Alex Cochran, Deseret Information
Folklore. Warring narratives. Murky origin tales. Documenting the true historical past of fry sauce can really feel as muddled because the condiment itself. However, I wished the reality. And so I got down to uncover the genesis of Utah’s favourite condiment.
Historical past is marked by nice breakthroughs that modified the trajectory of humanity.
Benjamin Franklin flew a kite in a lightning storm. Louis Pasteur boiled milk. Wilbur and Orville Wright hooked up a motor to a glider.
Somebody at Arctic Circle blended ketchup with mayonnaise. Or so we’ve been informed.
A lot ink has been spilled and plenty of jokes made about Utah’s signature sauce. And each time, some pedantic sort chimes in to insist fry sauce exists, and perhaps even originated, elsewhere.
Salsa golf is huge in Argentina and Oregonians have served an identical dipping sauce for years, they are saying.
Don’t inform that to the great folks at Arctic Circle, who declare to be the primary to have invented fry sauce despite the fact that there’s a debate over exactly who inside these hallowed partitions first dared combine ketchup and mayo.
In line with an announcement despatched by Arctic Circle Vice President of Advertising and marketing and Promoting Joe Evans, founder Don Carlos Edwards and his sons Ralph and J.R. created “pink sauce” by mixing ketchup and mayonnaise. They performed round with the recipe, added some further components, and fry sauce was born.
“We lay declare to being the originator of fry sauce,” Evans says in an interview. “It took different eating places years to undertake it.”
In order that’s that. An open and shut case.
NOT SO FAST.
The household behind Stan’s Drive-In, as soon as discovered on 900 East in Provo and lately relocated to Salem, tells a barely completely different story.
As said on their web site, when Stan’s opened within the early Nineteen Fifties it was an Arctic Circle franchise run by Bob Peay. One night in 1955, two workers, Ron Taylor and Max Peay, made fry sauce and appreciated it a lot they started sharing it with their associates. Ultimately, a important mass of consumers requested for the “good fry sauce stuff,” and Stan’s served it with each fry order. Stanley Taylor and his spouse, Sarah, purchased the franchise and named it Stan’s. Some time later, an Arctic Circle gross sales rep requested Stan and Ron if he might take the fry sauce again to headquarters and distribute it in each Arctic Circle.
In an interview with Y Journal, Ron Taylor says, “Because the years glided by (Arctic Circle) ultimately claimed they’d developed it on their very own. Nevertheless it actually got here from our drive-in down there in Provo.”
The header on Stan’s web site even reads, “The Authentic Birthplace of Fry Sauce.”
Taylor’s declare isn't one which’s broadly recognized inside the Arctic Circle company.
“I’ve been with Arctic (Circle) for twenty years and I’ve by no means heard that story,” Evans says.
So what’s the reality? As with all culture-forming tales, whispered by the ages, we could by no means know for positive.
“Everyone claims to be the primary,” says folklorist Michael Christensen, writer of the chapter on fry sauce in “This Is the Plate.” However, Christensen explains, the who isn't as necessary because the why with regards to the origination and proliferation of our folks’s favourite dip.
“The fascinating factor isn’t who did it first and what the proper model is,” he says. “The fascinating factor is the eagerness folks have for fry sauce. In the event you take a look at any regional meals custom … each place has one thing that folks rally round and declare as their very own. They need to have a good time it. Fry sauce is a type of issues.”
The Hale household of Hires Massive H, for instance, had been a number of the earliest gamers in serving to rally the burger and fry connoisseurs behind fry sauce. Mark Hale, son of Don Hale, who based Hires in 1959, says, “Whereas Arctic Circle could have marketed fry sauce, Hires made it well-known. We helped set up it as a product.”
In 1970 Don launched the notorious Massive H that includes a particular sauce. When the burger grew to become successful, the Hires group began promoting the sauce as a dip for fries.
“The fry sauce bought itself,” Mark says.
Ultimately Hale and associates started calling the dip “fry sauce,” serving to fortify our state’s identification because the fry sauce epicenter of the universe.
After which in 1978 a Greek household arrived in Salt Lake Metropolis from California and opened the primary of what would turn into seven Crown Burgers throughout the valley. Fast apart: It’s Crown BurgerS with an S. Most of us who reside right here mistakenly name it Crown Burger.
It’s the other of Nordstrom, which all of us pluralize for no cause in any way.
Anyway. The sauce the Crown Burgers house owners served on their titular crown burger was a direct hit — mayo, ketchup and 5 different components that the Katsanevas household retains secret (although I did spot Tabasco on the shelf throughout my particular behind the scenes tour); introduced a spicier, tangier and zestier fry sauce to the Salt Lake sauce scene; and has been a juggernaut within the burger and fries battle since.
In a really casual ballot I created on social media with 300 respondents, the Crown Burgers fry sauce ranked because the overwhelming favourite, with Hires and Arctic Circle in second and third place. However no matter rankings, not one of the three fry sauce dynasties are hurting for fry-sauce-guzzling clients.
Every morning within the “seven crowns,” as retailer proprietor Mike Katsanevas calls the completely different places, the members of the Katsanevas clan combine big vats to cowl the day’s orders.
Hires Massive H bought over 12,000 gallons of Hires Hamburger and Fry Sauce in 2021: 4,800 gallons in Hires eating places for Massive Hs and fries and rings, and seven,300 gallons (62,000 circumstances) by retail gross sales in grocery shops within the intermountain west.
Arctic Circle company eat over 9 million Fry Sauce 1 1/2 oz. cups yearly. The corporate sells 18,240 16 oz. bottles of Fry Sauce yearly and 45 gallons of Fry Sauce are poured per day.
Nearly each single burger place inside Utah’s borders provides fry sauce in some type, even when some push, and maybe even cross, the road between fry sauce and a brand new concoction. (Cease making an attempt to move off barbecue sauce as fry sauce.)
It’s telling that there’s a lot fry sauce in our culinary panorama that we will debate what does and doesn't match the definition. And that's, I feel, what actually makes fry sauce ours. It’s not that different states or nations don’t have one thing comparable. I consider (sort of) the Oregonians who say their neighborhood deli serves it. Nevertheless it’s the ubiquity of the sauce right here that makes it a very Utah factor.
For a couple of years, my household lived in Colorado. As soon as per week or so we’d get burgers and fries, and as soon as per week or so the 5 Guys workers and clients would gawk in fascination and or disgust as I’d request a aspect of mayo, a aspect of ketchup, and blend them collectively utilizing a cajun fry.
I discovered the considered dipping my fries in simply ketchup revolting. I discovered the considered dipping my fries in simply mayonnaise disgusting. However dipping my fries in fry sauce felt like dwelling.
“(Fry sauce) is one thing that’s distinctively Utahn, and for my part it brings folks collectively,” Christensen says. “As a substitute of a signifier for us and them, it’s one thing everybody can come collectively and have a good time.”
Even disagreement over the deserves of assorted fry sauces brings Utahns collectively.
A heated debate unfolded on-line after I requested the web whose fry sauce was one of the best. The now-gone Coaching Desk has many defenders, and a few are prepared to argue with their full being that Leatherby’s over-mayos their dip, or that the steadiness is excellent. Whether or not or not pickle juice is critical is a significant controversy. However each disagreement is rooted in a perception that fry sauce is a novel perk of residing right here.
Even the varied burger proprietors are united of their ardour.
Arctic Circle administration, the Hale household and Mr. Katsanevas are all fast to offer one another credit score the place they consider credit score is due. Mark Hale displays fondly on his childhood journeys to Arctic Circle together with his brother. Joe Evans praises Crown Burgers’ unique tackle fry sauce. And so they all discuss how enjoyable it's to attempt new variations at each new restaurant that serves fries.
“It’s a supply of delight,” Christensen says. “We be taught neighborhood from fry sauce, and we definitely be taught consolation from it.”
Positive, it’s scrumptious and provides a pleasant little zip to a aspect of sizzling, fried potatoes. However fry sauce is greater than that. It’s a part of who we're.