So there’s a really cool regional American condiment called fry sauce. It originated in Utah in the 1940s and it’s served there and in surrounding states today with French fries.
Fry sauce changed my life. And it will change yours, too.
Essentially, fry sauce is nothing more than a mix of ketchup and mayonnaise. But like any condiment, especially the house-made kind, everybody has their own version. You can spice and flavor fry sauce any way you like.
I had never heard of fry sauce until reading about it on the way out to Park City, Utah. Lo and behold, I walk into a cool old cowboy bar called The Painted Lady Saloon in Evanston, Wyoming, just over the Utah state line, and right there in the condiment tray: a plastic bottle of their homemade fry sauce.
I poured it all over my hand-cut string fries. It was majestic!
Let’s face it. Ketchup on French fries is an odd mix. Ketchup is way too sweet. Someone once told me that ketchup is a children’s condiment. Adults shouldn’t eat it.
I never forgot that phrase. And I couldn’t agree more. Pouring ketchup over crunchy deep-fat-fried French fries is like pouring sugar over Delmonico potatoes.
Makes no sense.
Over the past 20 years or so I preferred dipping French fries in mayo, a habit picked up in Belgium, where street-cart frites are found everywhere and where mayonnaise is the preferred method of doing fry business. The combination of crunchy fat on creamy fat is quite satisfying!
But there’s a problem: fat on fat, however delicious and filled with happy umami, is missing a certain bright spark of flavor.
Fry sauce solves all your problems, people. A little fat. A little sweet. A little spicy. The perfect partner for the French fry.
Your world is now is a better place! Fry sauce for the people; the people for the fry sauce.
KJB’s Utah-style fry sauce
1/2 cup mayonnaise
¼ cup ketchup
2 teaspoons vinegar
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon paprika
¼ teaspoon cayenne
Dash of Louisiana Hot Sauce to taste
Mix together all ingredients. Refrigerate until ready to use. Use as dip for your favorite French fries.
