Arby's Special Sauce

Re:Arby's Special Sauce (edwmax)

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:10:04 GMT

I believe the Arby's original red sauce may have used Catalina Dressing as a base or something similar. The red sauce of the 60' & 70's was translucent. You couldn't see though it, but you could see into the sauce. I don't remember seeing any spices floating in the mixture. .... Therefore, I do not believe catchup or tomato paste was an ingredient or anything else that would give a dense opaque apprentice.. The sauce was not spicy, or very sweet, but it was not tart either. ... I really would like to find this sauce again. It was great on the Roast Beef.

The Red Sauce Arby's use now is not even close to that of the original sauce. What Arby's Red Sauce now is more or less just a watered down version of their BBQ Sauce. ... IMO...

Re:Arby's Special Sauce (DawnT)

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 17:21:42 GMT

Doesn't surprise me a bit Ann. Years ago during the carving board type resaurant era, we had a place that specialized in roast beef sandwiches hand carved on Kaisers. I remember watching one of the workers pouring in Open Pit from an institutional container into the sauce dispenser. I don't know if it was augumented or straight, but years ago, Open Pit was also sold in an institutional formulation much like Cattleman's Original that was not available retail. Maybe it still is since Kraft took them over.

Re:Arby's Special Sauce (MetroplexJim)

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 09:28:28 GMT

The original Arby's "special" and "horsey" sauces that I sampled back in the mid-1960's at Arby's original location in Youngstown, OH were truly wonderful. The "special sauce" was thicker and spicier than today's version. And, back then Arby's sold real roasted beef, not "pre-cooked, formed beef product". (Geeze, Geeze).

Re:Arby's Special Sauce (BR)

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 09:03:45 GMT

I detect some all spice or something similar in it.

Re:Arby's Special Sauce (ann peeples)

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 05:04:23 GMT

Believe it or not, I make a sauce out of the original Open Pit, grated onion, a bit of brown sugar, apple cider vinegar and water.

Arby's Special Sauce (DawnT)

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 02:01:55 GMT

I've never tasted the stuff, but there seem to be a lot of people that think it's the best roast beef sandwich sauce. I'm doing RB in a few days and thought that I'd give the clone recipes a try. There appears to be two variants. One that's a spiced catsup with S&P,garlic and onion powder and tabasco that's attributed to Todd Wilbur. The other uses a small amount of catsup, a cup of water, lots of worchestershire sauce, brown sugar, cayenne, onion and garlic powder. This one is thickened by a corn starch slurry after simmering a while. Both recipes are widely published with little feedback as to the taste.

I made up both this afternoon and let them meld in the fridge a while. Neither tastes remarkable or according to my better half, anything like the real thing.

Does anyone have a better clone recipe or another red sauce suitable for RB ?