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Hot Tartare Sauce

A sauce made with butter, flour, boiling water, egg yolk, vinegar, and chopped pickled cucumber.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and cucumber are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,734 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyl acetate, which smells fruit. The science ↓

Hot Tartare Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the flour and enough boiling water to achieve a smooth consistency.

  3. Let the mixture cool for five minutes.

  4. Add the egg yolk and beat well, adding more butter and water if the sauce is too thick.

  5. Stir in the vinegar and chopped pickled cucumber.

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.

  1. Vinegar + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + cucumbertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter and water into a smooth, stable base.
Egg yolk
Emulsifies the fat and water, binding the sauce into a creamy texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the richness.
Pickled cucumber
Contributes tangy, briny flavour and a little texture.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolk. The yolk must be beaten in well so it emulsifies evenly with the butter and water. If the mixture is too thick or the yolk is poorly incorporated, the sauce can turn grainy or split, so thinning with more butter and water helps keep it smooth.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, egg, vinegar):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Cucumberthe original
  4. Mustardfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, egg, vinegar. 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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