Condiment: A substance or sauce to enhance one food’s flavors. Most Americans use ketchup. For Europeans, it’s mayonnaise. The wild-ones even use milkshakes. But this pink-hued dip will give you the best of both worlds, and it’s called fry sauce.
History
Traditional fry sauce is a combination of two parts mayonnaise, one part ketchup. For something so simple, the sauce has a cult-like following. We can trace this craze to a Utah restaurant owner who created the sweet and tangy sauce, to sell at his restaurant, The Arctic Circle, back in the 1950’s.
Variations
Fry Sauce lovers have found every way possible to make this sauce. Barbecue replacing ketchup for a sweet twist; horseradish replacing mayo for a spicy kick; add Worcestershire for a tangy bite, and so on. They have even discovered the worldly versions of the dip, like in Puerto Rico. The “Mayoketchup” is a long-used spread, including mayo, ketchup, salt, pepper, garlic, and lemon.
With this, the finger-lickin’ fans know when someone presents them something that it posing as Fry Sauce. Many people confuse the condiment with Thousand Island dressing, or try to post imposters such as Heinz’ Mayochup, released in September 2018.
While this sauce may seem so basic, don’t put it past restaurants to lock up their recipe in the biggest of vaults. Certain owner’s even go to some lengths to make the sauce at home, and bring it into their restaurant, due to the fear an employee will sell the recipe to the competition.
While the rest of the country might be hesitant to slurp down this smooth sauce, for Utahns and Idahoans, french fries and tater tots alike will always look prettiest in pink.