Mississippi's Come-Back Sauce

One thing about Mississippi...It's a drivers state. You're always gonna see trees and water wherever you drive. I believe the historians when they say that a squirrel used to go across the whole state and never hit ground because of the trees here. Mississippi loves trees so much, we have the largest collection of tree farms in the USA. Life of all kinds is abundant here. Before refrigeration,and even after, for those who couldn't afford it, hunting and catching wild meats and fish was a normal thing. That's goes as far back to wars and slavery times when people needed more protein than they were allocated so they could do all that physical labor from sun up to sundown required by the leaders of their time.

I used to love playing near the creeks. That's where I got my first biology lessons. The ponds were my first swimming pools. The white sands on the creeks were my first beaches.

Walking in the woods you always were aware that you were being watched by something. I always wished I could do that. Watch things and never be seen. That was the closest I would come to being invisible. I enjoyed drinking water from and underground spring. That's when I realized that real water is suppose to have a taste and be so cold that it made it's own ice. I remember how my grandmother would take that water and take fresh lemons and slice them and put them in a bowl and add some sugar and then take a potato masher and mash then until all the juices were let out add some more sugar and then that cold spring water. Ain't nobody had lemonade like that since.

That's why after traveling all over the USA, I always end up coming back to Mississippi. If you've ever really experienced it's charm and graciousness amongst all the negative rumors you too would come back. There was someone in the 1930's who knew about coming back and they made a sauce with just that name. It used to be in all the eateries just like ketchup is today, but now there are only a few classic establishments that know of this sauce and still use it today. Let me share the recipe with you. It can be used as a dipping sauce or a salad dressing. Just leave it on the table and see how long it lasts.

Mississippi's Best Come-Back Sauce or Dressing

2 large garlic cloves (peeled)

1 large sweet onion (cut into quarters)

1 cup Hellman's or Blue Plate mayonnaise

1/2 cup chili sauce

1/2 cup ketchup

1/2 cup French's or Dijon mustard

1/8 teaspoon chipotle Tabasco sauce

1/2 cup peanut or canola oil

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon each white wine vinegar and fresh squeezed lemon juice with zest

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 Dash of Smoky Gourmet Finishing Salt

1/8 teaspoon of smoked paprika

2 tablespoons cold spring or icy cold bottled water

Put the garlic and onion in a blender and puree.

Add all the other ingredients and blend until well mixed.

Refrigerate overnight so all the ingredients can marry into each other. You can recycle a used plastic ketchup bottle or some other plastic squeeze bottle.

Can be used on chicken, fish, sandwiches, salads, french fries or however your taste buds prefer.

Old School Restaurants to eat at while in Jackson, Mississippi (J-Town):

1. Big Apple Inn - 509 North Farish Street

2. Bully's Soul Food - 3118 Livingston Road

3. Crechale's - 3107 Highway 80 West

4. Mayflower Cafe - 123 West Capitol Street

Get Great Southern Cookbooks Here