7 Things Mississippians Put Comeback Sauce on That Out-of-Staters Wouldn’t
A wedge of iceberg, a sliced tomato and comeback sauce make a classic plate in Mississippi.
Locals put it on a lot more than salad, and some pairings raise eyebrows out of state.
Here’s what Mississippians put comeback sauce on that out-of-staters wouldn’t.
1. Saltine Crackers
Many out-of-staters would file a saltine under soup crackers, not comeback sauce.
Some Jackson restaurants disagree.
A 2020 profile lists comeback sauce and crackers as a $3 starter at Hal & Mal’s in downtown Jackson.
The pairing is tied to old Jackson, with saltines dipped into the dressing at a booth or in the courtyard while you wait on your meal.
In a 2020 guest column for the Meridian Star, Robert St. John wrote that he ends up dipping saltine crackers into the sauce at the Mayflower.
Crackers may be where the sauce began.
An Ole Miss news story says it’s thought to have started as a cracker dip for waiting customers at the Rotisserie, a Jackson restaurant owned by Alex Dennery.
2. Onion Rings
Food writer Susan Marquez calls comeback sauce an ideal dipping sauce for onion rings.
St. John almost always orders onion rings at the Mayflower.
The Mayflower’s Comeback Sauce
George Kountouris and John Gouras opened the Mayflower Cafe in downtown Jackson in 1935, and it began as a hamburger stand.
New owners reopened the restaurant in August, according to a 2025 Garden & Gun profile.
Chef Hunter Evans worked from the Kountouris family’s comeback recipe.
The dressing is bright orange, made with mayonnaise and ketchup and flecked with curry powder.
3. Fried Dill Pickles
Crescent City Grill serves comeback sauce with fried dill pickles and onion rings.
If you’re ordering fried pickles, Oxford chef John Currence’s recipe notes list them first among the foods the sauce goes on.
Fish, shrimp and chicken follow.
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Coca-Cola was first sold in bottles in 1894 at a candy company in which Mississippi city?
4. Iceberg Salad
A simple salad of iceberg lettuce, a sliced tomato and a few crumbles of feta cheese is the typical comeback sauce plate, St. John writes.
In 40 years of eating at the Mayflower, he had never eaten there without getting a salad with comeback sauce.
Crescent City Grill dresses simple iceberg salads with it as well.
A crisp iceberg salad heads Visit Jackson's list of things to pour it on.
If you're building the plate at home, you need only the lettuce, a tomato and some feta.
5. French Fries
Walker's Drive-In pairs portobello fries with spicy horseradish comeback dressing.
A 2018 profile said Walker's, in Jackson's Fondren neighborhood, has been part of the Jackson landscape for more than 70 years.
Currence lists fries too.
So does the Ole Miss story, which lists fries along with salads, fried chicken and onion rings.
6. Gulf Shrimp
Recipe author Dale Gray writes that in Mississippi, shrimp is often served with a side of comeback sauce.
The porch party shrimp recipe in Garden & Gun pairs jumbo Gulf shrimp, roasted at 425 degrees, with the sauce for dipping.
Roasting takes about six minutes.
If you're feeding a crowd, it makes an easy sharing platter.
7. Cheeseburgers
If you're grilling cheeseburgers, comeback sauce can stand in for your usual condiments.
St. John's column ends on a list of uses for comeback sauce, and cheeseburgers are on it.
Marquez's 2023 history lists burgers along with purple-hulled peas and fish.
Original Recipe Claims
The Jackson restaurant that first made comeback sauce is disputed, though Marquez writes that it was Greek-owned.
Some credit the Mayflower Cafe.
Others credit the Rotisserie Restaurant, which St. John calls the birthplace of the sauce.
The dates differ, too.
Her history places the first batch in the late 1930s at the Mayflower or the early 1940s at a Dennery-owned restaurant.
The Ole Miss story puts it in the early 1930s.
By the 1990s, the sauce had spread all across the state.
Name Origins
Comeback sauce has two name theories, according to Visit Jackson's guide.
One says patrons called the dressing Kum-Bak because they wanted to come back for more.
The other points to the dressing's garlic-and-mayonnaise scent.
Take your pick.
Recipe Disputes
Comeback sauce recipes vary.
Marquez says to skip any recipe that calls for onion powder or garlic powder, and she rejects versions that swap sriracha for chili sauce.
Currence's recipe follows her rule, with grated yellow onion and minced garlic alongside ketchup, mayonnaise and Heinz chili sauce.
St. John's recipe calls for cottonseed oil where Currence's calls for olive oil.
He describes the sauce as a blend of Thousand Island dressing and remoulade.
Bottled Versions
Marquez's history lists bottled comeback sauces from the Mayflower Cafe, Georgia Blue, Oxford Falls and Thames Foods.
Papou's Sauce is the Mayflower's.
Georgia Blue sold its version in its restaurants and in area grocery stores.
John and Nita Thames owned Fat Tuesday's restaurant in Ridgeland.
The Ole Miss story says Wade Thames got the idea for a bottle there in 2003, when a customer asked for the sauce in a to-go cup.
He founded Thames Foods and perfected a shelf-stable version of the recipe.
Duke's mayonnaise has a Mississippi Comeback Sauce on its product list.
It's a go-to dipping sauce for everything from hushpuppies to chicken tenders to fried pickles.
