Salty? Fatty? Meaty?

by Genevieve Rajewski

The title of this post hails to a comment I made to April and Cynthia that earned me a fair share of ribbing. The three of us were at Bin 26, and they were shocked when I passed on ordering dessert. In my typical neurotically flustered way, I tried to explain that this didn’t signify superhuman will power—only that I have a savory tooth instead of a sweet one (i.e., “I am powerless to resist anything ‘salty, fatty, meaty’”).

They had plenty of unsavory (if hilarious) jokes to make about that.

But the whole fact of the matter bode ill for my most recent Edible Boston assignment. Or so I feared when editor Ilene Bezahler asked me to write about Maureen Gallagher Harder’s Sassy Sauces line. I am fairly indifferent to dessert, never mind the saccharine stuff people plop on top of it.

Fortunately, Maureen turns out to be a self-described “salt hound.” And Sassy Sauces strut a savory/sweet line that has me adding rum-caramel sauce to pretty much everything (bananas, ice cream, coffee) and using once perfectly naked pineapple to mop up spicy chocolate sauce.

The secret is Maureen’s ingredients: lots of fresh Vermont cream and butter (pictured above) and a strong hand with the sea salt. (The Cure soundtrack blasting from an iPod and the great rapport between Maureen and her husband, Justin, on production days probably don’t hurt either.)

So, Sassy Sauces prey on two of my three weaknesses (fatty, salty). And with a savory Vera Cruz sauce—for topping meat—due out this summer, the line could go three for three. Read more about how Maureen makes her sauces in the upcoming issue of Edible Boston.

Top photo: The butter has just been added to the rum caramel sauce. Middle photo: Maureen adds the rum. Bottom photo: Maureen and Justin prepare to bottle the rum caramel sauce. Because this sauce is so messy to bottle, they skip the filling machine and hand-fill the jars. The sauce’s heat sterilizes the caps but also intensifies for every second the fluid steams in the glass—blistering palms through rubber gloves during a fast-paced flip-cup-like game of screwing on covers, turning the jars upside down, and then righting them once more to create a shelf-safe vacuum.

Comments

[April]

I still have some rum-caramel in my fridge (thanks, Genevieve!). I think I need to get out some homemade ice cream and have an impromptu treat. (Ice cream for breakfast is totally OK, right?!) Her sauces taste *so* amazing. I can't wait to read the Edible Boston article!

[Beth]

Rum caramel sauce is the new carrot relish?
The "good on everything" throne has been usurped!