In THE BATTLE OF THE HOT SAUCY DIPS, tomato-based pasta sauce was the clear winner, with a cheese dip or sauce and a spinach artichoke dip coming next in the poll.
It's now the turn of the cool or at least cold sauces and dips to do battle! This poll is only concerned with sauces and dips, plus dressings, glazes and oils, served chilled or at room temperature to accompany savoury food. I've already done a poll on hot or cold sauces and dips served with savoury dishes and I'm planning to do a poll on cold and hot sauces and dips served with dessert dishes. There's too many saucy dips to cover in 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 some reason, many Americans like a drizzle of maple syrup over their bacon for breakfast. The poll is all about the sauces and dips served cold that are cooked into, smothered onto, poured onto, drizzled over, 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 cold sauce or dip by its own merits and not by the merits of its accompanying dish.
My favourite sauces are barbecue sauce (with burgers and sausages), brown sauce (especially in a hot dog), chilli oil (drizzled liberally over a pizza), garlic dip (especially aioli), guacamole (essential with Mexican food), hoisin sauce (with Chinese crispy aromatic duck), horseradish sauce (served with roast beef), hummus (with pitta bread), mint jelly (served with roast lamb ), olive oil (a salad without extra virginal olive oil isn't worth eating), onion chutney (on top of an Indian papadam), peri peri sauce (the hotter the better), raita (great with Indian food), sweet chilli sauce (with fish), thousand island dressing (the making of a prawn cocktail), tzatziki (with Greek pitta bread), tomato ketchup (with burgers and chips), vinegar (with chips), Worcestershire sauce (great sprinkled on cheese on toast) and yogurt (best way to cool down a very hot Indian curry).
But my most favourite sauce is mustard, though it has to be English mustard, generally much hotter than French and other mustards. A well done fillet steak, served with chips, mushrooms and peas, just becomes perfect with a big dollop of English mustard.
My least favourite sauces are cranberry jelly or sauce, miso sauce (just disgusting) and syrup (maple syrup served with a fried breakfast just doesn't doo it for me). Though I've never tried it, I don't like the sound of eel sauce. But salad cream, a British synthetic alternative to mayonnaise, is by far the worst sauce ever concocted. I'm not too keen on salad but a salad with salad cream just becomes unpalatable.
What are your most and least favourite sauces or dips which are served cold with savoury food?
What savoury food do you have with your favourite cold sauces and dips?
Do you make your own cold sauces and dips?
Below is a poll where you can anonymously select your most favourite cold sauce or dip served with savoury food. 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 blue cheese dressing, brown sauce (eg HP Sauce, YR Sauce), butter, cajun sauce, Caesar salad dressing, Catalina dressing, chutney/pickle/relish, cranberry jelly or sauce, eel sauce, French onion dip (aka California dip), fruit jam/jelly/conserve/preserve/coulis/butter/curd, harissa paste or sauce, honey (including honey dressing and mustard), horseradish sauce, lemon dressing, lime dressing, mint sauce or jelly, miso sauce, peri peri sauce, plum sauce (aka hoisin sauce), ponzu sauce, raita, redcurrant jelly or sauce, romesco sauce, salad cream, salbitxada sauce (aka Catalan sauce and salsa de calçots), satay sauce (aka peanut sauce or dip), sesame paste or sauce (aka tahini), srichacha, syrup (including maple syrup), taramasalata (aka Greek fish roe dip), teriyaki sauce, thousand island dressing, tonkatsu sauce, Worcestershire sauce and yogurt. But there is always the 'other' option for those cold sauces and dips not listed. Hopefully I've covered all the popular cold sauces and dips as poll options.
I always buy ready-made sauces or dips; they're much better than anything I could rustle up.
I think tomato ketchup will win the poll, but barbecue sauce, guacamole and olive oil may feature strongly. May the best cool saucy dip win!
Yet again, I want to thank both @EnigmaInitiative and @hippiechick1967 for their very helpful advice in compiling this poll. But any mistakes are my mistakes.
Please see the first comment below to see what has won each battle so far.
English mustard:
17
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