Mayochup? Who needs it?!

Image: Heinz

One of the most instructive aspects of Alton Brown’s Food Network show “Good Eats” was his caution against unitaskers. These are kitchen items that are usually dispensable in the first place but more importantly are limited to one and only one use. An example is the lemon reamer whose sole purpose — juicing a lemon or orange — can be duplicated by pressing your citrus fruits between the handles of spring-loaded tongs.

But unitaskers aren’t limited to kitchen tools. Sometimes they find their way into food products. Take the latest edition to Heinz’s 57 kinds. It is called mayochup, and as you probably guessed, it is a blend of mayonnaise and ketchup.

The product was rolled out last month, though I can’t imagine for the life of me why any homemaker would choose to buy this condiment rather than just make it at home by combining equal parts of ketchup and mayo. We called that combination “Russian dressing” in my home when I was growing up.