Gordon Ramsay’s burger sauce is tangy, smoky and creamy, made with homemade mayonnaise, pickled cucumber relish, American mustard, white wine vinegar and smoked paprika, ready in 5 minutes. It goes on cold and the flavours sharpen overnight in the fridge.
In Quick and Delicious, Ramsay writes that “for Americans, burger sauce is almost as important as the burgers themselves” and says you can make “this excellent version at home by simply mixing together a handful of ingredients.” His version has eight ingredients where most homemade burger sauces stop at three or four.
The white wine vinegar is the ingredient most people wouldn’t think to add. Without it, the sauce tastes like flavoured mayo. With it, you get a sharpness that cuts straight through beef fat and melted cheese, which is exactly what a burger sauce is supposed to do.
Gordon Ramsay Burger Sauce Recipe
Course: SaucesCuisine: British, AmericanDifficulty: Easy4
servings5
minutes180
kcal5
minutesGordon Ramsay’s burger sauce from Quick and Delicious, served with his bacon cheeseburgers. Eight ingredients mixed in a bowl, no cooking, and it keeps in the fridge for days.
Ingredients
150g mayonnaise
2 tsp French’s mild American mustard
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
4 tbsp pickled cucumber relish
3 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
½ tsp sweet smoked paprika
Directions
- Mix the base: Put the mayonnaise, American mustard and ketchup into a bowl and stir until smooth.
- Add the relish and vinegar: Stir in the pickled cucumber relish and white wine vinegar. The vinegar will loosen the mixture slightly, which is what you want.
- Season with the spices: Sprinkle in the onion powder, garlic powder and smoked paprika. Mix everything together until the colour is even and the paprika is fully blended through.
- Rest in the fridge: Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes so the flavours come together. Overnight is even better.
- Spread on both buns: Ramsay spreads it on the top and bottom bun before assembling the burger, so every bite has sauce in it.
FAQs
Why does Ramsay add white wine vinegar to his burger sauce?
Most burger sauces are just mayo, mustard and pickles. Ramsay adds 3 teaspoons of white wine vinegar on top of the relish, which already has its own acidity. That extra vinegar is what lifts the sauce from tasting like flavoured mayo into something with real sharpness.
I left it out once to see what happened and the sauce tasted flat and heavy. The vinegar is doing more work than any other single ingredient in the bowl.
Why does Ramsay use American mustard instead of Dijon?
In Quick and Delicious he specifically calls for “French’s mild American mustard,” not Dijon. American mustard is milder, tangier and slightly sweet. Dijon is sharper and more peppery, which would fight the pickled cucumber relish instead of sitting alongside it.
This is a deliberate choice. He uses Dijon in plenty of other recipes across his books, but for burger sauce he wants the gentler American version. It blends into the mayo rather than punching through it.
Does Ramsay use a different sauce for every burger?
Yes, and this surprised me when I went through all his cookbooks. His bacon cheeseburger in Quick and Delicious gets this pickled cucumber sauce. His lentil burgers in the same book get a chipotle mayo with American mustard. The BSK burger in Bread Street Kitchen gets a Char Siu butter made with hoisin and black bean paste.
Every burger has its own condiment matched to the protein. He doesn’t just default to ketchup or one all-purpose sauce, which tells you how much thought goes into each recipe.
Does this burger sauce keep well?
Really well. This is one of the few sauces you can genuinely make ahead. It keeps in a sealed jar in the fridge for 3-5 days, and the flavours actually improve overnight as the vinegar and spices settle into the mayo.
Make a batch on Sunday and you’ve got burger sauce for the week. It works on his smash burgers as well as the bacon cheeseburger he designed it for, or try it as a dip for his crispy french fries.
What is the difference between this and shop-bought burger sauce?
Shop-bought burger sauce leans on sugar and stabilisers for shelf life. Ramsay’s version has smoked paprika for smokiness, onion and garlic powder for savoury depth, and real white wine vinegar for sharpness. None of those appear on a Heinz or McDonald’s ingredient list.
The pickled cucumber relish also gives it a chunkier texture than the smooth squeeze-bottle sauces. It tastes homemade because it is, and the burger seasoning he uses on the patties is designed to work with this specific sauce profile.
