{"id":2140,"date":"2025-08-08T13:48:33","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T13:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/?p=2140"},"modified":"2025-08-08T13:48:35","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T13:48:35","slug":"put-up-your-dukes-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/put-up-your-dukes-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Put Up Your Dukes Again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
I wrote the below way back in 2014. Since then, this little brand has exploded, and today is the sponsor of the Mayo Bowl, in which the coach of the winning team in the SEC\/ACC tilt in Charlotte gets a 5-gallon bucket of condiment dumped on his head. So, yeah, I’m proud to say I called this one.

***

At a humble sandwich counter at a fishing pier in coastal Carolina, the following conversation takes place: \u00a0

\u201cCan I help you?\u201d

\u201cYes, two BLT\u2019s please.\u201d

\u201cBread?\u201d

\u201cBoth on wheat toast\u201d

\u201cAw right.\u00a0You want any Duke\u2019s on those?\u201d

Pause\u2026OK, here\u2019s what you need to know about the condiment business in the United States.\u00a0First, most folks equate the word \u201ccondiment\u201d with a bottle that says \u201cHeinz\u201d on it.\u00a0And that\u2019s understandable, Heinz Ketchup has been an icon since it was launched in Pittsburgh in 1879.\u00a0Heinz has a stranglehold on the ketchup business, with a ridiculous 75% share of the market. It\u2019s the king of condiments.

Or, maybe not.\u00a0

There was a recent cultural shift \u2013 unnerving to some folks \u2013 that resulted in a well-publicized moment a few years back.\u00a0Somebody reported that ketchup sales had been for the first time outpaced by *GASP<\/strong>* sales of salsa!\u00a0It was evidence of the impact of Hispanic immigrants on America, and our adoption of that culture.\u00a0What wasn\u2019t reported, however, is that the vast majority of salsa sold in this country is produced by mainstream American corporations, NOT by Hispanic companies themselves.\u00a0The number one brand of salsa?\u00a0That would be Tostitos, from Frito-Lay, the #2 condiment brand in the United States, just ahead of Heinz ketchup.

Which raises the question: which condiment brand is #1?\u00a0Well, it would probably give it away to say the product was invented by a Jewish deli owner in New York in 1905.\u00a0The product was so popular that by 1917 the owner had closed his store to focus exclusively on selling it as \u201cHellman\u2019s Blue Ribbon Mayonnaise.\u201d\u00a0In 1932, his company was purchased by California-based Best Foods corporation, who had their own mayo brand.\u00a0But Best Foods respected the power of the Hellman\u2019s brand so much that they aligned their brand to look just like it.\u00a0This created a unique double-brand platform that has endured ever since.\u00a0Some of you may have experienced, when you traveled from one coast to the other, you might have heard the jingle, \u201cBring out the Hellman\u2019s and bring out the best\u201d when you left New York, and then the nearly EXACT same jingle, \u201cBring out the Best Foods and bring out the best\u201d when you arrived in LA.\u00a0These two brands, now both owned by Unilever, are the #1 and the #4 condiment brands in the United States.\u00a0Together with Kraft Mayo (#6) and Kraft Miracle Whip (#5) they are evidence of America\u2019s overwhelming love of mayonnaise. \u00a0

Which brings us back to this thing called Duke\u2019s.\u00a0It\u2019s a tiny brand, just a schmear of the mayo market.\u00a0It was invented in 1917 by Eugenia Duke of Greenville NC, who used it on sandwiches she sold to soldiers at the nearby Fort Sevier.\u00a0When it was packaged in jars, Duke\u2019s Mayonnaise was a huge hit, and the brand was bought by C.F. Sauer company of Richmond in 1929.\u00a0But the manufacturing has remained in Greenville to this day, and Eugenia Duke\u2019s recipe is unchanged.\u00a0It uses more egg yolks than other brands and is the only mayo made without sugar, giving it a richness and a distinctive acidic tang all its own.\u00a0No self-respecting southerner would make deviled eggs, potato salad or any sandwich at-all using anything else.

Until recently, Duke\u2019s was only available in the southern states.\u00a0But, shortly after its 100th birthday, Duke’s was acquired by some wealthy investors, who gave it a new ad campaign, rolled out lots of line extensions, expanded distribution, and even gave the brand its own football bowl game in Charlotte.

So now you can find it in lots of places. Down here, it’s got shelf prominence in the Food Lion and at Lowes. Up north, we now have it in our Pennington Market IGA.

But if you really want to enjoy this stuff, if you want the real deal, there’s still only one place to go.

C’mon y’all. Take a drive over to the Piggly-Wiggly.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
**

The Adirondack Tale, ‘Forty-Something’ is here<\/a>.

Revolution in Real Time is here.<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I wrote the below way back in 2014. Since then, this little brand has exploded, and today is the sponsor of the Mayo Bowl, in which the coach of the winning team in the SEC\/ACC tilt in Charlotte gets a 5-gallon bucket of condiment dumped on his head. So, yeah,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/dukes.jpg?fit=628%2C371&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2141,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2140\/revisions\/2141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}