Name: Tartar Sauce
Ingredients: 1 tbsp Dijon mustard; ⅛ tbsp pepper; 1 tbsp powdered sugar; ¼ tbsp salt; 2 tbsp grated onion; 2 egg yolks; ½ cup olive oil; 3 tbsp vinegar; 1 tbsp chopped olives; 1 tbsp capers; 1 tbsp chopped dill pickle; 1 tbsp chopped parsley

Why it works: Mustard and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 624 recipes. 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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Mustard + caperstop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together624 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Olive + caperstop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,688 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,259 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + caperstop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,381 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks: Emulsify the oil and vinegar, giving the sauce its thick, creamy body.
Olive oil: Provides the fat that, emulsified with the yolks, makes the sauce rich and smooth.
Dijon mustard: Helps hold the emulsion together and adds a sharp, tangy flavor.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the richness of the oil.
Capers: Add briny, sharp bursts of flavor that stand out against the creamy base.

The step that matters

Adding the oil and vinegar. Oil must be added drop by drop while beating, so the yolks can emulsify it. Adding it too fast breaks the emulsion, leaving the sauce thin and oily instead of thick.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, pepper, sugar, egg, olive, vinegar, capers):

Shallotfits better
Horseradishfits better
Lettucefits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, pepper, sugar, egg, olive, vinegar, capers. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Olive	1 large (4g)	4
Dill	5 sprigs fresh (1g) / 1 tsp dried	4
Mustard	1 tsp (5g) yellow	3
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Capers	1 tbsp (9g) drained	2
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Tartar Sauce

Tartar Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce base

Finish the sauce

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)