We started making our own Tartar Sauce more out of necessity than health. It is one of those condiments that we never seemed to have when we needed. We have three growing boys and they eat their fair share of fish sticks! We tweaked this recipe over the years till we felt like we had the best tartar sauce recipe for our family's taste.

This easy tartar sauce recipe is a base. By itself it makes great simple tartar sauce, but if you substitute a couple ingredients you can tweak it for your own taste or the occasion.

Above shot of tartar sauce with lemon wedge, fish and fries

What Is Tartar Sauce Made Out Of?

The base of a tartar sauce recipe is mayo, lemon or lime juice and pickle relish plus some standard seasonings. What you do with it from here depends on your tartar sauce preferences. Are you a lover of sweet tartar sauce or do you prefer more savory? Your pickle relish will be the main determining factor in the final outcome.

Easy Tartar Sauce with Fry dipped in ramekin, fries on side with dipped fish and a lemon wedge

Modify this Tartar Sauce Recipe and make it your own!

This tartar sauce is sweet but if you want a sweeter tartar sauce, make the tartar sauce recipe as written and add about a tablespoon of local honey. Give it a taste and adjust from there.

Like a more savory tartar sauce? Use dill pickle relish instead of sweet and leave out the honey. You can spice it up with some finely chopped jalapeno's if you want a nice spicy tartar sauce.

As you can see, there are many possibilities and people like it their own ways. Let your imagination go wild and create your own best tartar sauce recipe. I guarantee that you will like this better than that store bought pre-made, chemical ridden junk you get at the store.

Try to use as many natural organic ingredients as you can. Watch out for high fructose corn syrup in the pickle relish, it's in a lot of them. Follow this recipe and you will see how to make a simple tartar sauce in just minutes from simple ingredients you probably already have!

Tartar Sauce Ingredients

Mayonnaise - Since mayonnaise is the base of this tartar sauce recipe, start off with the good stuff. Whatever your favorite mayonnaise brand is will work well with this recipe. We are fans of Duke's mayo or Best Foods but use what you like.
Pickle Relish - We prefer sweet pickle relish but to each their own. We just like to make sure our pickle relish doesn't have high fructose corn syrup, it's pretty common in it.
Lemon Juice - Fresh squeezed lemon juice is the best but we won't hold a grudge against you if you use bottled. The amount of juice in each lemon varies but you can usually get about 1 tablespoon per lemon half.
Optional Spicy - If you like it spicy, add some chopped up Fire Roasted Jalapenos for a little extra kick.

Please let us know what you think in the comments below and feel free to share it with others!