I have something to confess: even though I was raised in Ireland, I don’t love curry sauce with chips (that’s probably why I had to leave).
There’s something about the slightly sweet sauce that doesn’t quite do it for me. I’ve been a salt and vinegar purist for a while now.
But recently, my staid preferences have been challenged by my Edinburgh-based editor.
Seeing that people’s interest in “chippy sauce” has been piqued recently, she shared that the condiment is “the nectar of Edinburgh.”
What is chippy sauce?
Its ingredients are often hidden by individual chippies (like with burger sauce), but in its basic form, chippy sauce is a mix of vinegar and brown sauce.
An anonymous chippy told Edinburgh Evening News, “It’s all about ratios and you’ll find that each fish bar has a different, secret way of doing it.”
Dayna McAlpine (my editor) agrees, imploring we “never ask a chip shop for their recipe, everyone has their own ratio of brown sauce to vinegar that they use.”
And while the 1:1 vinegar and brown sauce places like BBC Radio Scotland recommend seems easy to mix at home, Dayna says a true Edinburgher would rarely attempt such a feat.
“Chippie sauce is not to be made at home,” she told me.
“If you want it at home you can either purchase a bottle from a chip shop or hunt down a bottle of Gold Star chippie sauce, which is stocked in random newsagents and occasionally Lidl.”
“When found in a shop, it is advised to stock up,” she added.
How should you eat it?
Apparently, it tastes especially delicious with cheese and chips.
“Glasgow doesn’t know what it’s missing. Nothing hits at 3am like chips, cheese and chippie sauce,” Dayna reliably informed us.
She also says a cheese toastie dunked into the stuff is “enough to bring a tear to your eye” ― in fact even discussing the sauce has changed her lunch plans with immediate effect.
Looks like I’m going to have to give this chippy sauce a try (if my anti-gravy on chips policy alienates me from my fellow Irishman, maybe this new fixation can get me in good with the Edinburghers?).