Secret Stadium Sauce

 

Secret Stadium Sauce is a condiment popular at Milwaukee Brewers baseball games in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Originally developed for use at Milwaukee County Stadium, it is still served on hot dogs and brats at its replacement, Miller Park.

It is a product of Delaware North Companies Sportservice and is sold in 18-ounce bottles at grocery stores throughout Wisconsin.

Origins

It was created in the early 1970s by current Delaware North Companies Sportservice President Rick Abramson, then a vendor at County Stadium, during a game when he ran short of other condiments.

“	"We were sort of running out of ketchup and mustard, and we needed a condiment. I took barbecue sauce, a little ketchup and mustard and smoked syrup and other ingredients and came up with secret stadium sauce. We said, 'We don't have [ketchup and mustard], but we have secret stadium sauce.'"	”
	— Rick Abramson

The unique flavor has inspired a wide variety of comparisons, from "a combination of barbecue sauce and sauerkraut juice" to "a mix of clam juice and sweetened tomato sauce".[1]

Ingredients

• Water
• Tomato paste
• Corn syrup
• Vinegar
• High fructose corn syrup
• Salt
• Modified food starch
• Spice blend (salt, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, spices and spices extractives)
• BHA and BHT (preservatives)
• Less than 2 percent tricalcium phosphate added to prevent caking
• Sodium benzoate (preservatives)
• Capsicum

Notoriety

Secret Stadium Sauce is widely identified with Milwaukee and the Brewers in particular. In 2001, the Secret Stadium Sauce was featured in a "Ball Park Frank Tasting" in Cooperstown, New York, in an event co-sponsored by the Baseball Hall of Fame.[2]

Brats with Secret Stadium Sauce are the favorite ballpark food of sportscaster Bob Costas.[3]

External links

• Scoreboard Gourmet: Secret Stadium Sauce
• USA Today, "10 great places to relish fine stadium fare"
• Ballpark Digest review of Miller Park concessions
• New York Times profile on Abramson
• Sportservice internal publication, featuring article on Abramson
• "Hot Dogs as America" article from "Baseball as America" exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History
• "Spice it Up", Milwaukee Journal Sentinel