#336 Getting the perfect ketchup to fries ratio

Neil Pasricha

Squeeze too much and you’re stuck with a syrupy red pool smeared across the side of your plate. Squeeze too little and you’ve got a cold and tasteless pile of potato blandness. Squeeze just right and you’re

AWESOME!

Photo from: here

51 thoughts to “#336 Getting the perfect ketchup to fries ratio”

  1. I’ve always loved ketchup, but my wife has gradually seduced me into a world of french fry blasphemy. Whenever we get a milkshake with our food, she loves to dip the fries in it. The thicker the better, and it’s really good. Lately I barely manage to get through a single ketchup packet before I start dipping along with her.

    1. Oh my gosh! Yes! My sister and I were trying to explain this to my dad at Christmas, and he thought we were so bizarre. Wendy’s fries dipped in a Frosty are delicious!

    2. I like fries dipped in the caramel or hot fudge topping on McDonald’s sundaes. Heavenly!

      1. I haven’t tried this, but it sounds AWESOME.. I’m all about mixing sweets and savories.. (like when my bacon “accidentally” mixes with the syrup on my plate from waffles/pancakes).. So I think I’m going to be a fan here..

        I think I’ve just decided on my lunch plans..

        mmmmmm…

        1. I had chocolate-covered bacon yesterday for the first time! It wasn’t quite as awesome as I expected, but worth the experience.

          1. One of my friends got some chocolate covered bacon for her boyfriend’s stocking at Christmas … apparently he loved it. Sounds strange, but then again — some people think that fries + Frosties sounds weird!

  2. Ha. “Ketchup” and “fries”.
    We here in Australia call it Tomato Sauce and Chips. Makes sense, no? (:
    But yes, the perfect sauce:chip ratio is unbelievably awesome.
    (Thickshake dippin’ is also fantastic, I agree Jose!)

      1. Galileo – I got this from Wiki.. A. Nonny Muss – any chance you can confirm? Is it just “pasta sauce”?

        In Australian English as in British English, tomato sauce (often known simply as “sauce”) is the name given to a product similar to what Americans call ketchup. However, American-style ketchup, with its slightly spicier and sweeter taste, is still sold in many grocery stores and is common in fast food outlets such as McDonald’s. Other sauces made from tomatoes are generally referred to by names related to their uses, such as barbecue and pasta sauce.

        1. Yes, your tomato sauce would most likely be “spaghetti sauce” or “pasta sauce”.

          And your “chips” (like BBQ, salt ‘n’ vinegar, chicken flavoured, etc) are called “crisps” or “potato chips”… hence we tend to call both these type of chips AND french fries… “chips”.

          Hmm… perhaps slightly confusing. But don’t you love learning the little differences between countries? (:

          Like the whole “driving on the right-hand side of the road” thing you Americans do. Crazy stuff! ;)

  3. One of my friends is a total ketchup connoisseur … she’ll make sure to throw her two cents in about your ketchup consumption if she thinks you’re making a ratio mistake. She’s usually pretty spot-on, too. At first it’s a little off-putting (“Ummm, ‘scuse you, I can figure out my own ketchup!”), but she’s always right.

  4. To me, there is never enough ketchup for my liking. I eat ketchup like its really thick water, so I need lots of it. But as I’ve grown older, I’ve been able to conserve my ketchup supplies to the point where I can realistically achieve this awesome thing. It’s quite delicious.

  5. Your book is so “Awesome.” Ha… My wife just bought it for me for christmas. We have started a blog which was inspired, in a way, by this. Come visit it. It is called “Bystanding 1000 befuddlements.” It is 1000 interesting quirks and oddity’s that we find or have seen throughout our lives. Some are really funny to ponder.

    Come visit our blog too.

  6. French fries are actually Belgian. And you cannot find better anywhere else in the world. Most Belgians eat them with mayonnaise, although you can really pick any sauce you like when you buy them at the ‘frietkot’ shop. But fries with milkshake??? Yuk… ;-)

    1. Mmmm, you got me craving for the real Belgian fries with lots of mayonaise, or tartar, yummy!!!. Think I’ll go and see if they’re open tonight. But the fries and milkshake, don’t think I’d like that either!

    2. I’m a fry and mayo junkie! Of course, more calories in mayo than ketchup, but you gotta pick your battles. I accept the extra 500 calories for the reward.

      1. Me too!! Although honestly, I usually make a ketchup pile and a mayo pile right next to each other, and then mix the middle. Red pink and white! Three dipping sauces that are all delicious!

        My mom still thinks I’m crazy…

  7. French fries and ketchup is awesome but i love to eat the big steak fries with A1 and ranch!! or this yummy stuff called fry sauce from a little local place called Zips. Its amazing and E. you should try the french fry in the milkshake, its really yummy, best way to eat wendy’s fries!!

  8. I’m usually not a ketchup on fries kind of gal, but every now and then I get the urge to squeeze some on there. I don’t like to put the ketchup all over the fries, I make a pool of ketchup and dip my fries. If I have a lot of ketchup toward the end of my fry adventure, my last few fries will have the more than usual ketchup heap on it, but its still great.
    When I was pregnant the first time, I craved ketchup and it went on everything…big heaping piles of it.

    2. Bekah, I had a huge ketchup thing with my pregnancy, too! Although I chose to dip grilled cheese sandwiches in it. Yum… Oh! and for breakfast I would eat a fried egg on rye toast with….drumroll please….ketchup!

  12. I consider french fries a vehicle for condiments, whatever they may be. And I agree with Bekah that dipping is the way to go. I need to have control over every fry.

    1. When I have fry control issues, or you know I’m just eating on the go. I tear a small whole in the ketchup package and just apply it to one fry at a time! Great when you’re eating while walking cause you don’t have to worry about getting ketchup all over everything :)

      1. Yes! When I’m driving, I tear a hole in the ketchup packet and dip the fries in there one at a time. The hand holding the ketchup always stays on the wheel, so I don’t have to wait until I get to where I’m going to start tearing into those fries!

  13. Loving your blog.

    Finding the perfect ketchup full stop.

    As kids, my dad being a British soldier, we lived several times in Germany. Their ketchup – gewurtz – is just great.

    I now live in Australia and I was sooooo excited just two weeks ago to find that my local greengrocer stocks German ketchup – curry gewurtz. Heaven. I am now trying to turn my children on to it.

    1. I totally agree, Jennifer! I’ve never been a fan of ketchup, so I’ve always gone for ranch dressing.

      Really good fries don’t need anything except a smidge of salt, though. :)

  15. Your book is so “Awesome.” Ha… My wife just bought it for me for christmas. We have started a blog which was inspired, in a way, by this. Come visit it. It is called “Bystanding 1000 befuddlements.” It is 1000 interesting quirks and oddity’s that we find or have seen throughout our lives. Some are really funny to ponder.

    Come visit our blog too.

  17. You are so right! I either have too much ketchup or not enough!

    (By the way I love your book.)

  18. You are so right! Although, I never seem to be able to get it right. It’s either too much or not enough.

    (Buy the way, I love your book, I got it for Christmas.)

  20. Given that the reason you have tomato sauce/ketchup with chips/fries, is to provide the sharp taste of vinegar, has no-one in America thought of just putting vinegar on them, as we do in the UK? You just sprinkle it on, before the salt of course so that you don’t ‘wash’ the salt off. Much better!

  21. after watching your TED shebang, i love you but it seems like you eat way to much unhealthy food, so sorry for being a pest but you must worry about the 1000 things that can actually harm you……….

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  30. In Holland we all eat the same tomato ketchup: Heinz tomaten ketchup and almost EVERYBODY eats Heinz with their French fries! :D soooooo delicious! You should try ketchup and mayonnaise mixed, tastes also very good!

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