On Cooking Southern: Sauce is Boss

Dijon mustard and jezebel and comeback sauces.

By Laurie Triplette

ldtriplette@aol.com

SOUTHERNISM OF THE WEEK

Run like a scalded dog: Same as run like the wind, only with more urgency. Like Ole Miss’ #3, Jeff Scott.

Dijon, Jezebel and Comeback

Last week I had to assemble a “Southern cooking care package” for friends living west of the Mississippi. The package contained the all-important grits and Southern baking flour, numerous sauces and seasonings, and even a package of Colonial Finger Rolls for tailgating party sandwiches.

Many of these items are so commonplace in our little center of the universe that we don’t think twice about their availability. But just try relocating to South Bend, Indiana, or Sandy, Utah, or Palm Springs, California, and see what you can find. In South Bend, the sparse selection of “Southern” foods is located in the international aisle, between the Asian and Mexican displays. I kid you not.

The Old Bride’s philosophy of life and cookery states that all Southerners-at-heart should learn how to mix up our favorite seasonings and sauces from scratch. Such knowledge comes in handy when tucked (code word for stuck) in some outback where Creole seasoning and Tabasco Sauce are considered foreign, or while prepping an elaborate dish for the next day’s brunch meeting only to find at 2:20 am that the bottle of that special sauce won’t stretch to fill the recipe. 

This week, we’re going to share recipes for Jezebel Sauce and Mississippi Comeback (Kumback) Sauce. Folks around here love these sauces so much they even bottle them and sell family versions under private labels. Both sauces are synonymous with Mississippi food culture, and are good for dipping, glazing, seasoning, and dressing just about anything edible. We’re also going to learn how to make scratch Dijon Mustard, a crucial ingredient in many Southern dishes. It’s so easy, it should go into every cook’s monthly restock repertoire. Plus, it gives the cook a good reason to uncork a new bottle of dry white wine and tipple while stirring. Hotty Toddy, y’all.

JEZEBEL SAUCE

Jezebel Sauce origins are murky. Southern and Gulf coast cooks have been concocting sauces of fruit and fruit preserves, combined with horseradish and mustard since the 19th Century. Coastal Mississippians claim to have originated Jezebel as we know it, but Florida and Louisiana also have a long, loving relationship with the piquant sauce. And by the 1950s, Kansas also claimed Jezebel Sauce. Unlike the fiery, duplicitous queen of King Ahab, our Jezebel is a keeper. Drizzle Jezebel over cream cheese, or use it as a glaze for pork tenderloin or baked ham. It’s also a tasty condiment with hamburgers, chicken nuggets, and egg rolls.

18-oz jar pineapple preserves

16-oz jar apple jelly plus 2 more ounces

1/4 c dry mustard

5 oz jar of fresh horseradish, drained

Salt and pepper (definitely pepper) to taste

Older versions of the recipe call for 10-oz jars of jelly and preserves combined with the same amounts of mustard and horseradish as listed above. Honestly, The Old Bride can’t take the heat!

Combine all ingredients by whisking vigorously in a non-reactive mixing bowl. Scrape into a plastic container, cover tightly and refrigerate. This is very spicy, and needs to age about two days before use so that the mustard and other ingredients blend properly. Yields about 4 cups.

MISSISSIPPI COMEBACK SAUCE

Comeback sauce is a distinctive dipping sauce and salad dressing similar to Louisiana spicy remoulade, only with an entire community involved in a running argument as to which recipe version is the original, and who created it. Comeback Sauce is said by most Mississippi food historians to have originated during the early 1940s at The Rotisserie, a fine dining restaurant in Jackson, MS, owned by the Dennery family, who were among a group of successful Greek and Italian restaurateurs in the region. Allen Dennery created it as the signature house dressing for The Rotisserie salads. Competing Jackson-area Italian and Greek restaurateurs soon developed their own versions. By the 1960s, Jacksonians had learned to dip just about everything edible into the sauce.

The Old Bride experimented with six versions of Comeback Sauce, all claiming to be the original Rotisserie version. They varied in the quantities of ketchup, chili sauce, garlic, onion, and oil. Readers wanting to weigh in on the debate should follow Tom Dupree and his buddy Jim Dollarhide, who provide an entertaining and enlightening ongoing discussion of Comeback Sauce in Tom’s “You and Me, Dupree” blog, accessible via tomdup.wordpress.com. Mary Foreman of www.deepsouthdish.com provides a variation that uses powdered garlic and onion, and ramps up the heat with Cajun seasoning and an extra dash of hot sauce. Her south Mississippi roots are showing!

The compilation I settled on transported me back to my 1950s childhood. I distinctly remember sitting at a cloth-covered table in a restaurant with the grownups, and tasting my mother’s green salad covered in a gorgeous pinkish-shrimp colored sauce. Yum then. Yummier now.

1 large clove garlic or 2 to 3 small cloves, minced

1/4 c minced or grated white onion

1 c mayonnaise

1 tsp prepared yellow mustard

1/4 to 1/3 c ketchup

2/3 to 1 c Heinz chili sauce

(some recipes call for half chili sauce and half ketchup, and some recipes call

for 1/4 or 1/2 c each)

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp paprika

1 T lemon juice (or Juice of 1/2 to 1 whole lemon)

1 T water

Dash of Tabasco

Salt to taste

Combine all ingredients in a blender and puree until completely mixed. NOTE: For a paler version, reduce the amounts of ketchup and chili sauce. Pour sauce into a plastic container and cover tightly. Refrigerate until use. The version with fresh onion and garlic will last about 4 days. Yields about 3-1/4 cups.

HOMEMADE DIJON MUSTARD

Prepared mustard is made from the seeds of the mustard plant. There are specific varieties of mustard plants, including white, yellow, brown (Indian) and black mustard. To make prepared mustard, the seeds are ground and mixed with water, salt, lemon juice, and sometimes other seasoning. The seeds contain allyl isothiocyanate and 4-hydroxybenzyl isothiocyanate, which are responsible for the sharp, hot and pungent flavor that hits our senses when tasting mustard. Mustard triggers similar responses as Wasabi and horseradish.

The Romans popularized prepared mustard as a condiment, and exported its use into Gaul. By the 18th century, Dijon had become the hub of French mustard makers, and Grey-Poupon became its most famous manufacturer. Dijon mustard as we know it was created in 1856 by Jean Naigeon of Dijon, who substitute green juice (veerjuice) from not-quite-ripe grapes when preparing his mustard. Over time, white wine was used instead of veerjuice. In 1937, the term Dijon mustard became an official category term for prepared mustard containing white wine.

Easy Dijon Mustard

1 c chopped white onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 c dry white wine

4 oz dry mustard (Colman’s sells a 4-oz tin; 1 oz of dry mustard = 4 T)

1 T vegetable oil (I use extra light olive oil)

2 tsp salt

4 drops Tabasco Sauce

Combine onion, garlic and wine in saucepan; bring to a boil. Simmer on low about 5 minutes, uncovered. Remove from heat and pour into a metal mixing bowl to cool.

Once cooled, strain the wine mixture into a small saucepan containing the dry mustard. Do not include the onion and garlic solids. Mix first with a wooden spoon to mash lumps, and whisk well until mustard dissolves. Add the Tabasco, salt, and oil. Heat on low, whisking to emulsify, until the mixture thickens — only about two minutes. Remove from heat once thickened; scrape into a non-metallic (non-reactive) container. Cool, and cover tightly. Keep refrigerated. MUST refrigerate at least two days before using to allow flavors to blend; keeps about eight weeks. Yields about 2 cups. (Fits perfectly into leftover Lemon Curd jars.)

VARIATION: To make honey-Dijon mustard, add 3 T honey when stirring in the oil and salt.

Laurie Triplette is a writer, historian, and accredited appraiser of fine arts, dedicated to preserving Southern culture and foodways. Author of the award-winning community family cookbook GIMME SOME SUGAR, DARLIN’, and editor of ZEBRA TALES (Tailgating Recipes from the Ladies of the NFLRA), Triplette is a member of the Southern Foodways Alliance (SFA)  and the Southern Food and Beverage Museum (SOFAB). Check out the GIMME SOME SUGAR, DARLIN’ web site: www.tripleheartpress.com and follow Laurie’s food adventures on Facebook and Twitter (@LaurieTriplette).