8 Things Utahns Know About Fry Sauce That Out-of-Staters Get Wrong
Dunk a fry in fry sauce at a Utah restaurant, and you’ve joined a debate that includes a governor, two origin stories and a rival state.
Utahns will tell you how it’s supposed to taste, and visitors who think it’s just ketchup and mayo get side-eyed.
Here’s the backstory, where you can order it and why a dip this simple caught on.
1. Arctic Circle’s Claim
Arctic Circle credits Don Edwards with the Original Fry Sauce.
The Edwards family opened the first Arctic Circle building in 1950.
The Salt Lake City news outlet KSL gives his full name as Don Carlos Edwards.
He mixed a sauce of ketchup, mayonnaise, garlic, dill pickle sauce and other spices.
Then he accidentally dipped a french fry in it.
If you want a date for all this, you won’t get a clean one.
A 2010 Deseret News story puts it sometime in the early 1950s and calls the exact date murky.
The chain itself brands its sauce the Original Fry Sauce.
The Man the Chain Credits With Fry Sauce
KSL describes Don Carlos Edwards as a native of Logan.
He began in food by attaching a food trailer to his truck and taking it to Pioneer Day celebrations.
2. Provo’s Origin Story
A Brigham Young University magazine tells a second story, set at a small burger joint in Provo.
If you hear that fry sauce started in Provo, this is the version you’re hearing.
If you ask where the sauce started catching on, folklorist Eric Eliason points to that spot.
He also says fry sauce has a lot of origins.
In the mid-1950s, teenage employees Max Peay and Ron S. Taylor mixed ketchup and mayonnaise at a small Arctic Circle franchise near 5th North and 9th East.
Taylor’s father, Stanley, later converted that franchise into an independent burger shop called Stan’s Drive-In.
In that telling, an Arctic Circle sales representative asked to take the sauce to headquarters in Salt Lake City to see if the company liked it.
As of 2018, Stan’s had moved to Salem, Utah, and still carried the tagline “The Original Birthplace of Fry Sauce.”
So if you think one person invented it, expect an argument.
3. Arctic Circle’s Daily Sauce Use
Arctic Circle’s 78 franchises in six Western states went through 120 gallons of Original Fry Sauce every day, a 2010 Deseret News story reported.
That compares with 10 gallons of ketchup.
Those are 2010 figures, so today’s totals may differ.
At Arctic Circle stores, you can get it pumped from in-store dispensers, in little dipping cups to go, or by the bottle.
4. Ingredients and Ratios
Fry sauce is often called ketchup plus mayonnaise, and Utah public radio describes roughly equal parts of the two, with maybe an extra spice or two.
KSL’s account of the original had garlic and dill pickle sauce in the mix too.
If you want the traditional version, another source puts it at one part ketchup to two parts mayonnaise.
If you mix a batch at home, either ratio is a fair place to start.
The finished sauce lands somewhere on the orange-to-pink spectrum.
The spices in Edwards’ original sauce, KSL reported in 2015, were still a secret.
5. Restaurants That Carry It
A 2016 Atlas Obscura article says nearly every American-style restaurant in Utah carries fry sauce.
Local chains like Crown Burger and Hires Big H carry it, and McDonald’s and Burger King stock versions too.
If you stop at Hires Big H, you’re at a chain with a long history.
Its website says Don Hale opened the first restaurant at 400 South and 700 East in Salt Lake City in 1959.
Bottles of small-batch fry sauce can also be bought off grocery store shelves.
6. Fry Sauce Day
Gov. Spencer Cox declared March 8, 2024, “Fry Sauce Day” in Utah.
You didn’t need an excuse to order fries, but that day gave you one.
Utah’s official state symbols list doesn’t include a sauce.
If you’re wondering who asked for the day, the idea came from staff at Good Things Utah.
They noticed that March was National Sauce Month with no day for fry sauce, then called the governor’s office.
7. Reasons for Fry Sauce’s Popularity
Michael Christensen wrote an essay on fry sauce in This is the Plate: Utah Food Traditions, a 2020 book.
If you’ve wondered why a mix this simple caught on, Christensen has two possible answers.
The Utah public radio report says he points to Utah’s entrepreneurial spirit and the power of nostalgia as possible explanations.
If you grew up on the stuff, the second one may explain why you still reach for it.
Psst! How much do you know about Utah’s state symbols? Take our quiz and see if you can ace it.
Quiz
Utah Symbols Quiz
Answer these questions on Utah’s official state symbols. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
Which mushroom is Utah’s official state mushroom?
8. Idaho's Rival Claim
Not everyone agrees that fry sauce belongs to Utah.
Many Idahoans believe the sauce was invented in their state instead of in Utah, the 2016 Atlas Obscura article says.
If you've been told Idaho came up with fry sauce, you're repeating a belief many Idahoans hold.
Ketchup-and-Mayo Mixes Elsewhere
The Utah public radio report also mentions a 1900 New Orleans cookbook with a thousand island dressing of half mayonnaise and half ketchup.
If you stir mayonnaise and ketchup together at home, you're using the same two ingredients that recipe called for.
In Germany, pommes rot-weiss (red-white fries) are fries with mayonnaise and ketchup, traditionally not pre-mixed.
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