Sauces and Pastes by Where They Began

Mayonnaise is an emulsion of oil, egg yolk and an acid such as vinegar or lemon juice, and the atlas records France as its country of origin. It also serves as the base for tartar sauce, remoulade, ranch dressing and rouille, so one French emulsion sits behind many other sauces.

Pesto comes from Genoa, where basil, olive oil, cheese, pine nuts and garlic are pounded in a marble mortar; its name comes from the Genoese verb for to pound. It descends from the Roman moretum and the medieval agliata, but basil became its defining ingredient only from around the 1850s.

Worcestershire sauce was invented by the pharmacists John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins in Worcester, England, and launched by their company in 1837. After an 1876 court ruling that the name could not be trademarked, it became a generic term for the style.

Ketchup was once made from mushrooms, oysters, mussels, eggs, grapes or walnuts before tomatoes took over. The word first appeared in print in 1682, and James Mease published the first known tomato ketchup recipe in 1812.

Harissa is a Tunisian chili paste from the Cape Bon Peninsula, with Nabeul as its main production center. Chili peppers reached Tunisia through the Columbian exchange, and UNESCO added harissa to Tunisia's Intangible Cultural Heritage list on December 1, 2022.

Chutney is a condiment of the Indian subcontinent, from fresh coriander preparations to cooked, sweetened mango versions. The word comes from the Hindi and Urdu chatni, and Duarte Barbosa described chutney served with curries around 1516.

Gochujang is a fermented Korean paste of red chili powder, glutinous rice, fermented soybean powder and barley malt; its sweetness comes from rice starch breaking down into sugar. Gochujang from Sunchang is said to have entered royal palace cuisine under King Taejo at the founding of the Joseon dynasty in 1392.

Hoisin sauce is a thick, sweet and salty Cantonese sauce based on fermented soybean paste. Its name comes from the Cantonese word for seafood even though it contains none, and in Vietnam, where it is called tuong den, it is served with pho.

Oyster sauce is made from oyster extracts, sugar, salt and water, thickened with corn starch, and production in China began no later than the mid-1870s. The Cooks Info source recorded on the page dates it to 1888, when the Lee Kum Kee company first made it in Guangdong Province.

Sriracha was first produced in 1932 by La-Orr Suwanprasop of Si Racha, Thailand, from chili peppers, distilled vinegar, pickled garlic, sugar and salt. It may be based on older Cantonese recipes, and the Sriraja Panich brand, sold from 1935, was the first internationally recognized one.