Name: Sauce Tartars
Ingredients: 1 cup mayonnaise dressing; 1 tablespoon capers; 1 tablespoon chopped cucumber pickles; 1 tablespoon chopped parsley; 1 teaspoon onion juice

Why it works: Capers and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,550 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Sauce Tartars

Ingredients

1 cup mayonnaise dressing
1 tablespoon capers
1 tablespoon chopped cucumber pickles
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 teaspoon onion juice

Directions

Combine mayonnaise dressing, capers, cucumber pickles, parsley, and onion juice in a bowl. 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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,550 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together303 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,564 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Capers + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,381 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Cucumber + oniontop 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 dressing: Forms the creamy base and provides richness and moisture for the sauce.
Capers: Add a briny, sharp bite that cuts through the richness of the dressing.
Cucumber pickles: Contribute crunch and tangy acidity that brightens the sauce.
Parsley: Adds fresh, green aroma and a mild herbal flavor.
Onion juice: Adds savory pungency and aroma that deepens the overall flavor.