Tartar Sauce Recipe: 5-Minute Homemade Classic

The short answer: this tartar sauce recipe stirs 1 cup of mayonnaise with 1/3 cup chopped dill pickles, 1 tablespoon capers, 1 tablespoon lemon juice and fresh dill. It takes 5 minutes to mix, tastes best after 30 minutes in the refrigerator, and makes about 1 1/4 cups.

• Key numbers: 1 cup mayo · 1/3 cup pickles · 1 tbsp capers · 1 tbsp lemon · 1 tbsp dill · keep at 40°F or below
• Top moves: chop the pickles fine, squeeze out their brine, taste after chilling, not before
• Next step: get the free recipe book starter pages (we email it to you), or write your house version into the Family Recipe Binder ($6.99)

Prep time: 15 minCook time: 0 minTotal time: 45 minServings: 1 1/4 cupsTotal includes 30 min of resting, chilling or rising.

Homemade tartar sauce is a cold, no-cook sauce. The whole job is chopping and stirring, so the quality comes down to three things: a good mayonnaise, pickles that are drained well, and enough acid to cut through fried or rich fish.

Tartar sauce ingredients

Makes about 1 1/4 cups, enough for 6 to 8 servings of fish at about 2 to 3 tablespoons each.

How to make tartar sauce

1. Chop the dill pickles into small, even pieces, about the size of a lentil. Spread them on a paper towel and press to soak up the extra brine, so the sauce does not turn watery in the refrigerator.
2. Chop the capers, dill and shallot. Mince the shallot as fine as you can; big pieces of raw onion overpower the sauce.
3. In a bowl, stir together the mayonnaise, pickles, capers, lemon juice, dill, shallot, mustard and pepper until evenly mixed.
4. Thin with 1 to 2 teaspoons of pickle brine if you want a looser, dippable sauce.
5. Cover and refrigerate at least 30 minutes. The pickles and herbs flavor the mayonnaise as it rests.
6. Taste cold, then adjust with more lemon, brine, pepper or a pinch of salt. Serve chilled.

Season after chilling, not before. Pickles and capers release salt into the mayonnaise as the sauce rests, so a sauce that tastes flat right after mixing often tastes right 30 minutes later.

Pickles, relish and capers: picking the tang

A half-and-half mix of dill and sweet relish lands between sharp and sweet. If you use sweet relish, skip any sugar and add the extra lemon so the sauce does not taste like dessert on fish.

Variations and swaps

• Lighter tartar sauce: use 1/2 cup mayonnaise and 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt. It is tangier, so start with half the lemon juice.
• Spicy: add 1/2 teaspoon hot sauce, a pinch of cayenne or 1 teaspoon prepared horseradish.
• Herb-heavy: swap half the dill for parsley and add chives or tarragon.
• Old Bay style: add 1/2 teaspoon seafood seasoning, good with crab cakes.
• Egg-free: use an egg-free mayonnaise; the method and ratios stay the same.
• Homemade mayonnaise base: a mayonnaise whipped from raw yolks means the egg is never cooked. The FDA egg safety guidance says recipes with eggs that are raw or undercooked when served should use eggs treated to destroy Salmonella or pasteurized egg products. Store-bought mayonnaise avoids the question.

What to serve with tartar sauce

Tartar sauce is built for fish, and it works best with fish that is crisp or rich. Fried cod, haddock or pollock, fish sticks and fish sandwiches are the classic match. It is also a strong partner for salmon patties and crab cakes, where the acid cuts the richness of the patty.

For a lighter plate, spoon it next to baked salmon, or thin it with a little extra lemon and drizzle it over fish tacos in place of a crema. Off the seafood plate, it is a good dip for french fries, onion rings, roasted potatoes and fried pickles.

When you cook the fish yourself, the FDA seafood guidance says most seafood should reach an internal temperature of 145°F, or cook until the flesh separates easily with a fork. The sauce stays cold; the fish gets the thermometer.

Make-ahead and storage

Tartar sauce is one of the few sauces that improves when made ahead. Mix it in the morning or the day before, and the pickles and dill have time to season the base.

• Refrigerate: in a covered jar at 40°F or below. With store-bought mayonnaise, plan to use it within about 1 week.
• Serve: a small bowl at a time, with a clean spoon. Do not dip a fork that has touched raw fish into the jar.
• Do not freeze: the mayonnaise separates and turns greasy when thawed.
• At the table: the FDA safe food handling page says to refrigerate perishables within 2 hours, or within 1 hour when it is above 90°F outside. At a fish fry or cookout, set the bowl in a larger bowl of ice and swap in a cold refill rather than topping off a warm one.

If the sauce looks watery after a day, the pickles were not drained enough. Stir it, pour off any liquid that pools on top, and add a spoonful of mayonnaise.

Troubleshooting tartar sauce

• Too thin or watery: pickles weren't blotted, or too much brine went in. Add 2 tablespoons mayonnaise and drain the next batch better.
• Too thick to dip: stir in pickle brine or lemon juice a teaspoon at a time.
• Too salty: capers and pickles vary. Add mayonnaise or yogurt to dilute, plus extra lemon. Rinse capers next time.
• Too sour: add 1/2 teaspoon sugar or a spoonful of sweet relish.
• Bland: it probably has not chilled yet. Wait 30 minutes, then add lemon zest, a pinch of salt or more dill.
• Harsh onion bite: the shallot pieces were too large. Mince smaller, or soak them in cold water for 5 minutes and drain before stirring them in.

Tartar sauce for a crowd

The base ratio is easy to scale: for every 1 cup of mayonnaise, use 1/3 cup pickles, 1 tablespoon capers, 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 1 tablespoon dill. Plan about 2 to 3 tablespoons per person for a fish dinner, and a little more for a fry with sandwiches and fries.

Mix the large batch, divide it into two or three containers, and keep all but one in the refrigerator until you need it.

Why homemade costs less than it seems

Homemade tartar sauce is mostly pantry staples: a jar of mayonnaise, a jar of pickles and a jar of capers each cover many batches. If those are already in the refrigerator, the only fresh purchase is a lemon and a few sprigs of dill, and the leftover dill goes into potato salad or onto the fish itself.

The bigger savings come from planning fish night around what you already have. A pack of frozen fish fillets plus homemade sauce and oven fries is a low-cost dinner. For more ways to stretch the grocery bill, see how to grocery shop on a budget.

Plan fish night

One batch covers a fish dinner for 4 with some left for sandwiches later in the week.

• Meal Planner & Grocery List, $3.99. A weekly menu and an aisle-sorted grocery list, so the lemon, dill and fish land on one trip.
• Family Recipe Binder, $6.99. Write down your ratio: dill or sweet relish, how many capers, how much lemon.

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