The Best Sauce to Pour Over a Block of Cream Cheese. (2024)

Watch my best cream cheese appetizer recipe web story here.

The Best Sauce for Cream Cheese, At a Glance

Why You Need to Make This Recipe

Honestly, friends, this truly is the most delicious cream cheese appetizer out there.

Make this recipe because it’s easy to make, it relies almost entirely on pantry and refrigerator staple ingredients, and it is the tangiest and most mouthwatering sauce to pour over a block of cream cheese, period.

This is a recipe that some mom in our neighborhood must’ve gotten from a magazine in the 1970s, and for decades, it isn’t a party in that neighborhood unless there’s red sauce! (But mom’s cheese olive puffs come in a close second.)

It is ketchup-based.

It’s sweet and sour and one of the tangiest sauces ever.

It’sunapologetically neon red, just a tiny bit spicy and so very moreish that there is rarely any left once I get started.

In fact, once you make this, I dare you to only eat one cracker spread with it and say “I’m done.” I dare you.

If you do make it, I have a favor to ask:

How to Make This Appetizer Sauce

Ingredients and Substitutions

As I said, it’s made up of staples. And while they sound pretty unlikely, trust me.

This sauce is delicious.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Ketchup: I grew up with Heinz, and it’s still my favorite, so that’s what I recommend. But any tomato ketchup will work here
• Honey: A mild honey works best. The ketchup and honey are the two main ingredients, and that combo brings the sweet and tangy. The rest of the ingredients bring the magic!
• A1 Steak Sauce: There is something about A1 that gets me right in the salivary glands. It’s a little sweet, spicy, and tangy all by itself. I keep a bottle on hand specifically to make red sauce. If you don’t like A1 Sauce, the closest substitution I can think of is tamarind sauce
• chopped onion: Sweet or yellow onion will work. You need about 1/2 cup. I generally don’t measure, so it kind of depends on how much you like onion. And it does add little “chunks” to the sauce, so if you like smooth sauces, consider pureeing it after you make it
• minced garlic: Any garlic will do, even pre-minced. I often use freeze-dried or granulated garlic, and more than the recipe strictly calls for
• salt: A generous, heavy pinch. Or measure out 3/8 teaspoon kosher salt. Use a bit less if you’re using fine table salt
• black pepper: Freshly ground is my preference. The recipe calls for 1/4 teaspoon, but if you love that black peppery bite, use more.
• vinegar: I like apple cider vinegar here, but any vinegar will do. Stay away from balsamic–it’s too sweet, I think. Go with red wine vinegar or white vinegar if you don’t have ACV
• yellow mustard: It’s weird, but plain yellow mustard is best in this recipe. Standard hot dog mustard. I’ve made it with Dijon before, but even though there’s only 1 1/2 teaspoons of mustard in the recipe, I could tell the difference and prefer plain yellow mustard
• lemon juice: I always use freshly squeezed lemon juice, but you could use bottled in a pinch and nothing bad would happen.

Procedure

I know it sounds like a crazy list of ingredients.

All it takes is simmering all these ingredients together for 10 minutes to make the best sweet and sour, hard to stop eating, most delicious sauce ever to be poured over a (very lucky) block of cream cheese.

The only real work here is chopping up the onion. Otherwise, much like chili cheese dip, this is an easy dump and stir recipe.

Put everything in a pan, bring it to a boil, and then reduce heat, simmer for 10 minutes stirring occasionally, then remove from the heat.

The end.

I wish I could explain to you how much I love this stuff. I know it sounds kind of odd what with the ketchup and A-1 and mustard and all, but man is it good!

How To Serve Cream Cheese and Red Sauce

For a party, you’re supposed to pour red sauce on a block of cream cheese so it cascades down the sides.

The best crackers to eat with it are ones that have a fairly neutral flavor like Ritz or Captain’s wafers or any sort of butter cracker.

Try my homemade Ritz crackers. You will be super happy!

Is There a Less Messy Way of Serving Red Sauce?

If you’re leery of serving a “communal appetizer” in the times of Covid, or just in general, do what reader John did:

This is such a great idea that I had to share it with y’all.

Q & A

More Tasty Stuff to Spread on or Pour Over Cream Cheese

Cream cheese makes the perfect canvas for almost anything you’d like to put on top of it.

It works with sweet ingredients like fresh fruit or mixed berry jam or cranberry orange jam.

It works well with savory ingredients like slices of cured meats, bacon jam, tomato jam, and plum chutney.

I can even eat cream cheese just plain on crackers, but with so many options, including the ridiculously addictive red sauce, why would I?!

Questions?

If you have questions about this post or recipe, don’t hesitate to get in touch. You can leave a comment on the post and I will get back to you within about 24 hours.

If your question is more urgent, please shoot me an email, and I will respond within 4 hours, unless I’m asleep.

It will help me and other readers so much if you take a moment to rate and leave a review for this recipe.

You can use the stars to rate 1-5 (5 is best), and leave a review in the comments. It helps me make adjustments if any are needed, and comments help others decide whether the recipe is worth making.

Other ways to share include pinning, and/or sharing on your favorite social media platform.

Thank you so much for taking the time!

See Also

Gluten Free Donuts (Krispy Kreme Copycat) · Seasonal Cravings

Thanks for reading, friends, and I hope cream cheese and red sauce finds its way onto your holiday appetizer list this year.

Hi, y’all! I hope you’ve enjoyed this post and hopefully also learned a thing or two.

If you like my style, I invite you to sign up for my occasional newsletter, The Inbox Pastry Chef.

Expect updates on new and tasty recipes as well as a bit of behind-the-scenes action. I hope to see you there!

Click Here to Sign Up!

Take care, and have a lovely day.