Ask ten burger bars what is in their burger sauce and you will get ten slightly different answers, and at least three of them will tell you it is a secret. Strip away the mystery and most burger sauces are built from the same handful of ingredients, balanced in different ways.
That matters for a takeaway. Your burger sauce is often the one thing customers remember, and it goes on almost everything: burgers, wraps, fries, even chicken. Getting it right, and getting it consistent every service, is worth more than any fancy topping.
This guide explains what burger sauce actually is, the main styles you will come across, how to make a basic one, and which ready-made burger sauces UK takeaways tend to stock. Everything named is available from BurgerPro’s sauces range, in single tubs for home cooks and in bulk for kitchens.
Burger sauce is a creamy, tangy, slightly sweet sauce designed to sit between a burger patty and the bun. Its job is to add moisture, cut through the richness of the beef and cheese, and tie the toppings together.
In the UK, “burger sauce” usually means the pale pink or creamy style you find in fast food: a mayonnaise base, sweetened and sharpened with tomato, mustard and chopped pickles. But the name covers a wider family than that, from tomato-led sauces to mustard sauces and onion sauces.
What they all have in common is balance. A good burger sauce is creamy enough to coat, sharp enough to lift the meat, and sweet enough to make people go back for another bite.
Most burger sauces are built from five groups of ingredients:
Some versions add white wine vinegar for extra sharpness or a dash of Worcestershire sauce for depth.
Change the ratio and you change the sauce. More mustard gives you a sharper, yellower sauce. More ketchup makes it pinker and sweeter. More pickle makes it tangier and gives it texture.
When you are choosing a house sauce, it helps to think in styles rather than brand names.
The fast-food style. Creamy, sweet, tangy, with chopped pickles and onion. This is the “special sauce” most customers expect when they see “burger sauce” on a menu, and it is the safest choice for a house sauce.
Nawhal’s Biggy Burger is the obvious example: pearly in colour, creamy, and packed with pickles and small onions. Colona Big Burger is Colona’s take, a creamy, slightly sweet, pale sauce with gherkins. Both sit in the same family as the Big Mac-style “secret sauce” that so many burger chains build their menus around.
Less mayonnaise, more tomato. These sauces are lighter and sweeter, closer to a ketchup with extra character. Colona Hamburger is a slightly sweet tomato sauce with capers and gherkins, and Colona Bourgyburger sits in the same family. Nawhal’s American sauce is a tomato sauce with carrots, parsley, onion and herbs.
For customers who like a sharper bite. Colona Tastyburger is a creamy mustard emulsion with a subtle smoky taste, and Nawhal’s Old School is a smooth mustard sauce from the brand’s “Inside Burger” range. A dash of Dijon mustard in a classic pink sauce pushes it in the same direction. Both are excellent on beef with cheese and pickles.
Nawhal’s Magic Onion is creamy and soft, with small onions and a smoky taste. It works brilliantly on a smash burger with caramelised onions, and our Magic Onion sauce post has more on it.
Not strictly burger sauces, but in practice the Belgian snack sauces are now on half the burger menus in Britain. Algerian sauce is sweet, tangy and gently spicy. Samurai is hotter and more peppery. If you make your own spicy version, a little hot sauce or chipotle powder adds heat and smoky depth. Offering one of these as a “spicy burger sauce” swap is an easy way to widen the menu without adding stock.
If you want to make your own, here is a basic homemade burger sauce recipe that works as a starting point. All the ingredients are kitchen staples and it takes a few minutes to mix. It makes a small batch for testing; scale it up once you are happy with the balance.
Add everything to a small bowl, mix until smooth, taste, and adjust. Too sweet, add more mustard or pickle vinegar. Too sharp, add a little more mayonnaise. For extra depth, add a dash of Worcestershire sauce. Chill for an hour before using so the flavours settle, and keep it covered in the fridge.
Making it in-house gives you control, but it also gives you a prep job, a labelling job and a consistency problem. Every batch tastes slightly different depending on who made it. Our post on creating a signature burger sauce covers how to build a house twist on a ready-made base, which is what most busy kitchens end up doing. For a copycat of the famous fast-food special sauce, see our Big Mac-style burger sauce guide.
For most takeaways, a ready-made burger sauce is the sensible default.
Consistency. Every tub tastes the same. The burger a customer has on Friday matches the one they had last month.
No prep. No mixing, no batching, no chopping gherkins at 4pm. Open the tub and squeeze.
Food safety. Commercially made sauces come with labelling, allergen information and storage guidance on the pack. Homemade mayonnaise-based sauces need careful handling and short use-by times.
Formats that fit your service. Ready-made sauces come in sizes that suit how you serve: 350ml, 500ml and 950ml Nawhal’s tubs for the counter, 5L biboxes and 10L buckets for refills, and 10ml sticks for delivery. The Biggy Burger range covers every one of those. Our guide to sauce sachets, dipping pots, biboxes and buckets explains which suits which.
If you want something distinctive, the trick is to build on a ready-made base. Add chopped jalapeños, a spoon of Harissa, or crispy onions to Biggy Burger and you have a house sauce that is still consistent every time.
A rough guide for building a menu:
Burger sauce is also one of the best dips for fries, so it pays to put a pot in every meal box.
For a deeper dive on matching, the burger sauce pairings guide goes patty by patty, and our top 10 burger sauces list covers more options.
There is no fixed rule, but a rough guide many kitchens use is around 15 to 20ml per burger, which is a decent stripe on the bottom bun. A 950ml tub at that rate covers somewhere in the region of 45 to 60 burgers, depending on how generous your team is. That is exactly why squeeze tubs beat spoons: the nozzle keeps portions steady and stops the sauce cost creeping up.
It depends on the brand. Nawhal’s states that its sauces are certified vegetarian and halal compatible, and Colona holds halal certification for its range. Always check the specific product and pack. Our halal burger sauce essentials post covers what to look for.
A creamy, tangy, slightly sweet sauce made to go on burgers. Most versions are based on mayonnaise with ketchup, mustard and chopped pickles.
Typically mayonnaise, ketchup or tomato, mustard, chopped gherkins or relish, and seasonings such as onion, garlic and paprika. Some recipes add white wine vinegar or Worcestershire sauce.
They are close relatives. Both use a mayonnaise and tomato base with pickles, but burger sauce usually has more mustard and tang, while thousand island tends to be sweeter and looser.
A classic pink sauce such as Nawhal’s Biggy Burger or Colona Big Burger is the safest house sauce. Add a spicy option like Algerian or Samurai as a swap.
Follow the storage guidance on the pack. Keep opened tubs refrigerated and use within the period stated by the manufacturer.
Yes. Biggy Burger comes in 350ml, 500ml and 950ml tubs, 5L biboxes, 10L buckets and 10ml sticks. Colona Big Burger comes in 500ml and 850ml tubs, 2 x 4L biboxes, 10L buckets and 10ml sticks.
Classic burger sauce is not spicy. Spicy burger sauces usually add chilli or harissa, as with Algerian and Samurai sauces.
Every burger sauce in this guide ships from BurgerPro’s Birmingham warehouse to anywhere in the UK, dispatched within 1 to 2 working days. Browse the sauces range to try a few in 350ml or 500ml tubs, or complete the wholesale enquiry form for trade pricing on biboxes, buckets and sticks.
