77 articles
Guacamole
Guacamole (Nahuatl ahuacamolli, avocado sauce) is a Mexican mashed-avocado sauce with tomato, onion, cilantro and chile, of pre-Hispanic Aztec origin, traditionally made in a molcajete and now a global Super Bowl staple.
Harissa (هريسة)
Harissa (هريسة) is the Maghrebi hot red pepper paste made from Capsicum annuum with garlic, coriander, caraway, salt and olive oil; Tunisia's staple condiment, Codex-standardized, and inscribed by UNESCO in 2022.
Hoisin sauce (海鲜酱)
Hoisin sauce (海鲜酱, hǎixiān jiàng) is a thick, sweet-savory Cantonese condiment from Guangdong made of fermented soybeans, sugar, vinegar, garlic, and spices; despite its name meaning seafood, it contains none and stars with Peking duck, char siu, and pho.
Hollandaise sauce
Hollandaise sauce is a warm French mother sauce, an oil-in-water emulsion of butter, egg yolk, and lemon juice or vinegar, served with eggs Benedict and asparagus; it breaks easily from overheating or cooling and is recovered by adding water.
Hot sauce
Hot sauce, a chili-pepper condiment also called chilli sauce or piquante sauce, combines Capsicum peppers with vinegar, salt, and spices; measured in Scoville heat units via HPLC, kept safe below pH 4.6, and anchored by traditions from Aztec Mexico to Tabasco (1868) and sriracha.
HP Sauce
HP Sauce is the defining British brown sauce, a tangy tamarind-and-date condiment created by Nottingham grocer Frederick Gibson Garton, sold for £150, launched nationally in 1903 by the Midland Vinegar Company, and now owned by Kraft Heinz.
Ketchup
Ketchup (also historically spelled catsup) is a sweet-and-tangy tomato condiment of tomatoes, vinegar, sugar, salt, and spices, derived from the Hokkien fish sauce kê-tsiap, defined by US FDA standard 21 CFR 155.194 and graded by USDA total-solids standards.
Lao Gan Ma (老干妈)
Lao Gan Ma (老干妈) is a Chinese chili-sauce brand founded by Tao Huabi in 1996 in Guiyang, Guizhou. Known for its soybean chili crisp, it holds about one fifth of China's chili-sauce market, sells in 160 countries, and reported record 5.4 billion RMB revenue in 2025 without loans, financing, or listing.
Liquid smoke
Liquid smoke, or smoke condensate, is a water-soluble wood-smoke flavouring invented by Ernest H. Wright in 1895, refined to remove tar and PAHs, used industrially and in home cooking.
List of sauces
List of sauces: overview of sauces, fluid food preparations from Latin salsa via French; covers two historical categories, the French mother-sauce system of Carême and Escoffier, regional sauces (garum, soy, fish, brown sauce), and regulatory classification.
Mayonnaise
Mayonnaise, or mahonesa, is an oil-in-water emulsion sauce of vegetable oil, egg yolk, and vinegar, standardized at 65%+ oil in the US, named after Mahón, Menorca, and commercialized from 1912 by Hellmann's.
Miracle Whip
Miracle Whip is Kraft Heinz's sweet, tangy mayonnaise-like salad dressing, introduced in 1933; sold as a dressing, not mayonnaise, because it has less than the 65 percent vegetable oil U.S. regulation requires, with 35 calories and 3 g fat per tablespoon.
Mirin (味醂)
Mirin (味醂, hon mirin) is a Japanese sweet rice seasoning wine made from glutinous rice, rice koji, and shochu, matured 40–60 days to about 14% alcohol; distinct from salted or low-alcohol mirin-style seasonings.
Mole (sauce)
Mole (sauce), from Nahuatl molli/mulli meaning sauce, is a family of thick Mexican sauces of chiles, seeds, nuts, spices and sometimes chocolate; about fifty types exist, with mole poblano of Puebla and Oaxaca's seven moles the best known.
Mumbo sauce
Mumbo sauce, also spelled mambo sauce, is a sweet, tangy, mildly spicy red condiment of Washington, D.C. Chinese carryouts and Chicago barbecue joints; Chicago's Argia B. Collins created it circa 1950 and Select Brands holds the trademark.
Mustard (condiment)
Mustard (condiment): paste or powder from crushed mustard seeds (Sinapis alba, Brassica juncea, B. nigra) mixed with liquid; myrosinase releases pungent isothiocyanates. Distinct from mustard the plant and mustard oil; includes Dijon, yellow, English, whole grain styles.
Oyster sauce
Oyster sauce (蚝油, ho yeow) is a thick dark-brown Cantonese condiment made from concentrated oyster extract with sugar, salt, and starch; invented accidentally by Lee Kum Sheung in Nanshui, Guangdong, in 1888, now led commercially by Lee Kum Kee.
Peanut butter
Peanut butter is a food paste made by roasting and grinding peanuts, eaten as a spread; US regulation requires at least 90 percent peanuts, with the remainder limited to sweeteners and stabilizers.
Pesto
Pesto, especially pesto alla genovese, is Liguria's raw pounded basil sauce of Genovese DOP basil, pine nuts, garlic, two cheeses, olive oil, and salt, first codified in 1865.
Pico de gallo
Pico de gallo (salsa fresca, salsa bandera, salsa cruda) is Mexico's fresh, uncooked chopped salsa of tomato, onion, chile, cilantro, and lime, chunkier and drier than blended salsa, with fruit-salad variants in some regions.
Prairie oyster
Prairie oyster: a nonalcoholic hangover-remedy drink of raw egg with intact yolk, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, vinegar, salt, and pepper, first printed by Leo Engel in 1878; also means cooked bull calf testicles.
Raita
Raita (रायता, Hindi rāytā) is a cold South Asian yogurt condiment mixed with cucumber, boondi, onion, mint, or fruit, served with biryani and spicy curries to cool chili heat; distinct from tzatziki, cacık, and mast-o-khiar.
Ranch dressing
Ranch dressing is an American creamy dressing and dip made from buttermilk, mayonnaise, and herbs, and the best-selling salad dressing in the United States since 1992.
Red-eye gravy
Red-eye gravy, or redeye gravy, is a thin Southern US breakfast sauce of country ham pan drippings deglazed with strong black coffee; it has no thickener, separates into a red-eyed appearance in the bowl, and contrasts with thick, flour-thickened sawmill gravy.
Reggae Reggae Sauce
Reggae Reggae Sauce is Levi Roots' jerk BBQ sauce with Scotch bonnet and allspice, made famous by his sung 2007 Dragons' Den pitch that won £50,000 from Peter Jones and Richard Farleigh and a Sainsbury's listing.
Remoulade
Remoulade (French rémoulade) is a cold mayonnaise sauce with mustard, capers, pickles, herbs, and often anchovies; regional forms include sweet yellow Danish remoulade and red Creole remoulade of Louisiana.
Romesco
Romesco is a cold Catalan sauce from Tarragona's Serrallo fishermen, made with nyora peppers, roasted tomato, garlic, almonds, hazelnuts, bread, oil, and vinegar; also a fish dish, kin to salvitxada and xató sauce.
Roux
Roux is a cooked paste of equal parts flour and fat used to thicken sauces, soups, and stews; white, blond, brown, and Cajun-dark versions underpin béchamel, velouté, espagnole, and gumbo.
Russian dressing
Russian dressing is an American mayonnaise-ketchup condiment with horseradish, Worcestershire, and paprika; spicier and less sweet than Thousand Island, credited to Nashua, New Hampshire grocer James E. Colburn, and classic on the Reuben sandwich.
Salsa macha
Salsa macha, a Mexican oil-based chili condiment from Veracruz (Orizaba), made of fried dried chilies, garlic, peanuts, sesame, and often vinegar; nuttier and tangier than Chinese chili crisp, with which it is often compared.