nostalgia

8 sauces we'd give anything to dip everything in from fast food chains we miss

Nostalgia for old fast food chains has added new meaning to what makes a special sauce.

Oct 5, 2017, 3:22PM By MeTV Staff

They say time heals all wounds, but nobody ever says anything about our tastebuds, which never seem to get over the most craveable foods from our youths. It's why we often miss the bygone junk food that used to clog our arteries but now just gums up our memories.

The Szechuan sauce was introduced in 1998 as part of a McDonald's promotion for the movie Mulan, and they stopped serving it shortly after. The hysteria over this particular sauce seemed a little strange, until we started thinking about the most memorable sauces from old fast food chains that we rarely see anymore but still find ourselves craving. That was all we needed for us to realize that, OK Szechuan Sauce obsessives, we get it. Because if these sauces listed below ever came back at a restaurant near us, we'd swarm to satiate our own cravings in an instant.

1. Naugles Hot Sauce

Naugles started when an employee broke away from Del Taco to create his own fast food chain, only to have Del Taco buy him out - but not before folks got hooked on Naugles hot sauce. That's why when the Naugles chain was revived in 2015, the founder's nephew Jeff Naugle, who holds the original recipe, went to check out whether their hot sauce passed his test. It was close, but not quite there. The only place to score the actual stuff is at the younger Naugle's restaurant in Visalia, California, B T's Buns & Torts.

Image: delish

2. Hamburger Hamlet's Secret Apricot Sauce

Hamburger Hamlet served zucchini zircles with a secret apricot sauce that folks have been trying to copy since the restaurant chain started out in 1950. Now only one location remains in Sherman Oaks, California. If that's not convenient for your cravings, the cooks of the internet seem to agree it's a magical combination of pineapple juice, apricot preserves, soy sauce and mustard.

Image: LA Weekly

3. Burger Chef Special Sauce

What exactly went in Burger Chef's special sauce remains one of fast food's best kept secrets, but it was tangy like a tartar and some suspect a tinge of ketchup. Whatever it is, we want more, and since the chain was sold to Hardee's Big Twin sauce ain't cutting it.

Image: Burger Chef Memories

4. Henry's Hamburger Special Sauce

Ever since Henry's Hamburgers went from 200 locations to only one (Benton Harbor, Michigan), we've missed stopping off for some of their special sauce. Thrillist says it's made of ketchup, mustard, pickle relish juice and pickles, but we must strongly insist it's made of heaven.

Image: Ames Historical Society

5. Red Barn Barnbuster Sauce

At the Red Barn, when you ordered the Barnbuster burger, it came with this sauce that some liken to a Thousand Island dressing and others feel is closer to a mix of Miracle Whip, ketchup, mustard and sweet relish. We wish we could do a taste test to figure it out, but instead we're left feeling saucy that the chain is entirely gone now.

Image: Pinterest

6. Sandy's Big Scott Sauce

Sandy's was a Scottish-themed fast food restaurant that opened in 1956, but eventually merged with Hardee's in the 1970s, dying out entirely by the 1980s. That's the last time we all tasted the Big Scot burger, with its memorable sweet sauce that some say you can recreate with a little mustard, mayonnaise, onion, relish, sugar, and a whole lot of love for bygone burger chains - to get the mix just right.

Image: Come As You Are... Hungry!

7. Wimpy's Sauce

You have to leave the U.S. if you're craving Wimpy's sauce on your burger, since the chain that started here in the 1930s but stopped operating here in the 1970s. If you remember, it had a kick to it, and that's because it's apparently some divine combination of worcestorshire sauce, chili peppers, and mustard. Looks like we'll need to take a quick jaunt overseas to try to jog our memories. Wimpy still operates in the UK and South Africa.

Image: wimpy.uk.com

8. Big Boy Sauce

A mix of mayo, lemon, horseradish, dill pickle, hot sauce, onions and ketchup make up the sauce that the Big Boy chain is famous for. Although there are still some Big Boys operating in the U.S., fans of the chain from its heyday in the late 1960s and 1970s may not feel the sauce they now sell in their online store tastes quite the same. We say it's worth a shot, if your craving is that severe!

Image: BigBoy.com