Why it works: Tarragon and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 602 recipes mention both. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓
Tartare Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make mayonnaise sauce until it is as thick as butter.
Chop parsley finely on a board rubbed with shallot.
Mix parsley into mayonnaise.
Add French mustard and mix well.
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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Tarragon + shallottop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together602 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Mustard + shallottop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together859 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Parsley + tarragontop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,563 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Mustard + tarragontop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together901 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,737 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mayonnaise
- Forms the creamy base, giving the sauce its rich fat and smooth body.
- Parsley
- Adds fresh, herbal aroma and a bit of color to the sauce.
- French mustard
- Adds sharp, pungent flavor that cuts through the richness of the mayonnaise.
The step that matters
Make the mayonnaise sauce until it is as thick as butter. A thick emulsion of oil, egg and acid holds its structure. If the mayonnaise is thin, the added parsley and mustard will loosen it further and the sauce will be runny rather than spoonable.
Flavor stand-ins for the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, tarragon, shallot):
- Capersbetter flavor fit
- Thymebetter flavor fit
- Parsleythe original
- Dillabout as good a flavor fit
Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, tarragon, shallot. 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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