# Dipping sauce

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.
Dips are commonly used for finger foods, appetisers, and other food types. Thick dips based on sour cream, crème fraîche, milk, yogurt, mayonnaise, soft cheese, or beans are a staple of American hors d'oeuvres and are thicker than spreads, which can be thinned to make dips. Celebrity chef Alton Brown suggests that a dip is defined based on its ability to "maintain contact with its transport mechanism over three feet [1 m] of white carpet".
Dips in various forms are eaten all over the world and people have been using sauces for dipping for thousands of years.

## List of dips

A non-exhaustive list of common dips include:
* Ajika, a spicy, subtly flavoured dip in Caucasian cuisine, based on hot red pepper, garlic, herbs and spices
* Ajvar, made from red bell peppers with garlic, found in Macedonian cuisine, Bosnian cuisine and Serbian cuisine
* Artichoke dip
* Au jus, a salty beef broth or gravy, especially used for dipping french dip sandwiches
* Baba ghanoush, a dip made from eggplant, popular in the Eastern Mediterranean and parts of South Asia
* Bagna càuda, a regional dish of the Italian Piedmont
* Banana ketchup, a Filipino condiment made from bananas; used similar to tomato ketchup
* Barbecue sauce, often used for grilled and fried meats in the United States
* Bean dip, dip made from refried beans
* Blue cheese dressing, commonly used as a dip for raw vegetables or buffalo wings
* Buffalo sauce, often used as both a coating for Buffalo wings as well as a standalone dipping sauce for other foods
* Brine, saltwater used as a dip for food, similar to vinegar or soy sauce
* Cheese sauce
* Chile con queso, used in Tex-Mex cuisine with tortilla chips
* Chili oil, used as a dipping sauce for meat and dim sum
* Chimichurri, a dip from Argentina made of parsley, garlic, and oregano
* Chocolate, a dip for various fruits, doughnuts, profiteroles and marshmallows
* Chogochujang, a variant of gochujang. A dip for seafood including hoe, oyster, and wakame, or for raw vegetables.
* Chutney, used with snacks like deep fried samosas and pakoras, dosa and idli
* Clam dip, a kind of condiment for dipping crackers and chips
* Cocktail sauce, a dip for seafood made from ketchup or chili sauce and horseradish
* Comeback sauce, a dip for chicken fingers made from mayonnaise and chili sauce
* Crab dip, a thick dip popular in Maryland usually made from cream cheese and lump crab meat
* Curry ketchup, also called Currygewürzketchup in Germany, is a spicier form of ketchup
* Duck sauce, a modern variation of plum sauce
* Fish sauce (garum), or nam pla, used in southeastern Asian cuisines as a dip for snacks and other foods
* Fish paste or bagoong, fermented fish paste, used in southeastern Asian cuisines as a dip for rice dishes
* Fondue, a blend of melted cheese and wine in which bread is dipped
* French onion dip
* Fritessaus, a leaner form of mayonnaise from The Netherlands
* Fry sauce, a dip eaten with french fries, onion rings, chicken strips, and other deep fried foods
* Garlic butter sauce, used for dipping seafood, chicken, beef and pizza; plain clarified butter or drawn butter are more common with lobster, crab or clams
* Gravy, used as a dipping sauce for bread, such as in Maghreb cuisine
* Guacamole, avocadoes mashed with lime juice, onions, tomatoes, and herbs; commonly eaten with tortilla chips
* Haroseth,Jewish dipping sauce based on local Israelite ground fruits and spices
* Hazelnut butter or hazelnut spread is commonly used as a dip for crackers and cookies
* Hilbeh, Yemenite condiment made from ground fenugreek seeds
* Hollandaise
* Honey, a common dip for chicken and biscuits
* Honey mustard
* Horseradish sauce, often with horseradish mixed with sour cream and/or mayonnaise
* Hot sauce or chili sauce, a spicy dip made from peppers
* Hummus, a Levantine dip of ground chickpeas and sesame tahini with spices and lemon juice
* Jus, a meat broth often served with sandwiches such as French dip and Italian beef
* Ketchup (also called catsup or tomato sauce), often used with french fries, onion rings, and a wide variety of other foods
* Kiwi onion dip, a New Zealand snack food served with potato chips, crackers, or chopped vegetables
* Marinara sauce, a tomato sauce served with breadsticks, pizza, etc.
* Mayonnaise, the basis for many dips, on its own a dip for cold chicken; vegetables; french fries; and seafood
* Mexicali dip, sour cream-based with Mexican cuisine-inspired spices
* Mint sauce, a sauce made with ground mint leaves and vinegar or yogurt
* Mắm nêm, a sauce made of fermented fish
* Mkhali (colloquially pkhali), Georgian vegetable purées thickened with walnut paste and often rolled into balls
* Muhammara, a Near Eastern hot pepper and walnut dip
* Mustard, ground seeds of the mustard plant; variants are used in Asian cuisine
* Nacho cheese dip, for dipping tortilla chips
* Nam chim, Thai dipping sauces which most often contain chili peppers
* Nam phrik, Thai chili pastes which are also used as dips for vegetables and fried fish
* Nước chấm (Vietnamese), mixes of chili peppers and fish sauce
* Olive Oil
* Polynesian Sauce, A sweet and sour sauce with a strong, tangy flavor, created by Chick-Fil-A
* Prik Nam Pla (Thai), mixes of chili peppers and fish sauce
* Pebre, a Chilean mix of tomato, onion, chile, and coriander
* Pico De Gallo
* Pimento cheese
* Prahok ktis, a sauce made with prahok, minced pork, kroeung, and coconut cream eaten with fresh vegetables
* Plum sauce, used for dipping fried noodles, dumplings, and other foods
* Ranch dressing, buttermilk flavored salad dressing popular in the United States
* Remoulade, often used with fried foods such as fish, or chips (french fries or fries)
* Romesco, used as a dip or as a condiment for other dishes
* Salsa, used often with tortilla chips
* Sambal, for fish, chicken, etc.
* Satsivi, a walnut dip in Georgian cuisine
* Seven-layer dip, a dip containing ingredients common to Tex-Mex cuisine
* Smetana, a common dip for bliny, pelmeni, vareniki
* Sour cream, on its own or combined with mayonnaise and/or other ingredients, a common dip for potato chips
* Soy sauce, often served in small saucers for dipping a variety of East Asian foods; for sushi and sashimi, prepared wasabi is mixed in
* Spinach dip, for tortilla chips and vegetables
* Sriracha sauce
* Sweet and sour sauce, a generic term for many styles of sauce
* Tahina, a Middle-Eastern condiment made from toasted ground sesame
* Taramosalata, a Near Eastern dip of carp or codfish roe
* Tartar sauce, commonly used with seafood
* Tentsuyu, a Japanese dipping sauce
* Tirokafteri, a feta-based Greek meze
* Tkemali, a cherry plum sauce in Georgian cuisine
* Toyomansi, a Filipino meat or fish dip made with soy sauce and calamansi juice; chilis may also be added to create "silimansi"
* Tzatziki and similar sauces used for dipping include tarator and Raita
* Tương, a dipping sauce made from fermented soybeans in Vietnamese cuisine
* Vinegar, used as a dip for grilled meats, and steamed crabs; Balsamic vinegar is also commonly used as a dipping sauce for bread
* Vin Santo, into which cantucci (biscotti) are dipped
* White sauce, served with tortilla chips at Mexican restaurants in parts of Virginia