Traina Foods® Sun Dried Tomato Ketchup – Product Review

Traina Foods – Sun Dried Tomato Ketchup

The people at Traina Foods (http://trainafoods.com) were nice enough to send me a sample of their sun dried tomato ketchup to review. After trying the product, this is what I thought:

• Packaging Apparence – The product arrived in a sturdy squeeze bottle with an overwrap label, as well as a foil/paper seal under the cap.  The overwrap on my bottles were actually a little off-centered. The Traina logo and the sun dried tomato ketchup fonts were a little fuzzy, but the black script and the tomato image looked very clear. My small concerns are that the full overwrap does not allow you to see the product on the inside, and a repeated use of a squeeze bottle with an overwrap label will eventually wrinkle and shift even more.
• Product Appearance – As expected, this ketchup is not as smooth as the leading brands, however it held together very nice when squeezed into a bowl.  There are visible pieces of tomato, but not big enough to be a chewy nuisance. It has a rich, dark red color, and just enough thickness to adhere to foods just like its traditional counterpart. When using it as a condiment for french fries however, you will need to give it a little more scoop action to get it on the fry.
  

  Traina Foods – Sun Dried Tomato Ketchup

• Eating Experience – This stuff tastes fantastic! I am a ketchup fan, but this definitely brings it to the next level. It has the deep, natural sun dried tomato flavor you would expect, with just the right amount of natural sweetness. It has a great acidity level, along with just a touch of onion and other spices.  I had the pleasure of trying this with homemade french fries, and on a prime beef patty melt. Again, it has just the right amount of sodium which was not overpowering, but complimented everything I ate it with.  Even after it sat in a bowl for a while, I did not see any signs of separation.
• Value – You get what you pay for. A 16oz bottle runs about $4.99 which is much higher compared to the leading ketchup brands, however this was made to be an upscale alternative. The Traina Foods website states it takes about 4 pounds of tomatoes to make one bottle of their ketchup, and sun dried tomatoes themselves already cost more that your average tomato.
• Overall – I personally think the packaging could use an upgrade, maybe either a printed on package label, or sticker label, but the flavor from the ketchup is outstanding. It has a much greater depth of flavor compared to the high sweet/salty/acid standard brands, a nice texture you would expect from a sun dried tomato product, and even though it is at a higher price point compared to the leading standard brands, it is well worth it! I give Traina Foods® Sun Dried Tomato Ketchup a 4.5 out of 5.

NERDSTEAK is more than happy to review any food, beverage, restaurant, CPG or equipment items you have to offer.  Feel free to contact Mike directly at chefman316@aol.com to arrange for shipping of samples, or to schedule a review. You can also follow Chef Mike on:

LinkedIn – Twitter – Facebook – Pinterest 

 

Food Factoids – v1.

Rapid fire food factoids…AAANNNDDD…GO!

• The Trinidad Scorpion Moruga Blend is the current world record holder for hottest chile with over 2million SHUs.
• It is recommended that honey should not be fed to infants, the elderly, or people with weakened immune systems due to the honey naturally containing botulism spores.
• The myth of a McDonald’s hamburger lasting 12 years due to chemicals in the meat is false.  With little moisture, small size, and topical seasonings, the burger dehydrates before it can spoil almost preserving it like jerky.
• The optimal doneness for a steak is medium-rare.  This allows most of the marbled fat to render and provide and juicy and flavorful steak.  Too rare, and you will have unrendered fat which will not provide optimal taste…too well and you will have excess fat and moisture loss.
• The juice that comes from steak is nat actually blood.  It is called myoglobin, and is only found in the bloodstream during injury.  It normally resides in muscle tissue, which is the part we commonly eat.
• It does not matter if you use Crisco, margarine, butter, lard, canola oil, vegetable oil, olive oil, safflower oil, peanut oil, sunflower oil, or palm oil…they all contain 9cal/gram of fat.  There are other positive and negative health concerns associated with each, but they still supply the same amount of calories.
• 80% of the world’s nations eat bugs as a form of food.
• Heavy mayonnaise weighs less than regular mayonnaise.
• One of the main flavoring agents in Worcestershire sauce is anchovies.
• Taste, texture, and apparence actually have little do to with the flavor of food compared to its odor.
• There are more Subway restaurants on the planet than there are McDonald’s.
• There is only one McDonald’s in the world that does not have golden arches. it resides in Arizona, and is turquoise so it does’t clash with the natural red rock formations.
• Durring emergencies, coconut water can be used as a substitute for blood plasma.
• Alaskans eat more ice cream per capita than any other state.
• Cotton candy only costs about $0.06 to make, making it one of the most profitable snacks at any state fair.
• Bubblegum will melt at 125°F.
• It is estimated that 40% of all bottled water is actually standard tap water with no additional treatment.

Add to the list!

Pretend To Be Smart – Fancy Food Terms v2

Here is another list of fancy food terms explained so you can impress your foodie friends…

A LA CARTE – The fancy version of this is a menu broken down into separate parts so you can order whatever you want for your meal, as opposed to all together…for us normal folks, just think of it as a ‘dollar menu’ for expensive stuff.

MINCED – Just cut any food item to heck and back…basically minced.  One step above pulverized with a laser.

CANAPEAS – Think of a Ritz cracker with a piece of cheese on it.  Now change the cracker to a slice of artisan bread, and change the toppings to a red onion marmalade, torched Bree, and crispy lardons.  Can-of-peas.

CARAMELIZED – A fancy way to say, ‘I almost done burnt it.’

NAPPE – Confirming your sauce is thick enough by its ability to coat the back of a spoon.  You don’t want paste, and you don’t want water.  Nappe is that sauce sweet spot.

APERITIF – Pre-gaming to get the mouth party started.

UMAMI – If you taste meat-like-flavor in something without having the confirmation of actual meat being present, verbally state you get a strong ‘umami’ profile from the dish.

AU JUS – The natural juice of whatever food item you just cooked.  If you cook a shoe and juice comes out, you can serve it with shoe au jus. Don’t cook a shoe. Gesundheit.

CONFIT – Cooking a food items in its own fat. If you cook a shoe its own fat, you can serve shoe confit.  F.Y.I. shoes don’t have fat unless your foot is in it, but that wouldn’t be shoe fat…it would be you fat.