What is Tartar Sauce?
Tartar sauce is a popular condiment made primarily of mayonnaise, pickles, and seasonings. Its rich and tangy flavor pairs especially well with deep-fried foods, with its sharpness cutting through the grease and giving it a lighter taste. Tartar sauce originated in France and has made its way all over the world, including Japan!
Tartar sauce made its debut in the Japanese market back in 1966 and gained popularity as Western cuisine (yoshoku) spread across the country. It is most commonly served with ebi fry (deep-fried breaded prawns), kaki-fry (deep-fried oysters) and chicken nanban (fried chicken cooked in a sour sauce), in addition to other fried dishes.
How is Japanese Tartar Sauce different?
Japanese tartar sauce contains many of the same or similar ingredients to its Western counterparts. However, in true Japanese fashion, it has been adapted to use local ingredients and suit the palate of Japanese people.
Firstly, it is made with Japanese mayonnaise, which consists primarily of egg yolks. This gives Japanese mayonnaise a thicker, creamier texture and golden appearance, which differs from the white mayonnaise made with whole eggs in other countries. Japanese mayo is also made with rice vinegar, adding a mild sweetness and subtle sourness.
In addition to the mayonnaise, Japanese tartar sauce often contains boiled eggs that have been finely diced. Instead of traditional pickles, it sometimes incorporates Japanese pickles like rakkyo (sweet pickled Japanese scallions) and shibazuke (pickles made with eggplant, shiso, and ginger).
Visual Walkthrough & Tips
Here are my step-by-step instructions for how to make Japanese-style Tartar Sauce at home. For ingredient quantities and simplified instructions, scroll down for the Printable Recipe Card below.
Finely chop the boiled eggs, onion and pickles.
Transfer your finely chopped ingredients to a large mixing bowl and add the Japanese mayonnaise, lemon juice, sugar, ketchup, salt, pepper and dry parsley.
Mix thoroughly until all of the ingredients are evenly distributed.
How to Store
Homemade Japanese-style tartar sauce can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about 5 days, depending on the freshness of your ingredients.
This recipe cannot be frozen.
I hope you enjoy this Japanese-style Tartar Sauce recipe! If you try it out, I’d really appreciate it if you could spare a moment to let me know what you thought by giving a review and star rating in the comments below. It’s also helpful to share any adjustments you made to the recipe with our other readers. Thank you!
Serving Suggestions with This Sauce
Homemade Japanese Tartar Sauce
Equipment
- Steel Mixing Bowls
Ingredients
- 2 egg
- 25 g onion
- 2 small pickled gherkin
- 4 tbsp Japanese mayonnaise I recommend Kewpie
- 1 tsp tomato ketchup
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch ground black pepper
- ¼ tsp dried parsley
My recommended brands of ingredients and seasonings can be found in my Japanese pantry guide.
Can’t find certain Japanese ingredients? See my substitution guide here.
Instructions
- Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil (enough to cover the eggs). Add 2 egg and set a timer for 10 minutes. While they're boiling, prepare a bowl of ice water.
- Once the timer is up, transfer the eggs to the ice water to halt the cooking process. Leave them to cool for 10 minutes, then peel and dry them with kitchen paper.
- Finely dice the eggs, 25 g onion and 2 small pickled gherkin.
- Transfer them to a large mixing bowl and add 4 tbsp Japanese mayonnaise, 1 tsp tomato ketchup, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 2 tsp sugar, 1 pinch salt, 1 pinch ground black pepper and ¼ tsp dried parsley.
- Mix thoroughly until all of the ingredients are evenly distributed.
- Transfer to a sterilized air-tight jar and store in the fridge for up to 5 days.
- Enjoy!
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