Why it works: Mustard and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 901 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓
Sauce Remoulade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the yolks
Boil the eggs until hard-boiled, then cool and remove the shells.
Set aside the egg whites to use as a garnish, and place the yolks in a bowl.
Make the sauce
Mash the yolks until smooth, then mix in the mustard, salt, cayenne, and ½ tablespoon of the vinegar.
Slowly add the olive oil drop by drop while stirring continuously.
Incorporate the raw egg yolk and mix thoroughly, then add the remaining vinegar.
Use the sauce with cold meat, fish, or salad, stirring carefully to prevent curdling.
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.
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Mustard + tarragontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together901 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Pepper + tarragontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,399 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,547 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,950 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
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Yolks mashed into a smooth base that gives the sauce body and richness.
- Raw egg yolk
- Emulsifies the oil into the sauce, holding it together as a thick, creamy mixture.
- Olive oil
- Supplies fat that, added slowly, forms a stable emulsion and gives the sauce its smooth texture.
- Made mustard
- Adds sharpness and helps stabilise the emulsion.
- Tarragon vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the richness of the oil and yolks.
The step that matters
Adding the olive oil. Oil must go in slowly, drop by drop, while stirring constantly. Yolk lecithin can only bind small droplets of oil into an emulsion; adding oil too fast lets it separate and the sauce breaks or curdles.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, pepper, tarragon, vinegar, olive):
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Mustardthe original
- Shallotfits about as well
- Lettucefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, tarragon, vinegar, olive. 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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