Spotted: My mom brings me bottles of Johnny’s when she visits because she both knows I love French dip and still operates as if Washington is a foreign country.
Cost: $3.49
Attraction: Cute little jug and the magical pleasure of instant French dips
Where to buy: Look for Johnny’s near the Worchestershire and steak sauce or packaged sauce display, or at johnnysfinefoods.com.
You know how your food, no matter how well you follow the recipe, never tastes like restaurant food? Do you really want to know why? Do you really want to know how much cream and butter you aren’t using at home? A ton of restaurant food also carries a heavy dose of flavor boosters like insanely rich stock, soy sauce, and other additives we will blindly put in the category of “umami.” And now you can have that same great, savory taste at home!
No, this stuff is not organic. Yes, you could probably approximate the same flavor base at home by making your own stock and zipping it up with Worchestershire or soy sauce and freezing it into little ice cubes. We’ve all heard and spouted that old chestnut, but does it ever happen? Sure, it freaks me out that my cat reacts to Johnny’s like it was black tar heroin, but that’s probably because it contains anchovy paste and a little thing called HVP (hydrolyzed vegetable protein). Made by breaking down grain and certain veggies to their amino acids, HVP is a form of glutamate, flavor in powder form not far removed from MSG. Try a bit of Johnny’s uncut, and your mouth responds right away, like Pavlov’s rabid dog — in a good way, I’d like to think.
Saute some onions and follow the directions on the jug, and in 15 minutes you’ve got French dip. Saute a boatload of onions, follow the directions on the jug, and add some beef or vegetable stock to taste, and you have almost-instant French onion soup. Johnny’s does more than French Dip; they also make the Jamaica Me Crazy line of seasonings and one of the best in-the-bottle caesar dressings, Great Caesar! (also available in garlic spread). They know their umami. Do not even talk to me about the Jamaica Me Sweet Hot And Crazy dressing and marinade with shrimp.
Maggie Savarino Dutton is an industry veteran who has played bartender, sommelier and line cook and who now consults. She writes "Search & Distill," which appears every Wednesday in the Seattle Weekly, and maintains The Wine Offensive, her blog about wine, food, and anything else that might be discussed over the bar.
"Point of Purchase" photograph by Roadsidepictures via Flickr (Creative Commons), "Pantry" photograph by Áslaug Snorradóttir.