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UnevenEdge

Sugar on/in spaghetti


André Toulon

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So first off, yes If you use store bought pasta sauce, it has sugar in it....but it's negligible.

That goofy point aside, is it normal to add sugar to your pot of spaghetti.... I've only actually seen this twice in my life before now....girl I knew in GA did it but she was the weird friend of a weirder friend so I didn't think much of it, and I saw dudes do it in jail. 

But now my son like it that way and I'm just like dude, you can put your own sugar in it when you get yours but I'm not doing that shit....I'm guessing his mother does it so I'm so fucking glad I barely let her cook when we were together.

I'm rambling....is this a regional thing, racial, just poor taste. Is it common?

While I got you here.....sugar in grits? (Pm for any questions concerning wtf are grits).

.....and I think I asked this before, sour cream in chili?

Oh.....and this is just a bonus and I expect no one to have done it but cranberry sauce on a hamburger. Like a thick ass slice of cranberry sauce....not that chunky spreadable bullshit

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Sugar in spaghetti sauce: my mother used to do it, maybe a couple of tablespoons in a pot. I don't, and I don't miss it.

Sugar in grits: what is wrong with people? Never!

Sour cream in chili: depends on the chili, depends on the day.

Cranberry sauce on a hamburger: this sounds like something one would crave while pregnant.

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I've never heard of sugar in tomato sauce before, and none of the cooking shows with the Italians on PBS do anything like that.  I'm not sure how strange it actually is given that tomatoes naturally have sugar and I don't doubt it's part of the manufacturing process on some store bought sauce, but the only real reason I can think for doing it is to compensate for low quality or possibly spoiled produce. (Edit:  should point out that my grandma on my mom's side's family is Puglian, so, at the very least, it's not common to that region of Italy.)

Grits aren't a thing here, so I can't say if it's regional or not.

Sour cream is a common additive to chili because it (supposedly) cuts the spice heat.  It grosses me out, personally,

I would totally put a slice of OceanSpray cranberry jelly on my burger.  Can't be worse than anything else,

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you're exactly right it's normal but negligible

at the restaurant it's about 40 quarts of sauce per batch and you only use a few tablespoons of sugar. I can't say exactly how many tbsp since the spices part of the recipe is secret. The boss or his brother would prep spices in a bowl and leave it for you. Fucking ridiculous krabby patty secret formula shit. But I can say from looking over his shoulder for years that it's only a few tablespoons of sugar per 40 qts. So anything more than like a teaspoon at home is too much

how much sugar does he put in?

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1 minute ago, André Toulon said:

Dude, I know it's not what you intended but this just split my fucking sides. Tea came out of my nose.

No, I intended it.  They're both pretty good cooks, but they're goofy as shit.  One of them keeps repeating Italian words like she'd learning how to speak it or something.

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Sugar is supposedly an emulsifier. It’s supposed to amplify the savory flavors of any dish that’s meant to have a savory flavor profile. (Same goes for salt and any dish with a sweet flavor profile.) Unfortunately, at least for me, it just makes almost any savory dish I’ve had taste sweet. So in spaghetti, that’s a big no-no. The tomato sauce/paste is already naturally sweet with the natural sugar it has. No need to add anymore sugar to it.

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3 hours ago, scoobdog said:

but the only real reason I can think for doing it is to compensate for low quality or possibly spoiled produce

My father will add sugar to sauce as he's cooking it if the tomatoes aren't sweet enough, just to neutralize the sourness or tartness or whatever the lack of sweetness. But I think more recently he's just been more discerning about the quality/type of tomatoes he uses.

I lack his (half) Sicilian "sophistication" though. I'm just like "yes I would like sauce, but no tomato chunks please" and then he'll be like "did you like the sauce? because I just sent you meatballs and sausage in Ragu."

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I don’t do it, but I know some folks add sugar while they’re cooking tomato sauce for spaghetti.

I’ve only had grits with cheese, but if it’s plain, I could see trying to fix it up like oatmeal with cinnamon & sugar being a possibility. 

No sour cream in chili, but I’ll add hot sauce.

I’ve only had cranberry sauce on turkey burgers, but can’t imagine it on a beef one. I’ve had weirder things on beef burgers though like peanut butter. 

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1 hour ago, Raptorpat said:

My father will add sugar to sauce as he's cooking it if the tomatoes aren't sweet enough, just to neutralize the sourness or tartness or whatever the lack of sweetness. But I think more recently he's just been more discerning about the quality/type of tomatoes he uses.

I lack his (half) Sicilian "sophistication" though. I'm just like "yes I would like sauce, but no tomato chunks please" and then he'll be like "did you like the sauce? because I just sent you meatballs and sausage in Ragu."

Puglians and Sicilians are probably pretty close when it comes to that kind of sophistication.  The acidity of the tomatoes was what I was getting at as far as quality control, and, fresher tomatoes tend to not need nearly as much modification.  That's probably why certain places put sugar in - lack of fresh produce.

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Sugar in spaghetti is a nope. There's enough for me in the sauce itself, I don't want sugar-noodles. 

I wouldn't touch grits with a 10 foot pole but my great-grandparents ate grits and they only put butter on them. 

I would put sour cream in chili. Not going to lie, I can almost taste that right now and it works for me. It's almost like tacos.

I hate cranberry sauce with the passion of the 1000 suns. I was the only one that could walk the swamp so I was the one that had to go frickin' berry picking. 

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Matter of preference.  I know of a lot of places by me (upper east coast) that put it in their pizza sauce.  I know because I can taste it and prefer it without.

I'm not getting in the middle of any grits battles because I like them both ways.  Although who am I to say because I've occasionally gone with fried egg, cheese and syrup all together, so...

I'm with mthor on the chili.  Do you mean mixed in as an ingredient or like a dollop on top of your serving?

Never done the cranberry sauce on burger.  I wonder if it would pair well with coleslaw as a topping.

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I put a little sugar in spaghetti sauce and also add ground beef because I am a mess.

I don't put sugar in grits.

I've tried sour cream in chili but I don't buy sour cream enough to do it regularly.

I like burgers AND cranberry sauce and I'm thinking "No that sounds crazy."

 

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Oh, and no sugar in grits. I prefer them to be on the savory side.

Never had sour cream in or on top of chili. Also, Texas chili has no beans in it. So no beans in my chili. Thanks.

 I do not like cranberry sauce. Never have. And I love my burgers cooked medium rare, just like I like my steaks.

Oh, and never, ever put sour cream on a steak. That’s just wrong, man.

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I have heard that adding sugar to spaghetti/tomato sauce is to help balance produce that may be out of season or not quite ripe. Spaghetti sauce isn't something I ever make, so I don't personally add sugar to it, but molasses or brown sugar would be better than white sugar if I did. That being said, I have made tomato sauce with orange marmalade with a pinch of sugar and I really enjoyed that recipe but, again, not something I really ever make. Adding too much sugar (which is super easy) to a tomato sauce sorta turns it into a sort of candy sauce that is way too far gone to be a spaghetti sauce IMO. 

Sugar in grits depends on what I'm going for, really. Have done it but it isn't my go to. 

Sour cream with chili sounds fine, especially if it's a particularly spicy batch. That being said, I don't reach for sour cream when eating chili or anything similar like a chili dog. 

As for cranberry sauce on burgers, that's tried and true for turkey patties. As for, say, a beef patty, can't say I've ever had it. I have had cherries and strawberries on top of beef burgers and liked them, and have made fruit based BBQ sauces with chunks of fruit in them for beef patties for what that's worth. Cranberry chutney or even like a relish work well with turkey but I'm not sure they'd work so well with a beef patty, much less the canned cranberry sauce. Shit you never know if you like something like this until you try it. I had sweet and sour BBQ sauce on vanilla ice cream the other day and really enjoyed it despite believing it would be awful. 

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14 minutes ago, GunStarHero said:

I have heard that adding sugar to spaghetti/tomato sauce is to help balance produce that may be out of season or not quite ripe. Spaghetti sauce isn't something I ever make, so I don't personally add sugar to it, but molasses or brown sugar would be better than white sugar if I did. That being said, I have made tomato sauce with orange marmalade with a pinch of sugar and I really enjoyed that recipe but, again, not something I really ever make. Adding too much sugar (which is super easy) to a tomato sauce sorta turns it into a sort of candy sauce that is way too far gone to be a spaghetti sauce IMO. 

Sugar in grits depends on what I'm going for, really. Have done it but it isn't my go to. 

Sour cream with chili sounds fine, especially if it's a particularly spicy batch. That being said, I don't reach for sour cream when eating chili or anything similar like a chili dog. 

As for cranberry sauce on burgers, that's tried and true for turkey patties. As for, say, a beef patty, can't say I've ever had it. I have had cherries and strawberries on top of beef burgers and liked them, and have made fruit based BBQ sauces with chunks of fruit in them for beef patties for what that's worth. Cranberry chutney or even like a relish work well with turkey but I'm not sure they'd work so well with a beef patty, much less the canned cranberry sauce. Shit you never know if you like something like this until you try it. I had sweet and sour BBQ sauce on vanilla ice cream the other day and really enjoyed it despite believing it would be awful. 

Absolutely agree with the brown sugar.  And now I want to try bbq sauce on vanilla ice cream.

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So I will say that the cranberry on burger thing is something that I'm only aware that I did and I'm not sure why or how i discoved it.  But when I was super young in Cali, my mom would pack my lunch and sometimes it would be a burger with cranberry sauce.  I really have to ask her why i did that.....It might be something she does but just doesn't do anymore......

She used to eat banana, mayo and potted met sammiches.  Grossest shit I've ever seen and I refuse to even give it a shot.  I'm sure she gave it to me as a kid but i blocked that shit and i don't think I've ever touched potted meat in my life aside from that unless it was in a dish that I wasn't aware of.

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2 minutes ago, cyberbully said:

So I will say that the cranberry on burger thing is something that I'm only aware that I did and I'm not sure why or how i discoved it.  But when I was super young in Cali, my mom would pack my lunch and sometimes it would be a burger with cranberry sauce.  I really have to ask her why i did that.....It might be something she does but just doesn't do anymore......

She used to eat banana, mayo and potted met sammiches.  Grossest shit I've ever seen and I refuse to even give it a shot.  I'm sure she gave it to me as a kid but i blocked that shit and i don't think I've ever touched potted meat in my life aside from that unless it was in a dish that I wasn't aware of.

I used to ask my mom for peanut butter and cream cheese sandwiches for packed lunch.  I just remember being so fricken tired of bp&j that I was going out of my mind. 

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12 minutes ago, Vela said:

Absolutely agree with the brown sugar.  And now I want to try bbq sauce on vanilla ice cream.

Well for reference we used Bluebell Vanilla ice cream and the sauce was 3 parts Sweet Chili Sauce to 2 parts Ketchup to 1 part Worcestershire Sauce. That sauce has been good on basically everything I have had it on, which made me try it with ice cream. 

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33 minutes ago, GunStarHero said:

Well for reference we used Bluebell Vanilla ice cream and the sauce was 3 parts Sweet Chili Sauce to 2 parts Ketchup to 1 part Worcestershire Sauce. That sauce has been good on basically everything I have had it on, which made me try it with ice cream. 

Blue Bell is the best! (Of course, I’m from Texas and I’ve eaten it my whole life since it’s a Texas staple so I’m biased.)

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  • 1 month later...
On 1/26/2023 at 6:47 PM, katt_goddess said:

Sugar in spaghetti is a nope. There's enough for me in the sauce itself, I don't want sugar-noodles. 

I wouldn't touch grits with a 10 foot pole but my great-grandparents ate grits and they only put butter on them. 

I would put sour cream in chili. Not going to lie, I can almost taste that right now and it works for me. It's almost like tacos.

I hate cranberry sauce with the passion of the 1000 suns. I was the only one that could walk the swamp so I was the one that had to go frickin' berry picking. 

ahhhh, do you also eat hormel refried beans?

humor me im curious pretty please

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