Simple Tartar Sauce Recipe

If there's one sauce that can make just about any food delicious, it's tartar sauce. Think about it: Does fried white fish really have all that much taste? And do fries even have much flavor on their own, save for that salt you added? Not really. So why does everyone love fish and chips so much? Yep, tartar sauce. Same with mozzarella sticks, chicken wings, onion rings, and more. You can spread it on a sandwich, use it as a salad dressing, stir it into rice, and on it goes — this easy tartar sauce recipe takes endless foods from good to great while being a breeze to prepare.

"This sauce is so easy," says chef and recipe developer Christina Musgrave of Tasting with Tina. "I love that you can make it with ingredients you likely already have on hand." And even if you don't have any of the needed ingredients, you can find all of them at any grocery store. So let's gather up the very few ingredients needed and mix up a tasty sauce.

All you need for making about 10 servings of this classic sauce is a cup of mayonnaise, a couple of finely diced dill pickles, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, a tablespoon of dried dill, and ½ teaspoon of salt. "There are two star ingredients," says Musgrave. "The pickles and the dill give this the traditional tartar sauce taste."

First, finely dice the pickles, and if the dried dill has any longer strands in it, mince those, too. Then juice the lemon and portion out your ingredients.

Combine 1 cup of mayonnaise, the diced dill pickles, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, 1 tablespoon of dried dill, and ½ teaspoon of salt in a small bowl.

Now stir all of the ingredients together until they are well mixed and creamy. Then cover the tartar sauce and refrigerate it for 30 minutes. "Make sure to refrigerate it [long enough] so it's nice and cold when you're ready to serve," say Musgrave.

And when it's ready, remove it from refrigerator, serve, and enjoy! "I like to keep this classic and serve with fish and chips," Musgrave says, but you can enjoy it however you want.

"This will keep for two to three days in the refrigerator stored in an airtight container," Musgrave adds.

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The history of tartar sauce is a little fuzzy, but food historians have potentially traced the name to 19th century France since mayonnaise (a primary ingredient) wasn't invented until the 18th century. The name itself is an apparent nod to the Tatars, the legendary tribe of nomadic horsemen who've populated central Asia for centuries. 

It's pretty easy to see how "Tatar" could eventually transform into "tartar." Originally, tartar sauce was primarily served alongside the classic French beef tartare. Beef tartare (sometimes called steak tartare) is a French adaptation of an old culinary practice of Tatar warriors where the horsemen would store raw meat under their saddles to tenderize it before eating it raw. It makes sense that, given tartar sauce was initially served with beef tartare, it would share a similar name. As we all know, tartar sauce has since garnered a much broader culinary appeal in the present day — evolving so much from its beefy origins that we more closely associate it with seafood now.

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