THE BATTLE OF THE HOT SAUCY DIPS

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In THE BATTLE OF THE MELONS, watermelon was the runaway winner, with honeydew and cantaloupe melon trailing well behind next in the poll.

It's now the turn of the hot sauces and dips to do battle! This poll is only concerned with sauces and dips served warm or hot to accompany savoury food. I'm planning two further polls on sauces and dips served cold with savoury dishes and on hot or cold sauces and dips with dessert dishes. There's too many saucy dips for one poll!

Though the poll is all about sauces and dips accompanying savoury dishes, it doesn't mean all the sauces and dips listed and not listed are savoury. For example, orange sauce is often served with roast duck. The poll is all about the sauces and dips served hot that are cooked into, smothered onto, poured onto, squeezed onto or dipped into with a savoury meal.

I realise that the savoury meal often determines what sauce or dip is used as an accompaniment but I'm asking you to judge a warmed-up sauce or dip by its own merits and not by the merits of its accompanying dish. For example, I love roast chicken with bread sauce but bread sauce isn't my favourite sauce.

The French seem to love their sauces, so much so that sauces arguably define French cuisine, especially its haute cuisine. The acclaimed French chef, Auguste Escoffier (1846-1935), claimed there are at least five mother sauces - béchamel sauce (or white sauce) Espagnole sauce (or brown sauce), Hollandaise sauce (or Dutch sauce), tomato sauce and velouté sauce; sometimes in his writings, he included mayonnaise as a mother sauce.

My favourite sauces are béarnaise sauce (especially on a well done fillet steak), béchamel sauce, Bolognese sauce, bourguignon sauce, bread sauce (only with roast chicken or turkey), butter sauce, cheese sauce (especially with cauliflower), Hollandaise sauce (eggs benedict, scrummy), mushroom sauce, mustard sauce (English mustard please!), nacho cheese sauce, onion gravy, parsley sauce (served with fish), peppercorn sauce (again on a well done steak) and satay sauce (beef rendang please!).

But by far, my most favourite sauce is a very hot Indian curry sauce. A prawn vindaloo would be my last meal if offered one before my execution - see photo above. A vindaloo is originally a spicy Goan dish made from pork marinated in vinegar and garlic. However, as is the way of many traditional Indian curry recipes, the English have adapted the vindaloo as one of its staple dishes though any meat is used in and a potato is always added to the dish.

My least favourite sauces are sweet sauces, like apple sauce often served with roast pork and orange sauce with roast duck. For me, the savoury and the sweet are best left apart. On that basis, sweet and sour sauce is the sauce I most don't like, though I'm generally not a massive fan of Cantonese Chinese food even if anglicised by Hong Kong restaurants here. - see below photo of sweet and sour chicken.

The only sauce I can confidently make is a cheese sauce. I could probably do more sauces as I'm quite good at making a roux, the base for many a sauce.

What are your most and least favourite sauces or dips which are served hot or warm with savoury food?
What savoury food do you have with your favourite hot sauces and dips?
Do you make your own hot or warm sauces and dips for savoury food?

Below is a poll where you can anonymously select your most favourite hot sauce or dip. Unfortunately only one pick is allowed in the poll.

A poll on this site can only have 20 answer options. There was no room for alfredo sauce, Allemande sauce (aka German sauce), apple sauce, bourguignon sauce (or sauce bourguinonne), bread sauce, cacciatore sauce, cajun sauce, Espagnole sauce (aka brown sauce), garlic butter sauce, jerk sauce, lemon butter sauce, mustard sauce, orange sauce, ramp butter, taco sauce and tagine sauce. But there is always the 'other' option for those hot sauces and dips not listed. Hopefully I've covered all the popular hot sauces and dips as poll options.

I think it'll be a straight fight between a cheese dip/sauce, gravy/jus and a tomato-based pasta sauce in the poll, with the latter snatching victory. May the best hot saucy dip win!

I want to thank both @EnigmaInitiative and @hippiechick1967 for their very helpful advice in compiling this poll. Any mistakes are clearly my mistakes as the buck stops with me.

Please see the first comment below to see what has won each battle so far.

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