Tartar Sauce

This tangy and creamy homemade tartar sauce recipe is easy to make and tastes much better than any store-bought version. Serve it with baked or fried fish and crab cakes.

After years of making it, I think this version is our very favorite homemade tartar sauce recipe, inspired by one from The Recipe Critic. Some people love capers and Dijon mustard in their tartar sauce, but my daughter and I prefer a simpler, tangy version with lots of acid from the pickle juice, vinegar, and lemon juice. I always make homemade tartar sauce when I serve salmon, halibut, fish sticks, razor clams, fried oysters, or crab cakes.

Tartar Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 2 tbsp dill pickles, finely minced
• 1½ tbsp fresh dill, chopped
• 2 tsp shallot, finely minced
• 1 large clove of garlic, finely minced
• 1 tsp dill pickle juice
• 1 tsp white wine vinegar
• Juice & zest from ½ small lemon
• ¼ tsp dried mustard
• Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste

How to Make Tartar Sauce

In a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise, pickles, fresh dill, shallot, garlic, pickle juice, lemon juice, lemon zest, sea salt, and freshly cracked pepper, to taste; mix until well combined.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving.

Store sealed in an airtight container in the refrigerator. It should last a week or longer.