I want to talk about dipping sauces for French fries.
Everyone is familiar with the the stand-by condiments, ketchup, mustard, gravy, cheese, vinegar, BBQ, and even mayo-based dressings like Ranch, Tartar Sauce, Aioli or, heck, even just straight up mayonnaise.
But are there others out there that hoi polloi like yours truly should know about and try?
I think curry would be good.
Pesto might be interesting, as would Chimichurri, Hoisin, Mole, Sambal, Gochujang, or Tzatziki, and perhaps even peanut sauce.
I’m basically a ketchup dipper myself. The various European countries who use aioli-type sauces intrigue me, but those sauces seem a bit too oily for me.
Big fan of malt vinegar. Granted more of a shake than dip.
4 Likes
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot, cooking and eating in northwest England)
7
We are also big on curry sauce with our chips.
Chip shop curry sauce is very different from South Asian curry (even Anglicised South Asian). My understanding is that it was developed by chip shop owners of Chinese heritage. Personally, I don’t like it but here’s a recipe that I think is pretty close to most offerings
I’m a traditionalist when it comes to my chips - they need nothing more than a good drenching in malt vinegar. The likes of tartare sauce may be OK for effete southerners.
Ketchup
Ketchup + Mayo
Chipotle Mayo
Sriracha Mayo
Garlic (& other) Aiolis
A guy who worked for me insisted on dipping his fries in honey, and made a big show of it every time too, like someone was going to make a thing of it (other than him that is). I told him ketchup is mostly sugar, so why not honey?
If you look at “creative” poutine sauces there’s a lot of range there. (There’s an indian place in nyc that has tikka masala poutine for eg.)
I don’t dip, I squeeze lemon juice on my fries. Also on my hashed brown potatoes and any potato that has been fried. Cuts the greasy oil taste. This curious habit started with the first Swanson’s fried chicken tv dinner I had. If it is fried, it needs lemon.
A favorite place for us does a seasoned sour cream for their onion rings which I also like for their waffle fries. Basically sour cream with their version of seasoned salt swirled in/ on top.
