Ketchup vs Mustard

Ketchup and Mustard could not be more different, but one is far superior to the other. But first a little lesson on flavor. I'm no expert, but from my experience there are three types of flavors in this world:
1) Blender flavors - these flavors give subtle tastes that by nature neither bring out flavor nor mask it, like mushrooms or vanilla for instance. They blend with the other flavors and if done right the blend make for a more enjoyable flavor overall. It should be noted that not all flavors jive with all other flavors, like corn dogs and chocolate pudding or pineapple mixed with any other flavor.
2) Dominator flavors - these flavors do not blend nor do they enhance flavors, they dominate them, i.e. bananas. Ever had a strawberry-banana smoothie? It was probably more of a strawberry-BANANA smoothie.

The banana, unless proportioned just right, will overpower anything it touches. Case in point, my mom once left a few bananas in the same cupboard as a sealed bag of potato chips for a week or so. Then, when said bag of chips was opened the chips tasted like salty banana shaving. (note to self, Salty Banana Shavings is an great idea for a band name). Dominator flavors are not bad they just need to be used in small doses. Many people think that good tasting dominator flavors should be piled on your food because, hey they taste good and more equals better right? Not so, unless you hate the flavor of your food and want to mask it entirely. Please note that nearly any flavor can be a dominater flavor if used in excess.
3) Enhancer flavors - these flavors bring out flavors that are in the background. Salt is a good example of an enhancer flavor. Ever gotten horseradish with your prime rib? That stuff is potent! Most people brush it off to the side and cannot understand why anyone would eat that stuff on purpose. But if used in small amounts the flavor of your steak goes from volume 5 to volume 11 with a subtle horseradish taste in the background. Onions have the same effect. In exess these flavors will ruin you, RUIN you! But if done right, that delicious taste you love is even more present.

If you know me at all you know exactly where this is going and all you ketchup lovers are just waiting for me to badmouth your precious tomato gravy so that you can hunt me down. Now now, no need to get violent. Let the record show that I like ketchup. I do. . . However, it is highly over-rated. I have a rather long list of things that are over-rated but I'll only share this one with you. Ketchup. Ketchup is a dominator flavor. If used in excess your food will not taste better, it will just taste more like ketchup. My theory with ketchup is that it was invented to get kids to eat stuff. Think about it. Next time you taste ketchup just try to taste how much sugar is in it. It is sooo sweet, no wonder kids douse their chicken nuggets in the stuff. It's time to grow up and start acting like adults and realize that dumping tons of over sweetened tomato snot on your food doesn't actually make it taste very good. And instead of enhancing flavors it covers them up. So plain and simple if you hate the taste of burgers then please, douse it in ketchup. If not then a small nickel sized dollop of it on a burger is all you need, if that. If I add ketchup to my burger its only because it is dry or there are no tomatoes present.
Mustard on the other hand is an enhancer flavor. Love the way your bratwurst tastes? Would you like more of that delicious taste? Try just a dab of mustard on that sausage and BOOM! More delicious bratwurst flavor. I can no longer eat hot dogs with ketchup, and if I do it is litterally a dab that gets spread on my bun until it is little more than a pink smudge. But I put a lot of mustard on that thing to up the flavor scale. Would you ever put tomatoes on your hot dog? Would you ever put sugar on your hot dog? Probably not, then don't do it ever again and you'll be all the happier for it. And that's a guarantee. This is another reason why I love the Wayne Burger at Scaddy's. They use a healthy portion of mustard and just a smidge of ketchup, the result is a balanced but powerful flavor profile and a juicy burger.