Best sauces

18 ELO points separate BBQ Sauce from Pepper Sauce at the top of the Sauce ranking, after 1047 duels.

BBQ Sauce claims the top position with 1263 ELO points, but its narrow 18-point lead over Pepper Sauce reveals tight competition at the summit. Mayonnaise secures third place with 1227 points, trailing the leader by 36 points. Tartar Sauce holds fourth with 1212 ELO points, while Algerian Sauce completes the top five at 1209 points. The bottom tier presents a different picture: Aioli sits in eighth place with 1176 points, Mustard lands in ninth with 1164 points, and White Sauce occupies tenth position at 1145 points. The relegation of traditional staples like Mustard and Aioli to the lower ranks suggests French voters favor richer, more assertive flavors. BBQ Sauce's supremacy comes despite winning only 30% of its 1168 duels, indicating it divides opinion while maintaining its lead through consistent engagement.

The ranking compiles data from 1047 duels submitted by 44 players across 10 contenders, updated on 12 October 2026. These results capture current preferences among France's most popular sauces, showing which condiments dominate French tables. Vote now to elevate your preferred sauce or reshape the order of this ranking.

Updated on October 12, 2026

How this ranking is computed

Every duel won lifts a contender and every loss drops them, by an amount that depends on the opponent's strength: beating the leader is worth more than beating the last. It is an ELO, the same principle as in chess. Duels are not drawn at random — an adaptive entropy sort puts the least predictable match-ups first, which settles the ranking far faster than a full round robin. A worldwide ranking is only published past 30 completed plays. Known limit: a contender who has faced few opponents keeps an approximate score, and the bottom of the table moves more than the podium.

How our rankings are made →