideas if you want to experiment a bit more with miso:
Miso and Sweet Potato Cheesecake
My Triple Buckwheat Coffee Cake with Apricot Miso Jam
Christina Tosi’s Burnt Miso Pound Cake
Bon Appetit’s Blueberry Miso Crumb Cake
Benjamina Ebuehi’s Miso Tres Leches Cake
Justine Snack’s Burnt Miso Brown Butter Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies
Meera Sodha’s Salted Miso Brownies
Nicola Lamb’s Miso Walnut Double Thick Chocolate Chip Cookies
My French Toast with Miso Sugar and Umeboshi Plum Compote
David Lebovitz’ Roasted Strawberry-Miso Ice cream
Ixta Belfrage’s Miso Caramel Ice Cream Bomba
For some more ideas, have a look at my Ingredient Spotlight: Miso post.
Soy Sauce
As much as I enjoy making (and eating) cakes, desserts and other sweet treats made with miso, until quite recently, I had not experimented using savoury condiments with a similar umami kick like soy sauce, for example, in sweet applications. In fact, as much as I am a huge fan of things like salted caramel or sea salt topped brownies and cookies (and have played quite a bit with miso to achieve a similar effect), it wasn’t until Sarah from Nova Bakehouse sent me some of her soy sauce caramels back when I lived in Rome that I realised I had completely overlooked soy sauce, such a common pantry ingredient, as an ingredient to add saltiness, umami and complexity to desserts. (Also, if you haven’t already make sure to subscribe to Sarah’s Bake Sense Substack!) Below are some ideas if you would like to play around with soy sauce in sweet applications:
The panna cotta recipe in Nicola Lamb’s SIFT featuring caramelised white chocolate and soy sauce
Coconut Ice Cream with Soy Sauce Caramel
Chocolate Chip Cookies with Soy Sauce
Chocolate Cake with Soy Caramel French Buttercream by Sophie Bamford
Glazed Chocolate Cake with Soy Sauce
Milk chocolate, soy sauce and urfa chili caramel truffles by Anna Hansen
Fish Sauce
As much as I have experimented with miso in cakes, desserts and other sweet treats, I have yet to venture much beyond miso and play with other savoury condiments with a similar umami kick - like fish sauce for example. However, I remember making the Ottolenghi recipe for Blackened Chicken with Caramel and Clementine Dressing which includes a fish sauce caramel and immediately thinking that fish sauce would also make a lovely addition to a salted caramel type sauce. Because like miso and soy sauce, fish sauce is not just salty but adds real complexity to whatever it touches. So I wasn’t surprised to come across quite a few recipes making the most of fish sauce’s flavour in sweet recipes. For example:
Fish Sauce Caramels with Kaffir Lime and Lemongrass
Chili Crisp Sundae with Peanut Ice Cream and Fish Sauce Brittle
Stamped Calamansi Fish Sauce Shortbread by Abi Balingit
Ketchup, Mayonnaise and Mustard (+ Wasabi)
You would be forgiven for wondering what Ketchup, Mayonnaise and Mustard (let alone Wasabi!) are doing in this newsletter since you are much more likely to see them paired with fries and maybe some grilled sausages than flour, sugar and butter. But there are actually some sweet recipes that use them. And Mayonnaise in particular is a good one to keep in your back pocket fridge because it can be a helpful substitute for other ingredients.
Ketchup
As David Lebovitz wrote when talking about Ketchup Macarons, “If you think (a Ketchup Macaron) sounds odd, if you think about it, tomatoes are a fruit and ketchup is really a spiced and sweetened paste made from them.” Looking at Ketchup from that perspective it doesn’t sound all that odd to try and use it in desserts.
That being said, somewhat unsurprisingly I did not come across a ton of recipes using Ketchup. The one recipe that kept on popping up was for an allegedly Canadian Ketchup Cake - a simple sponge cake that uses a decent amount of Ketchup plus spices like cinnamon and cloves and seems to be a sort of spice cake eaten on its own or with cream cheese frosting. At times it’s also made with red food colouring and served as a layer cake not unlike a red velvet cake. See here for a recipe.
Mayonnaise
As odd as mayonnaise might sound as a baking ingredient, once we remind ourselves of the fact that the key ingredients in mayonnaise are eggs and oil it suddenly seems pretty intuitive that mayonnaise should work in cakes - at least as a substitute. And once you discover that even a Michelin-starred chef like Thomas Keller uses mayonnaise in his Devil’s Food Cake you start wondering why you have been hesitating. Here are a couple of more ideas:
Mayonnaise Banana Bread
NYT One Bowl Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake
Mustard (+ Wasabi)
I was born in Germany so mustard practically runs through my veins. A common childhood breakfast was a slice of ryebread with butter, gouda cheese and mustard. And no BBQ was complete unless there was a bottle of mustard among the various condiments. And to this day I often have several jars of mustard in my fridge - a wholegrain mustard and a Dijon type mustard for salad dressings mainly, a milder mustard to eat with grilled meat and to use in sandwiches etc. It’s also not surprising that given my love for mustard that I would also enjoy eating wasabi, even if it took me a little while to figure out how to dose wasabi (for want of a better word!) since it packs much more heat than mustard powder.
Now, I did not come across many sweet recipes using mustard or wasabi, but these Cookies with Wasabi Glaze caught my eye and I think they would be interesting to try with either mustard or wasabi. Here are a few others that caught my eye:
Strawberry Eclairs with Mustard
Vinegar
I love vinegar - whether red wine, apple cider, balsamic, black etc, they all have a role to play in my kitchen, from salad dressings to homemade pickles, dips and beyond. And just last year I started making my own shrubs, essentially drinking vinegars, so I have found a further way to play around with vinegar in my kitchen. That being said, to date I have only baked with vinegar once - making a quick fresh fig shrub which I sandwiched between a layer of a fig leaf sponge and a crumble layer in a twist on the Jammy Coffee Cake in Natasha Pickowicz’ brilliant More than Cake book. But after trying the Mahleb Cake with a delicious Rose Vinegar Icing at Loquat in San Francisco late last year (pictured below) I am keen to explore vinegar more. And it is worth pointing out that vinegar is used in baking not just for its flavour but also because of its acidity - in fact it is a key ingredient in a number of vegan cakes where its reaction with chemical leaveners helps the cake rise and ensure a tender crumb.
Here are a few ideas:
Adobo chocolate chip cookies with soy sauce and vinegar
Apple Butter Five Spice Cookies with Vinegar Glaze by Jordan Smith
The vegan chocolate cake in Ottolenghi’s Comfort
Shrubs / drinking vinegars - and using the macerated fruit in other desserts
Pickled fruit like these pickled cherries to enjoy alongside rich chocolate tarts and similar
Drizzling good balsamic vinegar over fruity ice cream like raspberry or strawberry ice cream
Further Reading
Fish Sauce is the new Salted Caramel
Go Ahead - Put Some Fish Sauce in Your Cookies
I tried adding soy sauce to my chocolate cake and have serious thoughts
As a Lawyer to Lawyer - I must say that your recipe looks wonderful and creative
What a joy to read Sophia and so many wonderful tips on how use those many condiments we have lurking at the back of our fridge. I have yet to use soy sauce in sweet dishes, but it makes complete and utter sense as i read your words now.