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Condiment Month
"The Partner of Happy Dining"
~ Bull-dog company motto
Condiments are rarely celebrated with a textile, yet alone a tartan, yet this Tonkatsu sauce boasts a saucy tartan design of its very own! Designed in colors that echo the brand’s logo and the flavors within the bottle, it is one of many tartans registered by Japanese companies—who often admire the balance of simplicity and complexity in tartan design, and delight in creating patterns to represent products or corporations.
Tonkatsu itself is a favourite Japanese dish: a breaded and deep-fried pork cutlet, typically made from pork loin, dredged in flour, dipped in egg, and coated in crisp panko breadcrumbs. The word “tonkatsu” comes from ton (pork) and katsu (cutlet), perfectly describing the dish’s essence.
The sauce that completes it has an intriguing history. Rooted in English Worcestershire sauce and first introduced in 1905, it has been transformed over time into a rich, thick condiment with sweet, tangy, and deeply savory notes. Bulldog Tonkatsu Sauce achieves its flavor through a slow stewing of fruits and vegetables—tomatoes, apples, prunes, carrots, onions, and lemon—blended with vinegar, sugar, salt, and carefully chosen spices.
While Tonkatsu sauce is most famously paired with pork cutlets, its versatility makes it a favorite companion to other dishes as well, including takoyaki and okonomiyaki. Feeling a bit peckish? ❤️ 🤍 💚 🖤 🇯🇵 🥢 🐶 🐾
Bull-Dog Sauce traces its beginnings to 1902, when Nakasaburo Kojima founded Misawaya Shoten, a food wholesaler in Nihonbashi, Tokyo. Just a few years later, in 1905, the company began producing its own sauces in a small factory, selling them initially in clay jars and barrels. By 1909, they had registered the “Bull-Dog” trademark, complete with the now-familiar bulldog logo, and launched “No. 1 Special Bull-Dog Sauce,” inspired by British Worcestershire sauce but tailored to Japanese tastes.
The early decades were not without hardship. The Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923 destroyed both storefronts and the factory, but the company rebuilt and in 1926 officially incorporated as Bull-Dog Sauce Food Products Co., Ltd. During this time, they diversified their offerings, adding vinegar, ketchup, mustard, curry powder, and other seasonings. Despite setbacks, Bull-Dog steadily became a household name, with its distinctive bulldog logo symbolizing both strength and a nod to the sauce’s English roots.
A major milestone came in 1951, when Bull-Dog released its now-famous tonkatsu sauce. Thicker, sweeter, and fruitier than traditional Worcestershire, it was designed to pair perfectly with breaded pork cutlets and quickly became an essential condiment in Japanese kitchens. The introduction of the square plastic “Bull Pack” bottle in 1969 further modernized the brand, making the sauce easier to store and distribute. Over the following decades, the company expanded production, built new factories, and welcomed related brands, such as Ikari Sauce, into the Bull-Dog family.
For more about this iconic condiment, click the Tonkatsu!