Hepp's Salt Passport Collection

Salt is something you'll find in pretty much every kitchen. Even people who don't use salt in cooking probably have some sitting around for guests who want to add salt at the table.

Some people have more than one kind of salt. Perhaps it's a flavored salt. Perhaps it's bigger flakes. Perhaps it's canning salt. And then some other people have a lot of salts.

This passport collection from Hepp's Salt is perfect for people who want to explore different salts, but who don't want to commit to large quantities. It would also be a sweet gift if you have a friend who likes to cook.

The jars are small, but since these are meant as finishing salts, there's enough for several recipes or many plates of food. So they're not just tasters. There's enough to use. And then when you decide that you love the lemon salt but the ghost pepper salt is too scary, you can order just the salts you love the most.

Not only is this a fun collection, the packaging is nice, too. The box holds the little jars neatly and the cover slides on to keep them secure. I could imagine using the jars and the box afterwards for other things. Maybe spices. Maybe crafty things.

My favorite was the lemon, which is nice on a lot of things. Salad, fish, vegetables. The black lava makes a pretty presentation. Imagine it sprinkled on shortbread cookies or eggs. The Thai ginger was different. I've tried flavored salts before, but I don't think I've ever seen a ginger salt.

All of the salts were interesting, though. I loved some more than others, but that's kind of the point of a collection like this. You get a chance to try before you buy the big bottles.

I got these at no cost to me from Hepp's Salt. Besides these salts, they have others that aren't part of this collection. They also have flavored sugars. Yum.

True Made Sauces

My dad wasn't a particularly demanding guy, when it came to food. Whatever my mom cooked, he was happy with. It helped that she was a pretty good cook, but he was also pretty chill about whatever got put on the table.

I can only think of three times when he said anything negative about food. The first was the great rant about ketchup on a hot dog. The short version is that hot dogs are sausages, and you put mustard on sausage. Ketchup is for burgers and meat loaf.

The second time was when my mom tried instant mashed potatoes. Let's just say that she didn't buy them a second time.

The third was not at all my mom's fault. He read somewhere that a ketchup manufacturer was using sugar beet pulp to help thicken their ketchup. This was well before there were GMOs, and he had nothing in particular against sugar (which he put into his coffee) or sugar beets, when used as a sweetener. What he didn't like was the pulp. It was an impostor!

Prior to this horror, ketchup was thickened using tomato pulp. Allegedly. According to my dad. But I don't actually know for sure. I just remember him being all mad about sugar beet pulp that was being substituted for tasty tomatoes.

The reason this comes to mind is that the nice folks at True Made sent me a selection of their sauces. There was barbecue sauce, ketchup, and sriracha. The labels make a point of saying that these are vegetable sauces, which I thought was kind of odd because I didn't expect to find meat in my ketchup. But their point, really, is that they use a selection of vegetables to make these sauces, and they don't include sugar. Or no sugar beets, I guess. Which would have made my dad really happy. The ketchup label lists tomatoes, butternut squash, carrots, and spinach.

To be honest, I wouldn't have noticed that these were so vegetable-forward if the information wasn't on the label. Which is a good thing. I like it when my food tastes like it's supposed to, and the healthy aspect is just there, in the background.

If you're looking for tasty and less sugary condiments, these are worth a look. If you're not stuck on particular brands and you like trying different flavors, for sure give 'em a try when you see them.

Why, yes. I did get these at no cost to me.