Why it works: Mustard and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 624 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Tartars Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
In a bowl, combine the yolks, salt, and pepper. Stir well with a wooden spoon.
Slowly add the oil drop by drop while stirring continuously.
Mix in the mustard, vinegars, and gherkins or capers until well combined.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Mustard + caperstop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together624 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Tarragon + caperstop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together379 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Tarragon + mustardtop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together901 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
-
Pepper + tarragontop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,399 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Vinegar + tarragontop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,547 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
- Emulsifier that binds the oil and vinegar into a thick, smooth sauce.
- Salad oil
- Provides the fat that makes the sauce rich and creamy once emulsified.
- Made mustard
- Helps stabilise the emulsion and adds a sharp, tangy flavour.
- French vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the richness of the oil.
- Gherkins or capers
- Add briny, sharp bite and texture to the finished sauce.
The step that matters
Slowly add the oil drop by drop while stirring continuously. Oil must be added very slowly so the yolk can disperse it into tiny droplets. Adding it too fast breaks the emulsion, leaving a greasy, separated sauce.
Flavor stand-ins for the capers
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, pepper, vinegar, tarragon, mustard):
- Dillabout as good a flavor fit
- Capersthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, vinegar, tarragon, mustard. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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