Kitchen Basics: Herb Mayonnaise (Sauce Tartare)

There are few sauces easier to make than the French classic sauce tartare, a sauce based on mayonnaise, for which reason I prefer to call it herb mayonnaise. And truth be told, this lets me add any damned herbs that I want without running afoul of those who claim that tartar sauce can only be made just so. It is a beautiful sauce for fish and seafood, chicken and poultry, and light white meats such as pork and veal.

Herb Mayonnaise (Sauce Tartare)

You'll find all kinds of recipes out there including any manner of ingredients. I prefer a pretty simple version myself using the classic fines herbes that I happen to have on hand. Which is to say, that although I have something of a recipe, each manifestation is different depending on the season and the ingredients that I happen to have.

Herb Mayonnaise Ingredients
Dill, Tarragon, Lemon, Cornichons, Chives, Mayo

The classic fines herbes are four: Italian (flat) parsley, tarragon, chives, and chervil. I seldom have chervil on hand (it's so hard to come by in the US that we used to grow it for our own use at the restaurant). I can hardly resist the temptation to add baby dill to this list if I happen to have it. I really think it adds another dimension to the other herbs, but you will almost never find this ingredient called for in classic recipes.

Although I love and use copious amounts of Italian parsley in my cooking, for the version of herb mayonnaise above, I omitted it, simply because I had so much dill, tarragon, and chives on hand that I wanted to use before they spoiled.

I aways add cornichons, finely minced, to the sauce and I will use the tiny non-pareil ("without equal") capers in brine if I happen to have them, but I do not right now in the food desert that is Central Oregon. I'm not a fan of the coarser salted capers for this sauce, but in a pinch, you can soak them well to remove some of the salt.

At home, I do not typically make the mayonnaise base as it is a lot of work for a small quantity of sauce. Of course at the restaurant when making liters of sauce at a time, making the mayonnaise is de rigueur. So at home, I typically start with commercial mayonnaise, about which I am ultra-picky. I, like most southerners and most chefs of my acquaintance, insist on Duke's. It's Duke's or bust for me.

To the mayonnaise, I add the finely minced herbs, cornichons, and capers. After mixing, I taste for three things: salt, piquancy, and acidity. Salt, you need to be careful with because both capers and cornichons are already salty. If I am using commercial mayo, I will almost always add a fair amount of lemon juice for acidity and a scant sprinkle or two of white pepper for piquancy (you cannot really taste the pepper, but it enhances all the other flavors). If I am using purpose-made mayo, I will have already added both the lemon juice and white pepper when whipping the mayo.

Herb mayo is best made in advance so that the herbs have time to infuse into the mayonnaise. I will typically make it in the morning for use in the evening, letting it mellow all day in the refrigerator. Like soup, sauce tartare is best the next day. But because it contains fresh herbs, you should only make it in the quantity that you will use within a day or perhaps two.

Other cooks, including many renowned French chefs that I admire, will add other ingredients, but those ingredients are not for me. They could include cayenne, mustard, hardboiled egg yolks, onion (yellow or green), or shallot. As I've said many times before on this blog, it's your dish and you are free and even encouraged to do it your way.