I’ve been following the story of Sauce Shop for a while now on twitter, eagerly following their progress and watching them grow from afar. Quite soon after their setup I tried a couple of sauces courtesy of Big Daddies Diner – the street food trader frequently found at Digbeth Dinging Club in Birmingham and later picked up a bottle of their trademark Nottinghamshire Sauce after seeing it in a Farm Shop whilst on a day trip out in Nottinghamshire. This further fueled my love for them and I’ve been lusting after trying some of their other sauces ever since then, but at the moment they’re not stocked near me or on the web.
Pam & James, the founders of Sauce Shop, first began making sauces when they opened their fridge and found it jam packed full of supermarket bought sauces and decided they were spending far to much money on sauce! The first experiment in their kitchen resulted in a batch of Smoky Chipotle ketchup, such a hit with family and friends that resulted in them coming up with recipes for a lot of their favorite sauces, including one for their ‘hero’ sauce; a mushroom ketchup named after their own home county, Nottinghamshire.
Image from Sauce Shop Facebook Page
They now supply several farm shops and Delis in Nottinghamshire, as well as some pubs and restaurants in the area, and the aforementioned Big Daddies Diner, and are still making all their sauces by hand in their kitchen. Pam has recently given up her full time job to concentrate on expanding the business into wider regions. After recently chatting to Pam about this on twitter, she was kind enough to send me through some samples of their sauces to try out. Their range includes
- Nottinghamshire Sauce
- Tomato Ketchup
- Caramlised Onion Ketchup
- Smokey Chipotle Ketchup
- Buffalo Hot Sauce
- Really Hot Sauce
- Fiery Chilli Sauce
- Lime & Coriander Sauce
- Peanut Butter Sauce
- Salter Caramel Sauce
Image from Sauce Shop Facebook Page
All the sauces are made with fresh vegetables, vine ripened tomatoes, citrus juice from fresh fruit and quality sea salt. No artificials here! Over the last week or so I’ve been making my way through all of the sauces, and first off, there is not one that I didn’t like. The biggest thing that struck me was how clean and vibrant the flavours were – they taste of what they say on the tin, and finding sauces like this is not so easy as you may think. Of the savoury sauces, my favorite two were probably the Lime & Coriander, and the Buffalo Hot Sauce.
I had the Lime & Coriander smothered all over a Tuna Steak and it was delicious – the tang of the lime really came through and I think this would be fab with all kinds of fish, also with Mexican food or maybe as a accompaniment to Indian flavours as well.
We tried the Buffalo Hot Sauce with Chicken Wings – and again, the flavours were superb. The sauce had such a creamy texture but that chilli kick from the scotch bonnets really makes your mouth tingle! The Fiery Chilli Sauce and the Really Hot Sauce are also both excellent – we tried them both drizzled over some fried rice, and it really livened it up. The Really Hot Sauce blows your head off (in a good way!)
Moving on to the ketchups! – the Caramelised Onion went perfectly on on a sausage sandwich, as did the Nottinghamshire Sauce. Both deep and rich in flavour, I think bacon and sausages are the perfect fit for them. I think I’ll also be adding a dollop of the Nottinghamshire to gravies for that added little extra!
After dipping my finger in the Smokey Chipotle and the original Tomato Ketchup, I think I’ll be saving these for the next time we have chips or anything barbecued! Or ribs…bet the Chipotle would be awesome with ribs!
Lastly a quick something about the sweet sauces – these both would literally be good with any dessert! I drizzled the peanut butter all over some plain popcorn and I’m planning on using the Salted Caramel when icing my cupcakes later today.
I feel that farm shops in the area I live; around Birmingham and Staffordshire (and probably the rest of the country too) are crying out for an individual fantastic product like Sauce Shop Sauces.
So if you’re a Farm shop, Deli, Pub or Restaurant reading this and would like to discuss stocking their products – please contact me ([email protected]) or Sauce Shop themselves, and help expand a fantastic business further into the Midlands and Beyond!!
Find them HERE on the web or follow them on Twitter
Disclosure: This post was not sponsored, I received samples of the Sauce Shop product complimentary to try out. I wasn’t required to write anything good, but I genuinely think these guys are fab and would love to see their business expand.
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