Copycat Heinz Mayochup Recipe (Tastes Like the Bottle)

Most Mayochup recipes online are just mayo and ketchup stirred together. That gets you fry sauce — which is fine, but it isn’t Mayochup. I pulled the actual Heinz label and rebuilt this from the ingredient list, and the difference comes down to about a teaspoon of vinegar, a pinch of sugar, and a whisper of paprika.

This copycat Mayochup recipe takes five minutes, uses pantry staples, and tastes close enough to the bottle that nobody at my table could tell the difference. It’s the sauce I keep in a squeeze bottle in the fridge door for Culver’s butter burgers, Burger King onion rings, and air fryer sweet potato fries.

What’s Actually in Heinz Mayochup

This is the part every other copycat recipe skips. Here’s what Heinz lists on the bottle, in order:

Soybean oil, tomato concentrate, high fructose corn syrup, distilled white vinegar, salt, egg yolks, natural flavor, sugar, whole eggs, onion powder, garlic powder, lemon juice concentrate, xanthan gum, modified food starch, paprika extract.

A few things jump out:

• Soybean oil and egg yolks come before tomato concentrate. That means it’s mayo-forward, not a 50/50 blend. A 2:1 ratio of mayo to ketchup is the right starting point.
• There is no mustard in Heinz Mayochup. If you’ve seen a copycat recipe calling for yellow mustard or Dijon, that recipe is drifting toward Big Mac sauce territory. Good sauce, wrong sauce.
• There is added sugar on top of the corn syrup already in the ketchup. Heinz Mayochup is noticeably sweeter than homemade fry sauce, and this is why.
• Lemon juice concentrate and extra vinegar give it a brightness that plain mayo-plus-ketchup lacks. This is the single biggest thing home cooks miss.
• Paprika extract is a coloring agent. A tiny pinch of paprika gets you that orange-red shade instead of the flat salmon pink you get from mayo and ketchup alone.

Once you know all that, the recipe writes itself.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Five minutes, no cooking. Whisk and done.
• Closer to the real thing than the two-ingredient versions, because it follows the actual label.
• Cheaper than the bottle, and you almost certainly have everything already.
• Fully adjustable — sweeter, tangier, spicier, all easy to dial in.

Ingredients

• Mayonnaise (½ cup) — Use a full-fat, neutral mayo. Heinz uses their own soybean-oil mayo, so skip anything olive-oil based or heavily seasoned; it’ll fight the ketchup.
• Ketchup (¼ cup) — Heinz, obviously, if you’re chasing the real flavor. The sweetness level of your ketchup changes the final sauce more than anything else here.
• Distilled white vinegar (1 teaspoon) — The brightness that separates Mayochup from plain fry sauce.
• Granulated sugar (½ teaspoon) — Sounds like a lot next to already-sweet ketchup. It isn’t. Trust the label.
• Lemon juice (½ teaspoon) — Fresh is fine here even though Heinz uses concentrate.
• Onion powder (¼ teaspoon) — Powder, not granules. It needs to dissolve.
• Garlic powder (¼ teaspoon) — Same.
• Paprika (⅛ teaspoon) — Sweet, not smoked. This is mostly for color.
• Salt (⅛ teaspoon) — Adjust at the end, after the sauce has sat.

How to Make Copycat Mayochup

Step One: In a small bowl, whisk the mayonnaise and ketchup together until the streaks disappear completely and the color is uniform. Don’t rush this — streaky sauce tastes uneven.

Step Two: Add the vinegar, lemon juice, and sugar. Whisk until the sugar has fully dissolved and you can’t feel any grit against the bottom of the bowl.

Step Three: Whisk in the onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, and salt.

Step Four: Cover and refrigerate at least 30 minutes before serving. This isn’t optional if you want it to taste like the bottle — the powders need time to hydrate, and straight out of the bowl the sauce tastes raw and dusty.

Step Five: Taste after chilling and adjust. More ketchup for sweetness, more vinegar for tang, more salt if it tastes flat.

Notes From Testing the Ratio

I made this at 1:1, 2:1, and 3:1 mayo to ketchup before landing on 2:1.

At 1:1, it’s basically a thin ketchup — too tomato-forward, and the color goes orange rather than that dusty pink-red. At 3:1, it’s pleasant but bland; the ketchup disappears and you’re mostly eating seasoned mayo. 2:1 is where it clicks, and it also matches the ingredient order on the bottle.

The 30-minute chill matters more than I expected. Side by side, the fresh-mixed batch tasted noticeably sharper and slightly powdery. The chilled batch was rounder and much closer to the bottle.

Mayochup vs. Fry Sauce vs. Burger Sauce

People use these names interchangeably, and they aren’t the same thing.

Fry sauce is the Utah original: mayonnaise and ketchup, roughly 2:1, and that’s it. It’s the foundation Mayochup is built on.

Mayochup is fry sauce plus vinegar, sugar, lemon, and the onion-garlic-paprika seasoning blend. Sweeter and tangier.

Burger sauce — the Big Mac sauce family — adds pickle relish and mustard. Chunkier, sharper, and a different animal entirely.

If you started with Mayochup and want to explore, Culver’s signature sauce goes creamy and smoky, Ken’s Boom Boom sauce brings heat, and Copycat Heinz 57 is the other Heinz classic worth having in the fridge.

Variations

• Lighter: Light mayo works, but it’s wetter and sweeter, so pull back the sugar to ¼ teaspoon.
• Spicy Mayochup: Add 1 teaspoon sriracha or ¼ teaspoon cayenne.
• Smoky: Swap the sweet paprika for smoked paprika and add a few drops of liquid smoke.
• Mayocue: Replace half the ketchup with your favorite barbecue sauce.
• Vegan: Use a plant-based mayo. Everything else stays the same.

Storage

Keep it in an airtight container or a squeeze bottle in the refrigerator for up to one week. It’s mayo-based, so don’t leave it on the counter longer than two hours, and don’t freeze it — mayonnaise separates when it thaws and there’s no bringing it back.

The flavor actually improves on day two.

What to Serve With Mayochup

This is a dipping sauce first and a spread second. My regular rotation:

• Air fryer sweet potato fries — the sweetness plays beautifully against the vinegar
• Air fryer Ore-Ida golden fries for the classic straight-cut pairing
• Air fryer Copycat Burger King onion rings
• Red Robin onion rings in the air fryer
• Frozen onion rings in the air fryer when you want it fast
• Spread on Copycat Culver’s butter burgers or a Shake Shack-style burger
• Drizzled over air fryer animal style fries

Mayochup FAQs

What is Mayochup made of? Heinz Mayochup is mayonnaise and ketchup blended with vinegar, sugar, lemon juice concentrate, onion powder, garlic powder, and paprika extract. This copycat uses those same components in pantry form.

Is Mayochup just mayo and ketchup? No. That’s fry sauce. Mayochup adds vinegar, sugar, lemon, and a seasoning blend that makes it sweeter and tangier.

What’s the right ratio of mayo to ketchup? Two parts mayonnaise to one part ketchup. The Heinz label confirms it — soybean oil and egg yolks appear before tomato concentrate.

Does Mayochup have mustard in it? No. Mustard is not on the Heinz ingredient list. Adding it moves the sauce toward burger sauce instead.

How long does homemade Mayochup last? Up to one week in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Can I make it ahead? Yes, and you should. It needs at least 30 minutes to come together and tastes best on the second day.

Is Mayochup gluten-free? Mayonnaise and ketchup are usually gluten-free, but check your specific brands.

Can I freeze it? No. Mayonnaise-based sauces separate when thawed.

Why is my Mayochup pink instead of orange-red? You skipped the paprika. Heinz uses paprika extract purely for color, and an eighth of a teaspoon fixes it.