Name: Tartar Sauce
Ingredients: 1 quart mayonnaise; ½ cup whipped cream; 6 medium pickles, chopped very fine; 3 tablespoons capers, chopped; 3 tablespoons parsley, chopped; 1 shallot onion, chopped; 1 teaspoon paprika; ½ teaspoon celery salt; ¼ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon pepper

Why it works: Capers and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 405 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Capers + shallottop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together405 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Capers + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together1,550 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together3,737 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together6,810 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Mayonnaise: Forms the creamy base and provides fat that carries the other flavors.
Whipped cream: Adds lightness and a softer, airier texture to the mayonnaise base.
Pickles: Add tangy acidity and crunch that cut through the richness.
Capers: Contribute briny, sharp flavor and a bit of bite.
Shallot onion: Adds mild, sharp onion aroma without the harshness of raw onion.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, capers, parsley, shallot, celery, pepper):

Chivebetter flavor fit
Mustardbetter flavor fit
Kalebetter flavor fit
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, capers, parsley, shallot, celery, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.