Name: Tartar Sauce
Ingredients: 1 cup mayonnaise; 1 tablespoon chopped capers; 1 tablespoon tarragon vinegar; 1 tablespoon chopped olives; 1 tablespoon cucumber pickles

Why it works: Capers and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 379 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Tartar Sauce

Ingredients

1 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon chopped capers
1 tablespoon tarragon vinegar
1 tablespoon chopped olives
1 tablespoon cucumber pickles

Directions

Make the sauce

Prepare the mayonnaise if not using store-bought.
Add the capers, tarragon vinegar, olives, and cucumber pickles to the mayonnaise. Mix well until combined.

Serve

Serve cold with fish or cold meat dishes.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + tarragontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together379 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together303 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,688 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together274 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Olive + cucumbertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Mayonnaise: Provides a rich, creamy base of fat and emulsified egg that carries the other flavours.
Capers: Add sharp, briny flavour that cuts through the richness of the mayonnaise.
Tarragon vinegar: Adds acidity and a bright, herbal tang that lifts the sauce.
Olives: Contribute salty, briny flavour and a firm bite.
Cucumber pickles: Add acidity, crunch and a sour note to balance the mayonnaise.