Whether it’s “secret sauce”, “special sauce”, “burger sauce”, “fry sauce”, or whatever, it’s always Thousand Island. Maybe it has black pepper, cayenne, a touch of mustard, or maybe it leaves something like the relish out, but it’s still Thousand Island. Why? How did this become a thing?
My best guess is that it started at In-N-Out, but I have zero evidence to support this theory.
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Is it really Thousand Island dressing or is that it’s just the color of Thousand Island dressing?
Because it’s a thousand times better than island dressing.
This is just a guess, but I’m thinking that McDonald’s invented the concept of “secret sauce” and their secret sauce is Thousand Island dressing.
Fun fact, McDonald’s special sauce is just orange tartar sauce.
When I was a kid I thought it was cheese sauce and was excited to try it one day. Then I learned its mayo and i cannot stand mayo so I was SO disappointed 🙁
It’s not even that. Thousand Island is just ketchup, mayonnaise, and sweet relish.
Secret Sauce is ‘we mixed up a bunch of condiments and spices’.
Because that sauce and all it’s variations is delicious on all kinds of food
they can’t call it big mac sauce, it’s not usually exclusively thousand island dressing, and it’s both familiar and also “quirky” in a restaurant. most are just condiments mashed together with a few spices though.
You call it ranch and people just dip wings in it instead of blue cheese for some reason, but you call it Hidden Valley? They drink it! Call it Thousand Island and it’s for those natives…..call it Secret Sauce and it’s FOMO to NOT drink it!
Fry sauce in Utah is not Thousand Island
It’s similar but not the same as thousand island in my opinion. But probably because it’s really delicious. I’m a vegetarian now, but I STILL think about special sauce on a regular basis because it’s that good to me
It isn’t.
It’s a secret.
Jackson MS has comeback sauce that’s similar to a spicy Thousand Island. It may be the only good thing about this place.
Because it’s just that good?
Mayo and ketchup with varied spiced. Cheap and easy to make
I love it and have 1kisland recipe mostly memorized from Joy of Cooking. Mayo, ketchup, boiled egg, basil, parsely, olives
Because that shit is delicious and everyone wants to eat it.
The secret is always mayonnaise
Turns out when you mix a lot of random reddish things with mayo, you get a dressing that looks like Thousand Island dressing.
Because mayo is delicious and adding sweet and tangy elements makes it a well-balanced sauce.
Chick-fil-A is a honey mustard variation.
I don’t know but I hate it. I LOATHE thousand island dressing and it’s on every menu as their secret sauce. I just ask now if it’s thousand island and change my order accordingly
I’m just going to leave this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOM6Zd5oUsg
Fun fact, Big Mac Sauce in fact has no ketchup in it. It gets its color from paprika, not ketchup. I’ve seen it made.
Thousand Island contains Ketchup.
Raising Canes has the only “secret sauce” that actually is impressive.
All the other places just have some shitty mayo derivative that tastes like shit.
Many years ago Hardees/Carl’s Jr. bragged about something they called “Manager’s Sauce.”
One day I brought my bag of Hardees lunch back to the shop, put my feet up, and dug into my burger. My supervisor walked past and asked, “Oooh, did you get the Manager’s Sauce?”
I looked at my burger, shook my head and kinda grimaced. “Nah, I think they gave me the Assistant-Manager’s Sauce …”
It always tastes like Russian Dressing.
Fry Sauce/Pink Sauce existed in the Midwest/Mountain States looooong before restaurants started proclaiming their secret sauce variants.
If they told you then it wouldn’t be a secret anymore, would it?
Cus mixing ketchup and mayonnaise is delicious and that’s what it’s called
It’s salty, creamy, and tart.
Because it tastes damn good on a burger.
I THINK that Jack in the Box was first with their secret sauce (mainly ketchup mixed with may) back in the early 60s.