Comeback Sauce : Good for what ails ya!
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Today I am bringing you a darn good recipe for an all purpose sauce that will make you slap your mama! Comeback sauce goes with everything from chicken to burgers to fries to chips, you can even dip your bread in it if you don’t have anything else! I think I got this recipe from my cousin, Cindy, when she lived in Birmingham and had it at a restaurant there. I’m pretty sure that’s where it came from but I hated to call her this morning and ask because she has a wee one now and we all know the offense for calling and waking up the baby is punishable by death (or at least it should be!).
Either way, I’ve been whipping it up for many years now, since right after we got married. The versatility of it comes in that you can just as easily whip up just enough for one person as you can for one hundred.
You might be wondering what is pictured up above. Well that, my friends, is a darn good hamburger and ….um….~takes a steadying breath and hangs her head~ green bean fries. Yes, I said green bean fries. If that doesn’t sound natural to you the reason is because it isn’t. Those things, god love ’em, are just plain wrong. I have seen them cropping up on menus and across the internet and was obviously intrigued so I decided to make them for myself and give ’em a try. I mean, they look good, don’t they?
Now the initial appeal of green bean fries is that they are a healthier alternative to french fries. Having a background in nutrition, I am fully capable of seeing the benefits of a green bean over a french fry. However, when you take a green bean and batter it before deep frying it in oil, you’re kinda muddying the waters here. I decided to adapt the recipe and bake mine in the oven to actually keep some semblance of them being a healthier option. They turned out brown and crispy and the coating was well seasoned and had a pleasant flavor. Having said all of that, please read my next paragraph before trying this at home.
If you ever find yourself wanting to make green bean fries. Honey, baby, darlin, sweetheart, precious little angel of mine – just go get some french fries. Trust me on this. I mean, they were okay but certainly nothing to write home about. If you’re that desperate for a non fried dish, have an apple, eat some saltines, have a piece of cheese. If, after considering all of this you still feel compelled to have green bean fries, make plenty of comeback sauce :).
Ingredients are easy (as they usually are with my recipes): Ketchup, black pepper, mayo.
Now I don’t know if y’all realize this or not but I’m not a big mayonnaise person. I don’t have an aversion to it I just don’t sit around thinking “MMMM Gots ta have me some Mayo!”. I do see it as a weee bit on the gross side. My point in telling you this is so that you know when I use mayonnaise in a recipe, its gonna be good!
Just like this sauce :).
Here is the beauty of this, there is no specific amount of ingredients you have to have, its all done in proportions. You can just as easily whip up two tablespoons of sauce as you can two cups!
Place equal parts ketchup and mayonnaise in a bowl.
If you use 1/2 cup mayo, use 1/2 cup ketchup. If you use 2 tablespoons mayo, use 2 tablespoons ketchup, etc.
I’m doing 1/2 cups here because I just need enough to disguise the flavor to enhance the flavor of green bean fries for a few people.
Stir that together…
Until it is well blended like this.
Now cover the top in pepper like this.
And stir…
And cover in pepper again….
Now listen, that photo is not “covered” in pepper. It needs about a tablespoon or so more to be considered “covered”. I always get skittish and wimp out on covering my sauce. Don’t do like I do because I end up covering it in pepper three times instead of two due to lack of peppery goodness. Don’t worry, this is not a “hot” sauce at all. Think of the pepper as a spice because that is all it does in here but it is sooooo dang good.
This is my final comeback sauce after I covered it in pepper three times instead of two because I was a wimp with the pepper. Don’t be a pepper wimp, learn from my wimpiness!
Ohmygosh this stuff is so good!!
Comeback Sauce
Equal Parts Mayonnaise and Ketchup
Black Pepper
Combine mayo and ketchup in a bowl. Completely cover the top with black pepper by sprinkling it on. Stir. Repeat once more. Serve!
This sauce is excellent with burgers, chicken, fries, and pretty much any other dippable or spreadable food :).
@southernplate
we used to make like a fondue with meat marintated in wine, and vegetables and used the main ingredients in your sauce we just added garlic powder instead of pepper sounds good either way
thank you for bringing back a few good memories
My parents also made salad dressing this way…subtract the pepper and add a squeeze of dill pickle relish.
Yummers…
Christy if you haven’t tried PFChangs fried green beans..by all means do! Child, they are addictive! My best guess is, they roll their’s in something like Wondra flour and then dunk them into a seasoned watery tempura batter. Which leaves them with a flaky very light crust once flash fried. They get served with a spicy chile sauce…much like Comeback Sauce.
ok, I went to PF Changs for the first time several weeks ago and I can believe ANYTHING They make is wonderful! I dont even remember what I had but it was AMAZING!!!!!
PF Changs is our favorite *adult* resteraunt. We go there for special occasions like anniversary, bday and valentines day. Try the egg drop soup… OMGoodness…WOW is all i can say…
Love that PF Changs…Oh, by the way, we also go to Pei Wei with the kids…That place is great too
Hey Christy:
My mother did this also for a salad dressing. It was great!!! Thanks for the reminder!!!! Have a GREAT DAY!
thank you, Gwen! I have been thinking i’d like it on a salad!! have a wonderful day, too!!!!!!
My daddy (Yes, I am a southern belle from Alabama so even at 38 yrs old I still call my father “Daddy”)has been mixing ketchup and mayo together as a sauce whenever we have “roast”–done in the crock pot of course. I don’t know if he puts pepper on it, though. I may have to pass this along to him to try.
Same thing I still call mine, Daddy!!!
and I’m thirty…ummm…
yeah, I still call mine daddy, too!
It looks similar to what we in Idaho and Utah call “fry sauce” – which is just mayo and ketchup mixed together. I guess this is the Southern version – made more flavorful by the addition of what looks like WAYYY too much pepper. 🙂
Maybe I’ll give it a try…
hehe! you know what they say
if a little is good…
We use this sauce with no pepper for prawn cocktails/ seafood sandwiches etc. Tastes very nice. With the pepper I’ll bet it is great with hamburgers.
Yup, we call it fry sauce in Oregon, too, Stephanie. I think that Artic Circle (a fast food burger joint popular in the 60’s and 70’s) was the 1st place in my experience to offer it. I think they may have added pickle juice to theirs. Very similar to Thousand Island dressing without the relish.
When I was a kid, I would walk down to our local Artic Circle and buy a corn dog and fries and get extra fry sauce because I could never get enough. I have also been known, as a young adult, to put it on brown rice and my chicken fried steak! I know, some will erp at the suggestion, but I was not very adept at makin’ gravy back then. 😉
Christy, I was directed to your site for the 1st time a few nights ago by a friend and absolutely love your recipes and pictorial directions. Too cool, girl! Thank you for your dilligence and hard work. You are a Rock Goddess! Tawanda!
My husband is the “Pepper King” He will love this sauce.Thanks …once again.
I bet he will! my husband loves it, too.
I just love that it is so easy!!!!
My favorite thing is to dip my chicken and fries into it. My grandmother loves it on her hamburger!
Stir in some horseradish too and dip your seafood in it or fried chicken fingers or fried cheese sticks or muchrooms! Ummmm………….. one of those souther thingy’s you’ll swoon as you take each bite! I grew up eating this in southern Florida as a Florida remolaude.