Comeback sauce — a tangy, mildly spicy, mayonnaise-based dipping sauce from Jackson, Mississippi — is the state's contribution to the American condiment canon and arguably the most versatile sauce in the South. It was created (or at least named) at the Rotisserie restaurant and the Mayflower Café in Jackson in the mid-20th century. The name refers to its addictive quality: you come back for more. The sauce is essentially a Mississippi remoulade — mayo, chili sauce, Worcestershire, lemon, garlic, paprika, onion — that is slightly sweeter and milder than New Orleans remoulade (LA2-15) but serves the same all-purpose function.
A thick, pale orange-pink sauce: mayonnaise as the base, chili sauce (or ketchup), Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, garlic, onion, paprika, cayenne, yellow mustard, and black pepper. The flavour is tangy, mildly sweet, mildly spicy, and deeply savoury. It should taste like a sauce you can't stop eating — the balance of sweet, acid, and heat creates a craving loop.
1) Balance: the mayo provides body, the chili sauce/ketchup provides sweetness and colour, the Worcestershire provides umami, the lemon provides acid, the mustard and cayenne provide bite. No single element dominates. 2) Let it rest overnight — the flavours meld and the sauce improves dramatically after 12-24 hours.
Comeback sauce on fried dill pickles (the Mississippi bar snack), on fried catfish, on salad as a dressing, on burgers, on fries. It replaces ketchup, ranch, tartar sauce, and cocktail sauce — it does the work of all four.
Too much ketchup — the sauce becomes sweet. Too little acid — it becomes flat.
John T. Edge — Southern Foodways Alliance; Mississippi food tradition documentation