Lizano sauce facts for kids
Bottle of Salsa Lizano in export presentation, with English label.
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| Owner | Unilever |
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| Country | Costa Rica |
| Introduced | 1920 |
| Related brands | Worcestershire sauce, Pickapeppa Sauce |
| Previous owners |
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| Tagline | ¡A su comida le da vida! (Brings life to your food) |
Lizano sauce (Spanish: salsa Lizano) is a famous Costa Rican condiment. A condiment is something like ketchup or mustard that you add to food for extra flavor. This special sauce was first made in 1920 by the Lizano company. Today, a big company called Unilever makes it.
Lizano sauce is thin and smooth, with a light brown color. It's a bit like other sauces you might know, such as HP Sauce or Worcestershire sauce. You can use it while you are cooking or add it to your food right before you eat. It tastes a little sweet and tangy, with a tiny bit of spice from black pepper and cumin.
What's in Lizano Sauce?
Lizano sauce is made from a mix of different ingredients. These include water, sugar, and salt. It also has vegetables like onions, carrots, cauliflower, and cucumbers.
Other ingredients are spices, pepper, mustard, and turmeric. There's also modified corn starch, which helps make it smooth, and a little bit of a preservative called sodium benzoate to keep it fresh.
How Costa Ricans Use It
Lizano sauce is super popular in Costa Rican cooking. You'll find it on almost every restaurant table in Costa Rica. Many traditional dishes are made with this sauce.
It's often used with gallo pinto, which is a popular rice and beans dish, and with tamales. People also love to put it on eggs, rice, beans, fish, and cheese. It can even be used as a marinade to flavor meat before cooking.
You can now find Lizano sauce in North America, especially online. This means more people can try this unique Costa Rican flavor!
The Story of Lizano Sauce
The idea for Lizano sauce started with a man named Próspero Jiménez. He first made the sauce in his bar in Alajuela, Costa Rica. His neighbors really liked it!
Seeing how popular bottled sauces from other countries were, he decided to team up with Próspero Lizano, who owned a factory. Together, they created the Lizano brand and designed its famous green label.
In 1991, a company called Best Foods bought the Lizano company. Later, Best Foods itself became part of Unilever. In 2020, Lizano sauce celebrated its 100th birthday, marking a century of bringing flavor to food!
See also
In Spanish: Salsa Lizano para niños
