What Makes Culver's Tartar Sauce Taste So Good?

Culver's is a fan favorite for its delicious ButterBurgers, placing it among the best burger chains in America. Culver's also stands out with unique Midwestern specialties, including menu items like Wisconsin cheese curds and frozen custard. But burgers and dairy aren't the only menu items that set Culver's apart from its competition — fans gush over Culver's unique tartar sauce recipe for its  unique taste and texture. As one Redditor proclaimed, "They seriously need to sell their tartar sauce by the bottle. We love it!" 

What makes Culver's tartar sauce taste so good? The answer lies in a combination of ingredients. Culver's tartar sauce comes from a proprietary recipe that features the common mayo base with pimentos, capers, sweet pickle relish, and green olives. Pickle relish and capers are common tartar sauce ingredients that cut through the richness of the mayo and complement an umami-rich fish. But the use of both sweet relish and pimentos also contribute a sweetness that balances the tang and saltiness of the briney ingredient. 

Perhaps the most unique ingredient in Culver's tartar sauce is green olives, which bring saltiness and umami savoriness to round out the flavor profile. Culver's uses the tartar sauce to compliment the cod on it's North Atlantic cod sandwich — and the chain is as picky about where it gets its fish as it is about its sauce. A high-quality fish and flavorful tartar sauce puts Culver's fish sandwich way ahead of McDonald's Filet-O-Fish.

While Culver's tartar sauce comes with fish items, customers love it so much that they use it on plenty of other things too. One Redditor, for instance, "tried tartar sauce with tenders as a joke" but said, "it aint a joke no more." Other users recommend putting it on other Culver's chicken items, like the crispy chicken sandwich. Yet another customer said, "I love Culver's tartar sauce. I dip my fries in it," to which someone responded, "Tartar sauce as a fry dip is so unappreciated. So delicious." Pretty much any fried food will pair well with a creamy yet bright, tangy, salty, and sweet condiment like Culver's tartar sauce.

You can take a lesson from the Culver's to make your own tartar sauce at home. Tasting Table's simple recipe for tartar sauce already includes sweet relish and capers, and you can make it more like Culver's by removing the dill and herbs and swapping them for chopped green olives and pimentos. Of course, you can also doctor a store-bought tartar sauce with the capers, olives, and sweet relish for an even easier copycat recipe. Just as you can use tartar sauce for fried chicken and fries at Culver's, you can also use tartar sauce beyond fish at home. From a dipping sauce for mozzarella sticks to a base for chicken salad or a drizzle for roasted vegetables, it's the condiment that does it all.