Salt and Pepper
1. SALT – Always use Sea Salt, not “the stuff in the round blue box.” Whether you use fine or coarse sea salt is determined by the results you are looking for.
Another option is Maldon Salt, which is actually shaved flakes of salt.
2. PEPPER – Avoid ground or crushed black pepper because it gets stale. Buy peppercorns and (Peugeot) pepper mill. Replace peppercorns about every 6 months.
Sauces like ketchup and A-1 Sauce are great for the rest of the people but if you want a sauce that they will remember, take a base such as ketchup, and add some garlic powder to it, for example. Other fun spices to add are chili powder, onion powder, cumin, and similar things.
Salad dressings are equally fun to explore. The base is 1/2 vinegar and 1/2 oil. Mix the vinegar with a whisk as you drizzle VERY SLOWLY the olive oil into the vinegar. Some people say this is not necessary, but what you are doing is breaking the oil into tiny droplets that will NOT separate completely from the vinegar. Once that is done, add something fun like powdered ginger.
Even things like pickles can be improved upon. Sure; Vlasic makes a hell-uv-a pickle, but once you’ve made my bread and butter pickles, you’ll never go back to the dark side.
