Homemade Tartar Sauce

An easy homemade tartar sauce using only four ingredients you already have in your kitchen. Add some great taste to that fish dish tonight.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• 📋Ingredients
• Variations
• ❄️Storage
• 📖Fish Recipes
• 🖼️Step-by-Step Instructions
• 📖 Recipe

Introduction

Tartar sauce is a condiment that is generally used for fish.  It is mayonnaise frequently with capers, along with gherkins or other varieties of pickles, and lemon juice. Commonly herbs such as dill and parsley are added.

I broke this out of my Oven Baked Blackened Tilapia post so I could refer to it better from other recipes.

This simple sauce is great with baked or fried fish, and crab or salmon cakes

My Rating

Very nice for what it is. I much prefer this to the commercial variety and can whip this up in a few minutes with pantry staples.

📋Ingredients

This is a mayonnaise-based sauce, so use the mayonnaise that you like. It can be full fat or lower fat, but please avoid the fat-free. I suggest avoiding Miracle Whip or flavored Mayo since they will add other tastes.

Other standard flavors are the onion powder and lemon juice. You can switch those out for fresh, but you will be tossing of the lemon or onion.

I like sweet pickle relish and used that here. You can do a one to one substitute for dill relish.

Variations

While this recipe is for what I want and generally have on hand. But there are some options that others will want.

The common other flavors are capers and dill that are added.

Capers

This recipe is without capers, which I never have when I want them. Most current recipes do not include capers, but they are traditionally used.

To make tartar sauce with capers in my small recipe, drain, and finely chop 1 teaspoon of capers. Increase proportionately for larger amounts.

One final note on capers, general they are combined with a dill flavor.

Dill

They are several ways to make this a dill tartar sauce. First, skip the sweet pickle relish, then try one of these options.

-Dill relish: 1 teaspoon (the suggested method)
or
-Dill Weed: 1 teaspoon
or
-Dill Pickle: 1 tablespoon chopped

❄️Storage

Should be sealed well without air. Good refrigerated for 1 week. Do not freeze.

📖Fish Recipes

Oven Baked Blackened Tilapia

Grilled Blackened Tilapia

Grilled Lemon Butter Tilapia

🖼️Step-by-Step Instructions

Combine ⅓ cup mayo, 2 teaspoons lemon juice, 1 teaspoon sweet pickle relish, and ¼ teaspoon onion powder. Mix well.

Refrigerate until needed. Better if set for 20-30 minutes.

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📖 Recipe

Homemade Tartar Sauce

From Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan

An easy homemade tartar sauce using only four ingredients you already have in your kitchen. Add some great taste to that fish dish tonight.

Tap to leave a Rating

3.71 from 34 votes

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Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 0 minutes

Total Time 5 minutes

Servings #/Adjust if desired 4 servings

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Ingredients

US CustomaryConvert to Metric

• ▢ ⅓ cup mayonnaise
• ▢ 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• ▢ 1 teaspoon sweet pickle relish
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon onion powder

Options

• ▢ 1 teaspoon Capers - drained and finely chopped
• ▢ Dill

Instructions

Images On-Won't Print

• Combine ⅓ cup mayo, 2 teaspoons lemon juice, 1 teaspoon sweet pickle relish and ¼ teaspoon onion powder. Mix well.
  
• Refrigerate until needed. Better if set for 20-30 minutes
  

Recipe Notes

Pro Tips:

1. This is a very small recipe making only 6 tablespoons, which I’m calling 4 servings. Most recipes will make three times that amount. So adjust to the amount you need.
2. The quality of the ingredients is important.
3. If you add the optional capers, use a dill option and skip the sweet pickle relish.
4. Dill options: Switch out the sweet relish for: 1 teaspoon of dill relish. Or add 1 teaspoon of dill weed (fresh preferred). Or add 1 tablespoon chopped dill pickle.
5. Should be sealed well without air. Good refrigerated for 1 week. Do not freeze.

Have More Questions? See the Table of Contents

TO ADJUST THE RECIPE SIZE:

You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.

Nutrition

Calories : 78 kcalCarbohydrates : 6 gProtein : 0.2 gFat : 7 gSaturated Fat : 1 gPolyunsaturated Fat : 4 gMonounsaturated Fat : 2 gCholesterol : 5 mgSodium : 152 mgPotassium : 3 mgFiber : 0.01 gSugar : 2 gVitamin A : 50 IUVitamin C : 0.1 mgCalcium : 1 mg

Serving size is my estimate of a normal size unless stated otherwise. The number of servings per recipe is stated above. This is home cooking, and there are many variables. All nutritional information are estimates and may vary from your actual results. To taste ingredients such as salt will be my estimate of the average used.

Course :Rubs and Sauces

Cuisine :American

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Editor's Note: Originally Published May 11, 2013. Updated with expanded discussion with options and re-edited photos. Table of contents added for navigation.