One Easy Addition Will Elevate Your Fry Sauce To The Next Level

Is anything more delicious than a side of crispy, golden, perfectly seasoned fries? There's a reason the average American eats 17 pounds of fries every year (per Talker Research). They're delicious, and they go with just about everything. But you can elevate a fry from ordinary to extraordinary with a simple dipping sauce made from just a few common ingredients. The most basic version of fry sauce is mayo and ketchup, but if you want to kick it up a notch, you need to add some pickle juice.

A smart way to use leftover pickle juice, adding it enhances the savory elements of both the sauce and the fries. It also brightens the flavor from what could be a little flat to something tangier, with more depth. Dill pairs well with potatoes, so if you enjoy that flavor, dill pickle brine makes a great addition. If you want something a little sweeter and more balanced, with a hint of warm spices, try bread and butter pickle brine.

Fry sauce is not a common condiment, but you will see Mayochup by Heinz in grocery stores. The original fry sauce predates Heinz's version, and Utah lays claim to having invented it. It was the mid '50s when two employees at an Arctic Circle burger joint in Provo, Utah claim to have first mixed ketchup and mayonnaise together. Customers kept coming back and asking for it, referring to it as fry sauce. Eventually, it appeared on the menu under that name.

The Arctic Circle fry sauce is the bare-bones version. It's made with just ketchup and mayo, no pickle juice. There's no set-in-stone recipe for fry sauce. Some versions will go two-to-one on mayo to ketchup, others three-to-one or even more. Some may include garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, paprika, horseradish, or Worcestershire sauce for an umami punch.

Experiment with some simple versions at home to see which flavor profile works best for you. When adding pickle juice, around 3 teaspoons per cup of mayo is ideal, but scale as needed. That little splash of pickle brine might be the flavor bomb you didn't know your homemade air fryer french fries were missing.