What does salt 'n' sauce mean to you?
For those of you who aren’t aware, salt ‘n’ sauce is a phrase used by the population of Scotland when asking for condiments to be put on their meal from a chip shop. But depending on where you go in Scotland, it means different things. Personally, I don’t like any sauce on my chippy, so I sought the opinion of my Facebook friends from all over Scotland to discover what ‘salt ‘n’ sauce’ means to different people.
A definition that you need to understand this article:
Chippy sauce- brown sauce mixed with vinegar
Here’s what the wonderful world of Facebook said:
Kate Hogg (Edinburgh) – ‘Everyone from East Lothian gets salt and sauce and we all buy bottles of it for the house.’
Ross Kelly (Edinburgh) – ‘If you ask for salt and sauce expecting it to be ketchup then you should be banned from Edinburgh.’
Daylan Sutherland (Edinburgh) – ‘It has to be salt and chippy sauce!’
Nicole Mcluskey (Edinburgh) – ‘It’s usually salt and brown sauce/chippy sauce in Edinburgh.’
Christopher Macarthur-Boyd (Glasgow) – ‘Salt and sauce’ in Edinburgh is what you get on your chips. ‘Salt and sauce’ in Glasgow is asking to be stabbed.’
Sean Geddes (Glasgow) – ‘salt and sauce = weird looks, rejection, isolation, being marked out as different, as one of ‘them’’.
Liz Jordan (Glasgow) – ‘Salt and sauce is more of an East of Scotland concept. In Glasgow they would ask ‘salt and vinegar?’ But in Edinburgh it means salt and brown sauce- tomato is not an option!’
Lisa Brown (Glasgow) – ‘Salt and vinegar is the only option in Glasgow. I accidentally said yes when they asked ‘salt and sauce?’ when I was drunk in Edinburgh and was not happy when it was brown sauce that I got instead of vinegar.’
Kate Caven (Glasgow) – ‘Red sauce and salt…’
Owen O’Donnell (Falkirk) - ‘Totally foreign concept. We ask for ‘everything’ here, which means salt, brown sauce and vinegar.’
Jessica Lindsay (Clackmannanshire) - ‘There’s no such thing. Salt and vinegar is standard but you can ask for red or brown if you want.’
Rachel Small (Dunfermline) - ‘sauce = ketchup. This is the only acceptable item to put on fish and chips!’
Louise Leitch (Dunfermline) – ‘Salt and brown sauce.’
Craig Watson (Dunfermline) – ‘If you ask for salt and sauce I Dunfermline they’ll probably ask ‘what kind?!’
Louise Clark (Kirkcaldy)- ‘Salt and sauce in Kirkcaldy means brown sauce. Ketchup is not even on the counter, you need to buy sachets! And ‘everything’ is the common phrase used.
Amy-Louise Grant (Carnoustie/Arbroath)- ‘Just salt and vinegar here. If you asked for salt and sauce they would ask which sauce.’
Michael Millar (Aberdeen) – ‘It doesn’t exist up here. As all fish consuming people, we do not condone salt and sauce!’
Saoirse Docherty (Inverness) – ‘If you asked for ‘salt and sauce’ in the highlands the takeaway staff would say ‘… which sauce?!’
Ellis Beattie (Edinburgh) – ‘Salt and chippy sauce’
As you can see it really does mean different things depending on what part of Scotland you venture to. So read this and learn, because it’s never a nice moment when you taste vinegar instead of brown sauce on your sausage supper!
Here is the summary of a guide to what salt ‘n’ sauce means to different cities:
Edinburgh- Salt and brown sauce.
Glasgow- You don’t say salt and sauce, but if you do it’s just assumed that you mean salt and vinegar.
East Coast towns- You don’t say salt and sauce, you say ‘everything’, which consists of brown sauce, salt and vinegar.
Fife- They will ask specifically what sauce you mean.
The North of Scotland- Salt and sauce doesn’t exist.