The Concoction Of Sauces You Should Be Dipping Your Fries In

Everyone has their own favorite sauce for dipping french fries, from good old ketchup (nothing wrong with a classic) to fancy aioli to gravy and cheese curds a la classic Canadian poutine. To get some more ideas, The Takeout asked social media food personality Dan Pelosi for his favorite fry dip. Pelosi, who recently worked with McCain Foods on a project to promote regenerative farming, went with the same combo that was chosen by Takeout writer Kevin Pang when we covered the best dipping sauces for french fries in another piece.

Pelosi told us that he likes a blend of "ketchup, mayo, [and] hot sauce. [Pelosi] lived in California for 10 years, so the secret sauce, which is a good burger sauce, is always delicious." He didn't tell us which particular secret burger sauce he had in mind, nor explain its California connection. (Our writer was a bit more specific about the ingredients in their preferred fry dip combo, saying they liked a condiment made with Mexican-style hot sauce as well as the cult favorite Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise.) 

Even though Dan Pelosi's first recommendation is the simple three-ingredient sauce mentioned above, he also supplied us with a different recipe which was a bit more complicated. Pelosi's Burger Sauce II, as we'll call it, is made from "a cup of mayo, half a cup of ketchup, half a cup of relish, hot sauce to taste, and freshly chopped dill."

The dill-pickle relish combo is giving tartar sauce vibes, although Pelosi's second sauce is also similar to Thousand Island, the salad dressing that launched numerous fast food burger sauces. This relish may give a hint as to just which California establishment could have inspired it (as well as why Pelosi refers to it as a burger sauce rather than a fry sauce). One major chain that serves its burgers with ketchup and mayo mixed with pickle relish is the Golden State's own In-N-Out Burger. This "spread," as the chain likes to call it, also has about double the amount of mayonnaise as ketchup, although it doesn't seem to include any hot sauce. Nor, needless to say, does any fast food eatery, even a California one, adorn its burgers with fresh dill.