Homemade tartare sauce

Why to try the best tartare sauce recipe 

Fish and chips just don't feel complete without some cooling tartare sauce to dunk them in. The good news? You might already have all the essential ingredients you need in your kitchen to whip up this classic dipping sauce, including mayonnaise and capers. 

Tartare sauce brings the acid needed to cut through deep fried food, but it can accompany any dish you desire. It’s also creamy and and as savoury or sweet as you prefer, helping to balance the salt-dominant flavour of the fish and chips. The best tartare sauce is also rather complex in flavour and has bits of juicy crunchiness throughout from the diced ingredients, which adds some textural goodness to the fried seafood it is paired with. 

What you might find interesting is that the sauce was synonymous with the French dish steak tartare, as it used to be the sauce that people could choose to be served on the side with this raw beef dish. 

Knowing how to whip up your own homemade tartare sauce is a skill you’ll want to keep in your back pocket. Get cooking and make this quick and easy homemade tartare sauce recipe today.

How to make tartare sauce

Here are some tips for making DIY tartare sauce:

• Choose pickled gherkins instead of pickled cucumbers. Gherkins are smaller versions of cucumbers that have bumps all over the skin. The reason you want to choose gherkins when making tartare sauce is because they are crunchier than cucumbers. Choose sweet gherkins if you enjoy tartare sauce that is sweeter, and dill gherkins for a tartare sauce that leans more towards the savoury end of the spectrum. Drain the gherkins well before mixing into the sauce.

• Fresh lemon juice is preferred over bottled lemon juice because it has that gorgeous lemon scent in addition to a sharper acidity. Lemon juice is an important step to add to your sauce to help thin it out until it reaches your desired consistency. This is instead of using water, which would just dilute the sauce and yummy flavours. 

• If you have every ingredient sans capers, you can leave capers out of the recipe. If you are using capers, choose capers that are bottled in vinegar.

• For the herbs, a mixture of fresh or dried dill, parsley, chives and/or tarragon works well. 

• Taste the sauce and season according to your preference. You may find that you want to add a bit more of some of the ingredients to customise the sauce even further. 

• Once all the ingredients have been mixed, cover with wrap and place in the fridge for at least half an hour to allow the flavours to infuse and develop further.

Tartare sauce ingredients you need to make a Japanese version

Did you know Japan has its own version of tartare sauce that is served with fried chicken, fried oysters, fried pork cutlet and more? If you want to make a Japanese version of tartare sauce, here is the list of ingredients: finely chopped shallots or red onion, Kewpie mayonnaise (a Japanese style of mayonnaise), mashed hard boiled egg, parsley, sweet pickled gherkins or cucumbers, lemon juice, karashi hot mustard or Dijon mustard, parsley and salt to taste.  

Love this tartare sauce recipe?

Make this tangy, creamy sauce to go with seafood or chicken. It also works as a delicious burger sauce. For other homemade condiments, check out our collection of sauce recipes that will take your food to new heights, including seafood sauce and Ezy sauce.