Tartar sauce

Tartar sauce

Tartar sauce is often served with fried seafood.
Alternative names	Tartare
Type	Sauce
Place of origin	Europe
Main ingredients	Mayonnaise, capers, gherkins, lemon juice and tarragon

Tartar sauce (in the UK, New Zealand and Australia, tartare sauce) is a mayonnaise or aioli-based sauce, typically of a rough consistency. It is often used as a condiment with seafood dishes.

Tartar sauce is based on either mayonnaise (egg yolk, mustard or vinegar, oil) or aioli (egg yolk, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice), with certain other ingredients added. In the UK, recipes typically add to the base capers, gherkins, lemon juice, and dill. US recipes may include chopped pickles or prepared green sweet relish, capers, onions (or chives), and fresh parsley. Chopped hard-boiled eggs or olives are sometimes added, as may be Dijon mustard and cocktail onions.Paul Bocuse describes sauce tartare explicitly as a sauce remoulade, in which the characterising anchovy purée is to be substituted by some hot Dijon mustard.

The sauce and its name have been found in cookbooks since the 19th century. The name derives from the French sauce tartare, named after the Tatars (ancient spelling in French of the ethnic group: tartare) from the Eurasian Steppe, who once occupied Ukraine and parts of Russia.