Why it works: Shallot and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 405 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Tartare Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Combine the egg yolks, salt, and mustard in a bowl.
Gradually stir in the olive oil and tarragon vinegar alternately until the sauce reaches the desired consistency.
Add the gherkin, shallot, and capers, and mix well.
Serve
Prepare the sauce over pounded ice for best results.
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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Shallot + caperstop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together405 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Mustard + caperstop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together624 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Tarragon + shallottop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together602 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
-
Tarragon + caperstop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together379 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Mustard + shallottop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together859 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg yolks
- Emulsify the oil and vinegar, giving the sauce a thick, creamy body.
- Olive oil
- Provides richness and fat, forming the body of the sauce as it emulsifies with the yolks.
- French mustard
- Helps stabilise the emulsion and adds a sharp, tangy flavour.
- Gherkin
- Adds sharp, tangy crunch that cuts through the richness of the sauce.
- Capers
- Add briny, acidic bite that brightens the rich sauce.
The step that matters
Adding the oil and vinegar. Oil must be added gradually while stirring so it disperses into tiny droplets held by the egg yolk's lecithin. Adding it too fast can break the emulsion, leaving the sauce oily and thin instead of thick and creamy.
Flavor stand-ins for the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, pepper, olive, tarragon, vinegar, shallot, capers):
- Mustardthe original
- Chiveabout as good a flavor fit
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, olive, tarragon, vinegar, shallot, capers. 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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