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Tartare Sauce
To a cupful of Pompeian Mayonnaise (recipe for which see on page 4), add one tablespoonful of capers, three chopped olives and two chopped gherkins or small pickles and a half teaspoonful of finely-chopped green herbs, if desired.
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A five-minute cold sauce that is really a seasoning of an existing mayonnaise. Everything depends on how finely and how dryly the pickled elements are chopped.
- The base"Pompeian Mayonnaise" is the booklet's own olive-oil mayonnaise, made with raw yolk. Any good mayonnaise substitutes directly; if you make your own and plan to hold it more than a day, use pasteurized eggs.
- Drain everythingCapers, olives and gherkins all carry brine. Chop them, then press them in a paper towel before folding in, or the brine will thin the sauce.
- GherkinsThe gherkin of this period was usually a small sour cucumber pickle in vinegar rather than the sweet kind. Cornichons are a close match; sweet pickles will make the sauce cloying.
- OlivesThree chopped olives means three whole ones. The recipe does not say what kind; plain olives rather than stuffed or flavored ones fit the sauce best.
- Herbs'Green herbs' most likely meant parsley, possibly with chervil, tarragon or chives. A half teaspoon is modest and can be increased to taste.
- Yield and restingA little over a cup, enough for four to six servings with fried fish or cold meat. It benefits from half an hour refrigerated before serving.
Tartare sauce is a nineteenth-century French restaurant sauce, sauce tartare, built on mayonnaise and sharp pickled things; the name is usually traced to the Tatars, though some accounts prefer the vague European use of "a la tartare" for anything served with a fierce cold seasoning, the same loose sense that gave steak tartare its name. This version appears to come from a promotional cookery booklet issued by an olive oil company, since the base sauce is named for the brand and is cross-referenced to page four. Booklets of this kind were a common marketing device of the era, intended to persuade households that imported oil belonged in everyday cooking.