Name: Tartare Sauce
Ingredients: 1 cup mayonnaise; 1 teaspoon onion juice; 1 tablespoon chopped capers; 1 tablespoon finely chopped cucumber pickle

Why it works: Capers and cucumber match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 303 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Tartare Sauce

Ingredients

1 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon onion juice
1 tablespoon chopped capers
1 tablespoon finely chopped cucumber pickle

Directions

In a bowl, combine the mayonnaise and onion juice.
Add the chopped capers and finely chopped cucumber pickle.
Mix well until all ingredients are thoroughly combined.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

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.

Capers + cucumbertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together303 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,381 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Onion + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,050 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Mayonnaise: Provides the creamy base and rich fat that carries the other flavours.
Capers: Add briny, acidic bite that cuts through the richness of the mayonnaise.
Cucumber pickle: Adds crunch and sharp, tangy acidity to the sauce.
Onion juice: Contributes sharp, aromatic onion flavour without adding solid pieces.