15 French Fry Dips That Beat Ketchup

Ketchup is the default fry dip. It’s not the best one.

A lot of the world figured out something better to put on fries, and most of it comes together with stuff that’s already in your fridge.

This isn’t a ranking. It runs roughly from least effort to most, and anywhere you see mayo, vegan mayo works fine.

Here are 15 fry dips that beat ketchup, and exactly how to make each one.

1. Utah Fry Sauce

Utah’s famous fry sauce is two ingredients and a spoon. Stir 1/2 cup of ketchup into 1/2 cup of mayo and you’re done.

Want to dress it up? Add a splash of pickle juice or a pinch of garlic powder, smoked paprika or cayenne, then chill it for at least 30 minutes.

Don Carlos Edwards, who opened the Arctic Circle fast food chain in 1950, gets the credit. A rival spot, Stan’s Drive-In, says two of its employees invented it, and since Stan’s started out as an Arctic Circle franchise, good luck settling that one.

2. Belgian Andalouse

This sauce is named after Andalusia and was invented in Belgium. A Belgian company called La William claims it, and says it was loosely based on gazpacho.

Mix a little under a cup of mayo with 2 tablespoons of tomato paste until it turns orange. Stir in 1/2 red bell pepper and 1 shallot, both chopped as fine as you can get them, plus 1 teaspoon of paprika, a pinch of cayenne, a splash of lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Give it 30 minutes in the fridge if you can wait.

3. Samurai Sauce

There’s nothing Japanese about samurai sauce. It’s Belgian, nobody knows who came up with it or why it got that name, and it’s been widely popular since the early 2000s.

Whisk about 1 cup of mayo with a couple tablespoons of ketchup, a teaspoon of mustard and 1 to 2 teaspoons of sambal oelek. Harissa works if that’s what you’ve got. Taste it, then add a little white vinegar and sugar until you like it.

Think fry sauce with a temper.

4. Mississippi Comeback Sauce

This one’s named after what it makes you do. It’s generally traced to the Rotisserie, a Greek-owned restaurant in Jackson, where it went by “Kum-Bak” dressing because people kept coming back for more.

Whisk 1 cup of mayo with 1/4 cup of chili sauce, 1 1/2 teaspoons of lemon juice, and 1/2 teaspoon each of hot sauce and vegetarian Worcestershire. Then add 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and garlic powder, and a pinch each of smoked paprika, black pepper and onion powder.

About that Worcestershire. The regular bottle is made with anchovies, so it’s not vegetarian. Annie’s Naturals, The Wizard’s and Wan Ja Shan all make vegan versions.

5. Curry Ketchup

This is the one dip on the list that doesn’t beat ketchup so much as fix it.

Stir 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons of curry powder into 1/4 cup of ketchup, then leave it alone for 10 to 15 minutes. Want it hotter? Add a pinch of cayenne.

A Berlin street vendor named Herta Heuwer first put the two together in 1949, with ingredients she got from British soldiers. At its peak, her stand was selling 10,000 servings a week.

6. Banana Ketchup

Banana ketchup exists because of a tomato shortage. During World War II the Philippines was short on tomatoes and had bananas growing in abundance, so food technologist Maria Orosa came up with a recipe, and Magdalo Francisco Sr. put a banana version into mass production in 1942.

The red is cosmetic, by the way. It’s naturally a brownish yellow.

Soften 1/2 cup of finely chopped onion in 2 tablespoons of oil. Add 1 tablespoon of minced ginger, 2 minced garlic cloves, 1 seeded and minced jalapeño, 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric and 1/4 teaspoon of allspice, and cook until it smells great.

Stir in 1 tablespoon of tomato paste, then 4 very ripe mashed bananas, 1/2 cup of white wine vinegar, 1/2 cup of packed light brown sugar and 2 tablespoons of soy sauce. Simmer about 10 minutes until it thickens a little.

Or grab a bottle at a Filipino or Asian grocery. No judgment.

7. Honey Mustard

Most honey mustard tastes like dessert. The fix is two mustards and a little lemon.

Whisk 1/3 cup of mayo with 2 tablespoons of honey, 2 tablespoons of Dijon, 1 tablespoon of plain yellow mustard and 1 1/2 teaspoons of lemon juice. Vegan? Swap the honey for maple syrup.

8. Ranch (the Real Kind)

Ranch was invented by a plumber in Alaska. Steve Henson came up with it in the early 1950s, named it after the California guest ranch he bought later, and sold it to Clorox in the early 1970s for $8 million.

It’s been the best-selling salad dressing in the United States since 1992. Fries don’t care that it’s a salad dressing.

Whisk 1/4 cup each of mayo, sour cream and buttermilk with a good pinch each of dried dill, parsley and chives, plus garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate it at least one hour so the flavors show up.

Too thick to dip? Thin it with more buttermilk, one tablespoon at a time.

9. Toum

Toum means garlic in Arabic, and the sauce isn’t kidding. It’s the fluffy white garlic sauce from Lebanese restaurants, and with no egg and no dairy it’s vegan as written.

You need 1 cup of peeled garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon of salt, 4 cups of neutral oil like grapeseed or sunflower, and 1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice. Pull out any green sprouts in the garlic first, because they turn it bitter.

Blitz the garlic and salt in a food processor. Then, with the machine running, pour the oil in a very slow stream, alternating with the lemon juice, for about 10 minutes until it looks like mayo. If it separates, stop pouring and keep the machine going until it comes back together.

That makes about 4 cups, which is a lot of garlic. Keep it in the fridge, never on the counter, and make what you’ll eat this week.

10. Tzatziki

The whole recipe is one squeeze. Shred 1 cup of English cucumber (about 3/4 of a medium one, no peeling or seeding), wrap it in a clean kitchen towel and wring out every drop you can.

Skip that step and your dip turns into soup.

Stir the cucumber into 1 1/2 cups of plain Greek yogurt with 1 tablespoon each of chopped fresh dill, olive oil and lemon juice, 2 minced garlic cloves and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Cold and sharp against a hot, salty fry is the entire point.

11. Ají Verde

If you’ve eaten at a Peruvian restaurant, you already know the green sauce. This is that sauce.

Put 2 seeded jalapeños, 2 cups of loosely packed cilantro leaves, 1 small garlic clove, 1 chopped green onion, 1 tablespoon each of lime juice and olive oil, 1/4 cup of cotija or queso fresco, 1/2 cup of mayo, and 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper in a food processor. Blend until it’s smooth.

Two extras get it to restaurant level if you can find them: 2 teaspoons of huacatay (Peruvian black mint) paste and 1 tablespoon of ají amarillo paste. It still works without them.

12. Dutch “War” Fries Sauce (Patatje Oorlog)

“Oorlog” is Dutch for war, and one look at the tray and you get it. It’s fries buried under mayo, peanut sauce and chopped raw onion.

The satay-style sauce has its roots in the former Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia.

Soften 1/2 a finely chopped onion in 1 tablespoon of peanut oil. Add 2 minced garlic cloves, 2 teaspoons of sambal oelek and 1/2 teaspoon of grated ginger, and cook for under a minute.

Stir in 1/2 cup of natural peanut butter, then 3/4 cup of vegetable broth or water, 1 tablespoon of kecap manis (sweet soy sauce) and 2 teaspoons of dark brown sugar. Simmer 5 to 10 minutes, loosening it with up to 3/4 cup more liquid.

13. Cheese Sauce That Stays Smooth

Two cheap ingredients are the difference between silky cheese sauce and a grainy, stringy mess. They’re cornstarch and evaporated milk, and you need both.

Toss 8 ounces of shredded extra sharp cheddar with 1 tablespoon of cornstarch in a saucepan. Add a 12-ounce can of evaporated milk and 3 tablespoons of hot sauce, put it on low heat, and whisk until it’s thick and creamy.

Serve it right away. And if you’re strict about it, check the cheddar label for animal rennet.

14. Vegetarian Poutine Gravy

Two Quebec towns both claim poutine. In Warwick, Fernand Lachance supposedly said it’d make “a damn mess” when a regular asked for cheese curds in a bag of fries. In Drummondville, the restaurant Le Roy Jucep went ahead and trademarked the title “Inventor of Poutine.”

Here’s the catch. The classic gravy isn’t vegetarian. This one is.

Melt 3 tablespoons of butter over medium-low heat and whisk in 3 tablespoons of flour. Whisk in 1 1/2 cups of vegetable broth, 1/4 cup at a time so it stays smooth. Add 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder, 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper and the leaves from 2 thyme sprigs, then simmer on low for 5 minutes until it thickens.

Use vegan butter and the whole thing’s vegan.

15. Sour Cream and Sweet Chili

After all that whisking, here’s one with no recipe at all. You put out a bowl of sour cream and a bowl of bottled sweet chili sauce, and you drag the fry through both.

There’s no ratio because you don’t mix it.

It’s been an Australian pub classic since the ’90s, where it shows up next to potato wedges. It works on any fry you’ve got.

Don’t Throw Out the Ketchup

You’re going to need it. Three of these dips start with a squeeze of the stuff.

Turns out ketchup’s best job on a plate of fries was never the lead. It’s a pretty good ingredient, though.