Sauce Tartare — Mayonnaise with Pickles, Capers, and Herbs

Ingredients

• For the mayonnaise base
• 2 egg yolks, raw, at room temperature
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 250 ml neutral oil, sunflower or grapeseed
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar or lemon juice, to finish
• to taste fine salt
• For the garnish
• 40 g cornichons, cut to precise 2 mm brunoise
• 20 g nonpareil capers, left whole; larger capers roughly chopped
• 10 g chives, cut to 3 mm batons
• 10 g chervil, fine chiffonade
• 10 g tarragon, fine chiffonade
• 1 anchovy fillet, optional; pounded to a paste
• 1 tsp cornichon brine, from the jar

Method

1. 1
   If using anchovy, pound the fillet to a smooth paste with a mortar and pestle. Place the egg yolks, Dijon mustard, and anchovy paste (if using) in a bowl and whisk together until the mixture is pale and uniform. The yolks should look slightly thickened and cling to the whisk.
2. 2
   Begin adding the neutral oil in a thin, continuous thread, whisking constantly and without pause. Do not rush this stage — this is where the dish lives or dies. The emulsion must be built drop by drop at first, then in a fine stream only once the mixture has visibly thickened and gone glossy. If the oil is added too fast the emulsion will break; correct viscosity is a mayonnaise that ribbons heavily off the whisk and holds its shape in the bowl.
3. 3
   Season the mayonnaise base with white wine vinegar or lemon juice and fine salt. Add the teaspoon of cornichon brine and whisk briefly to incorporate. The base should taste pronounced in acidity — sharper and saltier than a plain mayonnaise. Taste and adjust: the pickle note should be forward before the oil.
4. 4
   Fold in the cornichon brunoise, capers, chives, chervil, and tarragon by hand using a flexible spatula. The garnish is never blended. Fold until the herbs and pickles are evenly distributed throughout the mayonnaise. The finished sauce should look visibly loaded — flecked green and dotted with capers at every spoonful.
5. 5
   Check the final consistency: the sauce should hold its shape on a plate but spread easily under a spoon — firm enough to mound, not so stiff it clumps. Cover, hold at 4°C, and serve within 4 hours of preparation. The sauce must not be heated at any point.