Alternative names | salsa blanca; white salsa |
---|---|
Type | Dipping sauce |
Course | Appetizer |
Place of origin | Southeastern Virginia |
Associated cuisine | Mexican-American cuisine |
White sauce, also known as salsa blanca, is a creamy, zesty condiment that is offered as a dipping sauce at Mexican restaurants in parts of the U.S. state of Virginia.
The white sauce served in southeastern Virginian Mexican restaurants is traditionally made with Miracle Whip, milk, cumin, dried oregano (or Italian seasoning), garlic powder, and crushed red pepper flakes. [1] [2] The sauce then sits, refrigerated, for at least 48 hours for the flavors to meld and grow bolder. [1] Some restaurants, including the large Plaza Azteca chain, make the recipe somewhat differently, with onions, garlic, and crushed peppers, and both La Costeña jalapeños and their juice; this version is also served fresh. [1] Many restaurants are protective of their customized recipe for the condiment. [3]
Despite its resemblance to queso, the sauce does not contain cheese. [4] It bears similarities to ranch dressing, with a more intense flavor, [1] [5] described as "cool and hot at the same time." [6]
The dipping sauce, known simply as "white sauce," "salsa blanca," or "white salsa," is popular in southeastern Virginia, around the Hampton Roads area, where it is ubiquitous at local Mexican restaurants. [1] [5] [2] [7] While largely unknown outside of this region, it can occasionally be found at restaurants in other states, particularly in northern North Carolina, and among families in Jalisco, Mexico, who have relatives in Hampton Roads. [1] [5] It is usually offered as a complimentary dipping sauce alongside tortilla chips and the more common red salsa. [1] [5]
The sauce was popularized by a restaurant in Norfolk, Virginia, known as El Toro, which began serving the condiment in the 1970s—first as a salad dressing, and eventually as a dip. [1] [5] [2] [7] Its true origins are somewhat disputed, and some say El Toro's sauce was likely adapted from a version served at a local chain run by Mexican American restaurateur John Villareal a decade earlier. [4] [7] [8] While none of El Toro's employees at the time white sauce grew in popularity were from Mexico, when Mexican American entrepreneurs began opening their own restaurants in the area in the mid-1990s, customers requested the "white salsa," so they began serving it, too. [1] [2] [7]
A possibly related dipping sauce, made with sour cream rather than Miracle Whip, has been found in Richmond-area Mexican restaurants as well. [8]
Tomato sauce can refer to many different sauces made primarily from tomatoes, usually to be served as part of a dish, rather than as a condiment. Tomato sauces are common for meat and vegetables, but they are perhaps best known as bases for sauces for Mexican salsas and Italian pasta dishes. Tomatoes have a rich flavor, high water content, soft flesh which breaks down easily, and the right composition to thicken into a sauce when stewed, without the need for thickeners such as roux or masa. All of these qualities make them ideal for simple and appealing sauces.
In cooking, a sauce is a liquid, cream, or semi-solid food, served on or used in preparing other foods. Most sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavor, texture, and visual appeal to a dish. Sauce is a French word probably from the post-classical Latin salsa, derived from the classical salsus 'salted'. Possibly the oldest recorded European sauce is garum, the fish sauce used by the Ancient Romans, while doubanjiang, the Chinese soy bean paste is mentioned in Rites of Zhou 20.
Fry sauce is a condiment often served with French fries or tostones in many places in the world. It is usually a combination of one part tomato ketchup and two parts mayonnaise.
Ranch dressing is a savory, creamy American salad dressing usually made from buttermilk, salt, garlic, onion, mustard, herbs, and spices mixed into a sauce based on mayonnaise or another oil emulsion. Sour cream and yogurt are sometimes used in addition to, or as a substitute for, buttermilk and mayonnaise.
Salsa encompasses a variety of sauces used as condiments for tacos and other Mexican and Mexican-American foods, and as dips for tortilla chips. They may be raw or cooked, and are generally served at room temperature.
Green sauce or greensauce is a family of cold, uncooked sauces based on chopped herbs, including the Spanish and Italian salsa verde, the French sauce verte, the German grüne Soße or Frankfurter grie Soß, the British mint sauce and greensauce, and the Argentinian chimichurri.
Mojo is the name, or abbreviated name, of several types of sauces, varying in spiciness, consisting primarily of olive oil, local pepper varieties, garlic, paprika, cumin or coriander, and other spices. Mojo originated in the Canary Islands, where the main varieties are green mojo, red mojo, and spicy red mojo. Other countries have recipes similar to mojo, where acidic ingredients such as vinegar, lemon, orange, or lime juice may be used.
Rémoulade is a cold sauce. Although similar to tartar sauce, it is often more yellowish, sometimes flavored with curry, and often contains chopped pickles or piccalilli. It can also contain horseradish, paprika, anchovies, capers and a host of other items.
Hot sauce is a type of condiment, seasoning, or salsa made from chili peppers and other ingredients. Many commercial varieties of mass-produced hot sauce exist.
Chimichurri is an uncooked sauce used as an ingredient in cooking and as a table condiment for grilled meat. Found originally in Argentina and used in Argentinian, Uruguayan, Paraguayan and Brazilian cuisines, it has become widely adopted in most of Latin America. The sauce comes in green and red varieties. It is made of finely chopped flat leaf parsley, red fresno chili peppers, minced garlic, olive oil, oregano and vinegar or lemon juice. It is similar to Moroccan chermoula.
A dip or dip sauce is a common condiment for many types of food. Dips are used to add flavor or texture to a food, such as pita bread, dumplings, crackers, chopped raw vegetables, fruits, seafood, cubed pieces of meat and cheese, potato chips, tortilla chips, falafel, and sometimes even whole sandwiches in the case of jus. Unlike other sauces, instead of applying the sauce to the food, the food is typically placed or dipped into the sauce.
New Mexican cuisine is the cuisine of the Southwestern US state of New Mexico. The region is primarily known for its fusion of Pueblo Native American cuisine with Hispano Spanish and Mexican cuisine originating in Nuevo México. This Southwestern culinary style is popular beyond the current boundaries of New Mexico, and is found throughout the old territories of Nuevo México and the New Mexico Territory, today the state of Arizona, parts of Texas, and the southern portions of Colorado, Utah, and Nevada.
Ají is a spicy sauce that contains ají peppers, oil, tomatoes, cilantro (coriander), garlic, onions, and water. It is served as a condiment to complement main dishes, most oftentimes in Latin American cuisines, and prepared by blending its ingredients using a food processor or blender. Although ají sauce recipes can vary from person to person, there are generally country-specific and region-specific varieties.
Chili sauce and chili paste are condiments prepared with chili peppers.
Sahawiqzhoug or zhug, is a hot sauce originating in Yemeni cuisine. In other countries of the Arabian Peninsula it is also called mabooj.
Salça ("salcha") is a category of thick, deep red paste made from peppers or tomato and salt, originating in Turkey.
Pace Foods is a producer of a variety of canned salsas located in Paris, Texas. The company was founded in 1947 by David Pace when he developed a recipe for a salsa he called "Picante sauce", which was "made with the freshest ingredients, harvested and hand-selected in peak season to achieve the best flavor and quality". It is now sold as "the Original Picante Sauce".
Chili oil is a condiment made from vegetable oil that has been infused with chili peppers. Different types of oil and hot peppers are used, and other components may also be included. It is commonly used in Chinese cuisine, Southeast Asian cuisine, Italy, and elsewhere. It is particularly popular in Chinese cuisine, especially western Chinese cuisines such as Sichuan cuisine, Hunan cuisine, Guizhou cuisine, and Shaanxi cuisine where it is used as an ingredient in cooked dishes as well as a condiment. It is sometimes used as a dip for meat and dim sum. It is also employed in the Korean Chinese noodle soup dish jjamppong. A closely related condiment in Chinese cuisine is chili crisp, which contains edible chunks of food and chilis in oil.