Fry sauce

Fry sauce is a regional condiment served with French Fries. It is usually a simple combination of one part ketchup and two parts mayonnaise. When spices and other flavorings are added, it is similar to—but thicker and smoother than—traditional Russian dressing and Thousand Island dressing. Fry sauce is commonly found in restaurants in Utah, Nevada, much of Idaho, eastern Washington and rural Oregon, but is also commonly found in supermarkets across the United States, as well as available by mail-order. Occasionally other ingredients such as barbecue sauce are substituted for ketchup, and other variations (created independently of the Utah version) exist outside of the United States.

In the United States

The Utah-based Arctic Circle restaurant chain claims to have invented fry sauce around 1948. [ [http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,650220850,00.html Deseret News article on Fry Sauce] ] Arctic Circle serves it in its restaurants in the western United States. Many other fast-food restaurants and family restaurants in the region, such as Carl's Jr, Crown Burgers, Apollo Burger and Hires Big H, offer their own versions of the sauce. It is also featured at In-N-Out Burger restaurants in California, Nevada, and Arizona.Utah franchise locations of McDonald's also carried fry sauce until 1997 when they stopped stocking the condiment because of the high waste it produced.Fact|date=August 2008 Many other national fast food restaurants in Utah and nearby states serve fry sauce.

Among the most popular souvenir pins during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City were ones that depicted fry sauce. Originally sold for US$7.50, these pins became valued at over $60 before the Olympic games started.

International variations

In Iceland, a condiment similar to fry sauce called Kokkteilsósa ("cocktail sauce") is popular. [ [http://www.simnet.is/gullis/jo/Miscellaneous.htm#kokkteilsosa Kokkteilsósa in Iceland] ] Originally, the sauce was used with prawn cocktails—hence the name—but in course of time, it became indispensable with French fried potatoes. However, Icelanders use the sauce with more or less all food, including hamburgers, hotdogs, and fried fish. Most Icelanders claim that this condiment was invented in Iceland in the 1950s.Fact|date=February 2007

In France, many Turkish restaurants and other fast-food establishments serve fry sauce and call it "sauce américaine"; it is also common for customers to request "ketchup-mayo"--a dab of mayonnaise and a dab of ketchup--alongside their french fries at such places. Both American sauce and the more thousand-island like "sauce cocktail" (somewhat similar to that of Iceland) can often be found in supermarkets, and occasionally also premixed "ketchup-mayo." [ [http://www.benedicta.com/index.php?id=154 "Sauces classiques" from Bénédicta] ] [ [http://www.benedicta.com/index.php?id=742 "Sauce ketchup mayo" in Bénédicta's "Oh Ouizz!" line] ]

In Argentina, a similar condiment known as salsa golf, or "golf sauce," is a popular dressing for fries, burgers, and steak sandwiches. According to tradition, the sauce was invented by Nobel laureate and restaurant patron Luis Federico Leloir at the "Golf Club" in Mar del Plata, Argentina. [ [http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salsa_golf SalsaGolf] at the Spanish Wikipedia]

In Germany, a popular product called 'Rot Weiss', meaning 'red white' is sold in toothpaste-style tubes, and consists of ketchup and mayonnaise.

In the United Kingdom, fry sauce is commonly known as burger sauce. Often with added mustard.

In Ireland the sauce is commonly known as "pink sauce" due to its pink colour and is enjoyed as an accompaniment to chicken goujons.

In Puerto Rico, the sauce is commonly known "mayoketchup" and is prepared with ketchup, mayonnaise, garlic and a hint of lemon. The sauce is often used as a dip for surullos and other fried dishes as part of the traditional cuisine of Puerto Rico.

References

ee also

*French fries - accompaniments
*Thousand Island dressing
*Russian dressing

External links

* [http://deseretnews.com/oly/view/0,3949,70000029,00.html "There's green Jell-O on your lapel..."] — "Deseret Morning News"
* [http://saltlakecity.about.com/cs/regionalfood/a/frysauce.htm Fry Sauce Article] at About.com