About the Recipe
I’ve made tartare sauce about a million times in my life (alright, slight exaggeration), but it’s one of those things that really winds me up when it’s done badly. I’ve seen too many chefs throw it together lazily — skipping ingredients, skimping on the flavour, or leaving it bland and watery because they can’t be bothered.
Proper tartare sauce should be punchy — sharp with vinegar, rich with mayo, and packed full of chopped capers, gherkins, and fresh herbs. It’s meant to cut through fried food, not get lost beside it.
Originally a French sauce, tartare became a staple in British fish and chip shops — a mix of mayonnaise or aioli with pickles and herbs. It should never taste like plain mayo with a sad bit of parsley. It should slap you with flavour.
Ingredients
1 litre of mayo
200g finely diced white onion
300g finely diced gherkins
100g lilliput capers, (or chopped alternative capers)
100g dill finely chopped
100g parsley finely chopped
50g chervil finely chopped
50g english mustard
100ml gherkin juice
juice and zest of one lemon
Preparation
First chop all of your ingredients and according to the ingredients list and get everything ready including a large bowl to mix everything together
add everything into the mixing bowl and give it a good mix so that its thoroughly mixed together
store it in the fridge, it should last pretty much forever in the fridge and once its been in there for as little as one day the flavours will be even more pronounced, so if you're having a party and need tartare sauce or just love it, you can make it well in advance.