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Tartar Sauce

A creamy sauce made with shallots, chervil, tarragon, mustard, vinegar, oil, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Tartar Sauce

Why it works: Chervil and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 824 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Tartar Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped shallots, chervil, and tarragon.

  2. Add the mustard, salt, and pepper.

Emulsify and season

  1. Gradually thin the mixture with vinegar and oil while stirring continuously.

  2. Taste and adjust seasoning to ensure it is not too salty or sour.

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.

  1. Chervil + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together824 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Shallot + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together266 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Shallot + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together602 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Shallot + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together859 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Tarragon + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together901 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Oil
Forms the body and richness of the sauce as the main fat.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the richness of the oil.
Mustard
Helps bind the oil and vinegar into a stable emulsion and adds sharpness.
Shallots
Provide a mild, onion-like sharpness and aroma.
Tarragon
Adds its distinctive aromatic, anise-like flavour.

The step that matters

Gradually thin the mixture with vinegar and oil while stirring continuously. Oil and vinegar do not mix on their own. Adding the liquids slowly while stirring lets the mustard emulsify them into a smooth, stable sauce. Adding them too fast can cause the sauce to split and look greasy.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shallot, chervil, tarragon, pepper, vinegar):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Lettucefits about as well
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Beetrootfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, chervil, tarragon, pepper, vinegar. 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.

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