Chef Freja
Andesovs
The pan sauce that holds the Danish Christmas plate together. Duck drippings, good stock, cream, and a spoonful of red currant jelly for the tart brightness that makes juleaften taste like itself.
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Tatarsauce
Created by Chef Freja
The sharper, brighter sauce for fried fish: chopped capers, cornichons, shallot, and fresh herbs folded into mayonnaise. Not remoulade. Its own thing entirely, and the plate needs it.
Sauces & Condiments
Danish
Weeknight
Make Ahead
Comfort Food
15 min
Active Time
0 min cook•45 min total
Yieldabout 300ml, serves 4-6
The first warm evenings of June bring fried plaice back to the Danish kitchen. Whole fish, dusted in flour and fried in butter until the skin crackles, served with new potatoes so small you eat them in two bites. And next to the fish, always, a bowl of tatarsauce. The plate is not complete without it.
Tatarsauce is not remoulade. The two sit in different places on the Danish table, and they do different work. Remoulade is sweeter, softer, curry-tinted, the companion to smorrebrod and frikadeller. Tatarsauce is sharper. It cuts through richness instead of adding to it. Capers, cornichons, raw shallot, and fresh herbs, all chopped fine and folded into good mayonnaise, give you a sauce with enough acidity and texture to balance anything fried. This is what you set down next to fiskefrikadeller, next to stegt fisk, next to anything golden and crisp that needs a cool, bright counterpoint.
The whole thing takes fifteen minutes. What matters is the chopping: everything cut fine enough that each spoonful carries all the flavors, but not so fine that it turns into a paste. You want to feel the texture of each addition against the smooth mayonnaise. Taste as you go. Adjust the lemon, the salt, the pepper. You'll know when it's right.
Sauce tartare appears in French cookbooks from the mid-19th century, named not for any direct connection to the Tatar people but for its association with steak tartare, the raw beef dish it originally accompanied. The Danish version, tatarsauce, adapted the recipe to local tastes over the following decades, replacing tarragon with dill and favoring small cornichons over larger French gherkins. By the early 1900s it had claimed its place as the standard accompaniment to fried fish across Denmark, occupying a distinct role from the sweeter remoulade that dominated the smorrebrod table.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
good mayonnaise
Quantity
200ml
homemade or store-bought
capers
Quantity
2 tablespoons
drained, finely chopped
cornichons
Quantity
4
finely chopped
shallot
Quantity
1 small
finely minced
fresh dill
Quantity
1 tablespoon
finely chopped
fresh chives
Quantity
1 tablespoon
finely snipped
lemon juice
Quantity
1 tablespoon
Dijon mustard
Quantity
1 teaspoon
fine sea salt
Quantity
to taste
white pepper
Quantity
to taste
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| good mayonnaisehomemade or store-bought | 200ml |
| capersdrained, finely chopped | 2 tablespoons |
| cornichonsfinely chopped | 4 |
| shallotfinely minced | 1 small |
| fresh dillfinely chopped | 1 tablespoon |
| fresh chivesfinely snipped | 1 tablespoon |
| lemon juice | 1 tablespoon |
| Dijon mustard | 1 teaspoon |
| fine sea salt | to taste |
| white pepper | to taste |
Equipment Needed
- •Glass jar with tight-fitting lid, for storage
Instructions
- 1
Chop the additions
Drain the capers and chop them roughly. You want small pieces, not a paste. The capers should keep enough of their shape that you can feel them against the smooth mayonnaise. Chop the cornichons to the same size. Peel and mince the shallot as finely as you can manage. Raw shallot that's cut too coarsely will announce itself in every bite instead of blending into the whole. Fine dicing is the goal: small enough to distribute evenly, coarse enough to have presence.
If the shallot is very strong, soak the minced pieces in cold water for five minutes, then drain and squeeze dry in a clean cloth. This takes the aggressive edge off without losing the flavor you want. - 2
Prepare the herbs
Chop the dill fronds finely. Snip the chives into small rings. Keep the herbs separate from the wet ingredients until you're ready to mix. Fresh herbs bruise and darken if they sit too long against moisture, and you want them bright green in the finished sauce. That brightness is visual, but it's also flavor: dill that has turned dark has lost some of its life.
- 3
Fold the sauce together
Spoon the mayonnaise into a bowl. Add the mustard and lemon juice and stir until smooth. The mustard gives the sauce a gentle heat underneath everything else, and the lemon opens it up. Now fold in the chopped capers, cornichons, shallot, dill, and chives. Use a spatula and fold gently rather than stirring hard. Vigorous stirring breaks down the chopped ingredients and turns the sauce murky. You want it creamy with distinct flecks of green and the visible texture of capers and cornichons throughout.
Folding means lifting from the bottom and turning over, not stirring in circles. The goal is to distribute the additions evenly without crushing them into the mayonnaise. - 4
Season and rest
Season with salt and white pepper. Taste. The sauce should be bright and sharp, with the capers and cornichons providing a vinegary edge that lifts the richness of the mayonnaise. If it tastes flat, add a little more lemon juice. A squeeze at a time, tasting after each one. Cover and refrigerate for at least thirty minutes before serving. This resting time is not optional: the flavors need to settle and find each other, and the sauce thickens slightly as it chills. Straight from the bowl it tastes scattered. After thirty minutes it tastes like itself.
Chef Tips
- •If you have time, make your own mayonnaise. One egg yolk, a teaspoon of mustard, and 200ml of cold-pressed rapeseed oil, whisked slowly until thick. The flavor is rounder and cleaner than anything from a jar. But if it's a Tuesday evening and you have good store-bought mayonnaise, use it without guilt. The additions are what make this sauce what it is.
- •White pepper, not black. Black pepper leaves dark specks in the sauce and a sharper heat that doesn't belong here. White pepper disappears into the mayonnaise and gives a gentler warmth. This is a Danish kitchen habit, and in a pale sauce like this one, it matters.
- •Tatarsauce improves overnight. If you can make it the evening before you need it, do. The capers and cornichons release their brine slowly into the mayonnaise, and by the next day the sauce has a depth that the freshly made version doesn't quite reach. That patience is worth it.
Advance Preparation
- •Make the sauce at least thirty minutes ahead. The flavors need time to settle into each other, and the difference between fresh and rested is noticeable.
- •Tatarsauce keeps well in the fridge for three to four days in a sealed jar. The flavor improves over the first day, then holds steady. Add a final squeeze of lemon and a scatter of fresh herbs just before serving if it has been sitting for more than a day.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 60g)
Calories
265 calories
Total Fat
29 g
Saturated Fat
4 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
24 g
Cholesterol
15 mg
Sodium
545 mg
Total Carbohydrates
2 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
1 g
Protein
1 g
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