Fry Sauce

If you are from Utah, or have spent any amount of time in Utah, you know what fry sauce is. And from my perspective, it seems like Utahn's eat fry sauce by the gallon! Just walk into anyplace that serves french fries in Utah, and watch the reaction on the customers face when told they don't have fry sauce. Why, you'd think they were told their best friend got run over by a Mack Truck. The shock, the utter disbelief, the anger, and then the sadness... 

So for those of you outside Utah - what is fry sauce, and why is it so popular?

Fry sauce is much more than just a condiment to the people who consider it a beloved staple of Western American comfort food, says Kasey Christensen, the chief operating officer for Arctic Circle Restaurants — the fast food chain where it was invented.

The most basic recipe is mixing ketchup with mayonnaise, but after that, interpretations vary.  There are obviously seasonings involved, but Arctic Circle, the fast food chain where fry sauce was invented in the 1940's, is tight-lipped about what they put in their version - preferring it to remain unique, even though most restaurant chains in Utah do offer their own version just to stay in competition. 

"Some other chains and restaurateurs also claim as well that they created fry sauce, but we’re confident in our history and knowledge here that Arctic Circle was the birthplace of fry sauce before it ever became popular anywhere else." he says the restaurant chain goes through nearly 50,000 gallons of the sauce annually in the chain’s dining rooms, where self-service pumps are going through two gallons a day on average.  "That’s not even considering the drive-thru!"