Beaver Tartar Sauce, 11.5 Ounce Squeeze Bottle

Tartar sauce is my fave for fish n' chips, breaded shrimp, or a great fish sandwich. So I splurged on 7 different brands of tartar sauce like a nutcase so I could do my ultimate ranking. Nothing like a side by side comparison!I bought: Bookbinder's, Stonewall Kitchen, Kraft, Schlotterbeck & Foss, Beaver, McCormick, and Legal Sea Foods. I didn't rank: Heinz, Frisch's, or Hellmann's (although Cook's Illustrated rated Hellman's poorly, saying it was too close to plain old mayo, and Heinz didn't fare well either). Legal Sea Foods also makes a Chipotle Tartar Sauce, but I skipped that variant because I wanted to compare apples to apples.There's no accounting for taste, but I'd like to think I have a pretty discerning palate. Here are the results so you can skip the trial & error….you guys ready?THE WINNERS.1. Legal Sea Foods House Tartar Sauce.This gets my #1 slot. It has that 'premium, yet homemade' taste you'd expect at a fancy oceanfront seafood restaurant. It also has the best consistency - sumptuous and super creamy. The flavor is complex and hits the bullseye of vinegary tang balanced by pleasing sweetness. Legal Sea Foods also won Cook's Illustrated's taste test (just keep in mind that Cook's only tested five brands, excluding several strong brands).Inexplicably, Legal's tartar sauce is exorbitantly overpriced on this site. At the time of this writing, it sells for $15, which is ludicrous and more than twice what it actually costs (I bought it straight from them for $6.95). I don't show up as a "verified purchase" for this brand because I'm not a sucker.2. Beaver Seafood Tartar Sauce.The bottle claims "award-winning!" and after tasting the sauce, I believe it. It has loads of crunchy, flavorful chunks and gets bonus points for being the only sauce on this list with capers (yum). While it has a zesty taste that's similar to Legal's sauce, it's a little more one-note and less sophisticated in comparison.Even though it doesn't have the super-smooth consistency of Legal's sauce, I highly recommend it. However, if it matters to you, Beaver does have a few artificial ingredients not present in some of the others, from high fructose corn syrup to sodium benzoate. Still, a great choice.3. Kraft Tartar Sauce.Have you ever had a filet o' fish at McDonald's? That's exactly what this tartar sauce tastes like. I didn't have high hopes for this because it's a more mass-market, commercial product, but it packs a punch. It's tangy and sweet, with a classic taste. If you want a tartar sauce to really 'come through', this is the most distinctive of the lot (even more than Legal Foods').It's one of the cheapest options too - at this time, you can snag 6 bottles for $12. Of course, it's probably also the most artificial: with preservatives, modified food starch, a strong viscosity that homemade sauces don't have (you know, that homogenized, unnatural dessert-topping kind of consistency). Maybe it's just a mnemonic trigger for those childhood fish sandwiches, but it sure is tasty!HONORABLE MENTION4. Stonewall Down East Tartar Sauce.Legal Sea Foods handed off production of their sauces to Stonewall Kitchen, so I was initially concerned that Stonewall's own tartar sauce might be identical to Legal's. However, the recipes (and taste) are markedly different - Legal's has relish front and center as the first ingredient, caramelized onions, and ground celery seeds, while Stonewall's has a stronger dill flavor and lemon.Stonewall's offering has the same top-quality approach and consistency as Legal Sea Foods' tartar sauce. Its downfall? It lacks zip. It just needs way more tang to qualify as a good tartar sauce. That said, I can still recommend it (with reservations) because it's delicious. However, this is best used as an aioli of sorts, say as a dipping sauce, or as a sandwich spread. Sadly, when evaluated as a tartar sauce, it simply isn't good enough.THE LOSERS.5.McCormick Golden Dipt Tartar Sauce.Cook's gave this their #2 spot - "recommended with reservations" - but I disagree. This has a pleasant acidity and is fine as a lemony glorified mayo, but isn't nearly distinctive enough to qualify as tartar sauce, let alone a good one. There are barely any crunchy pickle bits within, either. Give it a pass.6. Schlotterbeck & Foss Tartar Sauce.The packaging alone had me salivating: from the classy drawing that denotes 'old world heritage' to the words "crafted in small batches since 1866, Portland, Maine". Yes, please!Unfortunately, the product doesn't live up to that promise. The sauce is too gentle & overly sweet - it needs way more distinctiveness and zip, and hews too closely to mayo. It's also too goopy and could use more viscosity. Kudos on the packaging and being from Maine, but the sauce itself needs to be retooled.7. Bookbinders Tartar Sauce.This has a fatal, insurmountable flaw: it is totally overpowered by horseradish flavor. Cook's Illustrated dinged them for the same reason. Look, there's nothing wrong with horseradish, but this ain't tartar sauce - it's a horseradish aioli. It also doesn't have nearly enough "chunks" of good stuff inside, kind of like chocolate chip ice cream with barely any chips in it. Skip this disappointment.There you go, folks - happy seafooding!

The bottle came like you see it.The tater suce was oily + separated, but I can't send it back

I found this product by googling “sugar free tartar sauce.” After reading the reviews here on Amazon, I purchased a bottle of the stuff.It arrived yesterday (Friday). When I did a sample taste of the stuff, to me, it tasted exactly like any other tartar sauce. When I checked the ingredients list, I was surprised to see this stuff does list “sugar” as one of the ingredients, as well as High Fructose Corn Syrup. The nutrition information lists 0g of sugar! So, I’m confused. Does this stuff contain sugar, or not? I most likely will not purchase it again. And no, I would not recommend it, if you are looking for a sugar-free tartar sauce.

Arrived with oil separated from other ingredients, floating on top. Shook bottle for 5 - 10 minutes and it mixed back up but is extremely runny/watery. I'll refrigerate it for a few days to see if it acquires the typical tartar sauce consistency. Then I'll unseal it and taste it...maybe I'll improve my ratings of the product, but initial impressions don't look promising. Ingredients list says it should be very good. Maybe the oil needs to be homogenized with the single other main liquid ingredient...then more thickener (guar gum?) added. If it stays watery after chilling, I'll be tempted to pour it into the blender and run some guar gum powder into it, to get a more usable consistency.UPDATE: refrigeration changes nothing, still separates & runny, like Italian salad dressing. I'll unseal and taste test it, then blend in guar gum powder in an attempt to thicken it so it will pile up somewhat in a spoon.

Tarter Sauce was delivered in some weird liquid kind of expired form and I can't return it so I'm just out of $10 won't be ordering again

No amount of shaking would remix the product. Discarded without opening.

Tarter sauce as I remember it is a creamy white sauce with relish. What I received is a bottle of oil with relish at the bottom. I'm not quite sure what this is, but it's going in the trash.

If I wrote that this is the best tartar sauce I'd ever tasted, you might not believe me. Well, it's fresh, tart, and delicious. Nice lemon and dill. Tastes homemade.