Never heard of “The” German Tartar Sauce? Well, some German dishes are very regional and those from Bavaria are best known by tourists. But places in the North have very delicious regional dishes, too. Hamburg is i.e. very well known for its very delicious Tartar sauce, called “Hamburger Remouladen Soße” or “Hamburg Remoulade Sauce”. You might think that we eat this sauce with fish. Possible. But actually, we eat it mostly with roast beef and fried potatoes.
Groceries in Hamburg and other towns in the North usually sell this tartar sauce fresh at their deli. Our grandmothers, however, made it from scratch and I’ll tell you how.
A little more about our Tartar Sauce
Hamburg is the town where I was born and where I lived many years as an adult. North of Hamburg is the federal state of Schleswig Holstein and that’s where I spent many years of my youth. Their dishes are similar if not equal to those in Hamburg.
It is very common to cook potatoes, slice them and fry them in a pan with small bits of bacon and some onions. Together with the roast beef and remoulade sauce it is a traditional and very common meal.
The roast beef, however, doesn’t come in a whole piece. You buy thin slices of it at the local butcher and there you can usually also get the German Tartar Sauce. The slices of roast beef are not reheated and sometimes rolled into a tube. You can either spread this Sauce Tartar onto the roast beef or dip it into it.
In the US
A little search on google revealed that “roast beef with tartar sauce” isn’t completely unknown in the States. The recipes that I looked up where different from mine. It appears that there is a Swedish version, too. This makes sense since the North of Germany and Sweden are very close and share a lot of similarities. That is one more reason why I like to shop food at IKEA.
Hamburg Remoulade Sauce – Hamburger Remouladensoße
Ingredients
- 400 g mayonaise
- 1 egg
- 3 cornichons
- ½ bunch parsley
- ½ bunch dill
- 1 small onion
- 1 Tbsp. capers
- some cornichon liquid
- some salt, pepper
Instructions
- Cut the egg, cornichons, parsley, dill, onion and capers into very litle pieces.
- In a bowl fill the mayonnaise and add the precious named ingredients.
- Mix everything very well, add a little of the cornichon fluid and stir.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
- Refrigerate over night (gives it more taste) and eat cold with cold roast beef and hot fried potatoes.
I Love this remoulade sauce. I lived in West Germany for 15 years and first had this sauce, with rare beef, when we lived in Paderborn in the 1960s, what a treat. So I was delighted to find the recipe for this and many other familiar German dishes on this web site. Thank you so much!
Buenas tardes, por favor me podrías dar la recta de pretsel (las disculpas si esta mal escrito)
Barbara, I am an American who used to live in Ratzeburg, worked in Hamburg for many many years & shopped in Luebeck!! I returned to the US just a few years ago & realized how much I missed special German foods. I started with mandarin quark cake & wind beutel. I recently cooked a roast beef like our butcher did for my parties & needed a recipe for the romoulade. This exactly the same as my butcher who would never give me the a precise recipe. I want to serve this typical party meal to friends along with other great common dishes I still cook. Lidl once had a decent sandwich romoulade there, but this is the original. THANK YOU!!
Hi Donna,
don’t you love Lübeck? I think it’s one of the most beautiful cities in the North of Germany. I miss it! I’ve been singing in the Lübecker Dom a few times like 30 years ago.
Best,
Barbara
Exelllentes Rezept – a keeper! Fern der Heimat war uns mal wieder nach Norddeutscher Kost: Holsteiner Sauerfleisch mit Bratkartoffeln und Deiner Hamburger Remoulade. Ein Gedicht. Danke. Werde sicher bald wieder mal reinschauen – Deine Web-Seite macht “Lust” auf mehr!
Hallo Rudy,
das freut mich! Viel Spaß noch beim kochen & backen!
Viele Grüße,
Barbara
Hallo Barbara, danke für´s Rezept.! Suchte etwas um Aldi Remoulade in Richtung Sauce Tartar aufzumotzen!
I live in Houston, TX. Where do you purchase your German products, specifically Kasler?
Thank you
Hi Sandra,
Sorry for the wait, I‘ve bern out of town for teo months. Here in Texas we are lucky to have HEB which is run and owned by a German family (2nd or 3rd generation). They have an international isle with a lof of German products. The Kassler, however is at the meat section. It‘s where the ham packages and some very weird meat products are located. Look for the Smithfiels brand. The oackage has like a gold frame on the top and it says „Smithfields Anytime“ on top and on the lower half „pork chops“. I‘ll upload a picture to the facebook page since I can‘t upload it in the comments.
I‘ve seen pork chops at target a while ago, too. Other German products are available at Aldi or German Deli (they send it very fast in a cooler!).
Hello! I found Thomy Gourmet Remoulade at Phoenicia Specialty Foods. It is Fabulous with fish!!
Thanks
I love your site and recipes!
Years ago, a german friend made me the best beef stroganoff I’ve ever had.
It had pickles in it!
She would not give me the recipe.
Do you make it? If you have that recipe, would you please post it on your site?
Thanks!
At the moment I don’t have the recipe here since I am traveling but I will get home next week. I’ll try to find it in my cookbook and let you know. That might even be a good recipe for this site, maybe with a video. Just follow this page on facebook https://www.facebook.com/MyGerman.Recipes/ for updates. Best, Barbara
Thanks for the reply!
I will definitely look forward to that recipe!
Hey, here is the recipe (with video) that you were waiting for: http://www.mygerman.recipes/recipe/boeuf-stroganoff/ I hope it is as good as you remember it. Let me know what you think.