Sauces & Dressings
23 recipes.
- Applebee's Beer Cheese Dip: A Bitter Beer Makes a Bitter DipHops concentrate as the beer reduces. An IPA that tastes pleasant in a glass turns harsh in a pan.
- Auntie Anne's Cheese Dip: Sodium Citrate, or a RouxGrainy cheese sauce is a protein problem with two real solutions and a lot of bad advice in between.
Benihana Garlic Butter: Roast the Garlic or It Tastes RawRaw garlic in butter is harsh and stays harsh. Roasting turns it sweet, and a day in the fridge does the rest.- Benihana Ginger Sauce: Onion Is the Main Ingredient, Not GingerIt is named after the ginger and built on raw onion. Get that ratio backwards and it is inedibly hot.
- Bonefish Grill Chimichurri: Chop It, Do Not Blend ItA food processor turns chimichurri into green paste. The whole character of the sauce is that you can see what is in it.
- Buffalo Wild Wings Desert Heat: The Dust Goes on Oiled WingsA dry rub on a dry wing falls off. The step nobody mentions is the light oil toss that happens first.
- Carrabba's Alfredo: Grate the Parmesan Fine and Add It Off the HeatStringy, grainy alfredo is a cheese temperature problem. Two rules fix it permanently.
- Cava Roasted Eggplant Dip: Drain It, or It Will Be WateryAubergine is over 90% water. Skipping the drain is why home versions are thin and taste of nothing in particular.
Cava Tahini Caesar: The Dairy-Free Caesar That WorksTahini replaces both the egg and the parmesan. It will seize when you add water — that is a stage, not a failure.
Chili's Ranch: Buttermilk Powder and Real Buttermilk, Not One or the OtherRestaurant ranch uses both. That is why bottled ranch tastes thin and homemade ranch tastes like sour cream.
Dave's Hot Chicken Sauce: The Oil-Based Nashville MethodNashville hot is a paste of frying oil and cayenne, brushed on hot. Make it with vinegar and you get something else.- Freddy's Fry Sauce: Two Ingredients, and the Ratio Is EverythingHalf and half looks like the obvious split and gives you pink ketchup. Four to one is where it becomes fry sauce.
- Hardee's Special Sauce: The Pickle Relish Has to Be DrainedRelish straight from the jar carries brine, and that brine is why the sauce slides off the burger.
Hooters Daytona Sauce: The Vinegar Is the PointPeople build it like a barbecue sauce and wonder why it tastes flat. It is a hot sauce with sugar in it, not the other way round.
KFC Colonel's Sauce: Mayonnaise, Mustard and a Lot of Black PepperEvery home version under-peppers it. The pepper is not a background note here, it is the flavour you are trying to hit.
McDonald's Tangy BBQ Sauce: Smooth Because Nothing In It Has TextureIt is not smoky and it is not chunky. Home versions fail on both counts, and the fix is what you leave out.
Outback Bloomin' Onion Sauce: Horseradish Is the Heat, Not CayenneIt looks like a spicy mayonnaise so people add chilli. The burn is horseradish and it sits in your nose, not on your tongue.- Outback Blue Cheese Vinaigrette: Crumble Half, Blend HalfA vinaigrette will not hold blue cheese crumbles in suspension. Blending part of it gives the dressing something to grip.
- Sonic Groovy Sauce: The Barbecue Sauce Is the VariableEverything else in this is fixed. Which bottle of barbecue sauce you use decides whether it tastes right.
- Subway MVP Vinaigrette: Mustard Is Doing the EmulsifyingA vinaigrette that separates in two minutes is missing an emulsifier, and mustard is the one you already have.
Texas Roadhouse Hot Sauce: What It Is and How to Make ItIt is not chilli heat, it is horseradish. Knowing that saves you a lot of wasted cayenne.
Trader Joe's Thai Green Curry Simmer Sauce: A Homemade SubstituteOut of stock again? The jar is coconut-milk forward and mild, and two minutes of whisking gets you there.
Wendy's Cheese Sauce: Why Yours Goes GrainyYour cheese sauce goes grainy because of protein, not technique. Three ways to stop it.