Tartar Sauce: store-bought and DIY recipes
When it comes to tartar sauces, DIY is almost always best, and it’s not hard to do. Essentially, mix mayo, sweet or dill relish, Dijon mustard, lemon juice, fresh herbs (especially dill and parsley), salt and pepper to taste, and you have it. But, not only are not all ingredients created equal, but also, there are some great store-bought tartar sauces on the market that are excellent.
Store-bought:
Paladini Tartar Sauce: Paladini bills itself as a family recipe since 1861, and that classic, time-honored recipe vibe realyl comes through in this blend.
Blue Plate Mayonnaise Creole Tartar Sauce: This one is wildly good, and has more than 11,000 reviews to prove it. The creole mustard makes is something extra special.
Captain Toady's in Original or Dill flavors: It’s hard to pick between the two, because they are both so high quality and delicious.
Inglehoffer Seafood Tartar Sauce with Lemon and Caper: A classic for a reason. Find as a one-off or in this trio set of tartar sauce, cocktail sauce and dill mustard.
Fulton Fish Market Lemon Caper Sauce: Described as a tartar sauce alternative, it still hits all the notes you want from a tartar sauce and adds a few additional lemony ones. (Try their classic tartar sauce, too.)
DIY:
If you’d rather make your own tartar sauce, Inspired Taste has a solid basic tartar sauce recipe that’s easy to whip together. Coley Cooks has a more dressed-up version we also like.
Of course, you’ll want high-quality ingredients for that. Here are our picks for higher-end and lower-end options.
Mayonnaise: On the easier-to-find end, we love Duke’s brand of mayo because it’s versatile and high-quality. On the higher end, Delouis Mayonnaise is absolutely exquisite. Of course, if you want to add in flavor, it’s hard to go wrong with a truffle mayonnaise. We like the blend from Truffle GuysorTruff’s Spicy Truffle Mayo. or BVe Truffle’s Black Trufflemayoblend.
As for Dijon, we like Maille Mustard Dijon Originale for its high quality and relative easy-to-find-ness. For more of a whole ground feel, we like Inglehoffer Dijon Whole Grain Dijon with Wine & Herbs.vOf course, if you want to jump right to a Dijon-mayo combination, Ayoh! Tangy Dijon Mayo is our go-to.
The pickle part of this is also massively important, too, and quality is important here, too. We like Jake & Amos Sweet Pickle Relish,Laffitte's Cajun Sweet Pickle Relish, Rajin Cajun Sweet Jalapeno Relish if you’re feeling bold about it, Grillos Pickles Mild Pickle De Gallo if you’re after a chunkier sauce result, or you can finely chop pickles, in which case we suggest Bubbies Bread & Butter Pickles, though Bubbie’s Sweet Relish is a good choice for this purpose, too.
