To make a Louisiana remoulade, whisk a cup of mayonnaise with two tablespoons of Creole or coarse-grain mustard, a tablespoon each of chopped capers, cornichons, and scallion, a teaspoon each of paprika, horseradish, and hot sauce, and a squeeze of lemon. Rest it an hour. For the French version, drop the paprika, horseradish, and hot sauce and add tarragon and parsley.
What is remoulade?
Remoulade started in France as a sharpened mayonnaise: mustard, capers, chopped cornichons, and fresh herbs folded into the emulsion, sometimes with a whisper of anchovy. That pale version is the dressing for celeri remoulade, the shredded celery root salad on every traiteur counter, and a standing partner for cold meats and fried fish.
Louisiana took the same name somewhere much louder. Creole remoulade runs red with paprika, leans on the region's coarse Creole mustard, and picks up horseradish, hot sauce, scallion, and garlic. It exists to be piled on cold boiled shrimp, spread down a po'boy, and served beside crab cakes. Both versions are correct, they are simply answering different questions.
What goes in remoulade?
- ·1 cup mayonnaise
- ·2 tbsp Creole mustard (or coarse-grain plus a little Dijon)
- ·1 tbsp capers, chopped
- ·1 tbsp cornichons or dill pickle, minced
- ·1 tbsp scallion, minced
- ·1 garlic clove, grated
- ·1 tsp paprika
- ·1 tsp prepared horseradish
- ·1 tsp hot sauce
- ·1 tsp lemon juice
- ·For the French style: swap the last four for 1 tbsp each chopped tarragon and parsley
A cup of mayonnaise to roughly a quarter cup of sharp additions is the working balance for either camp. The mustard is the personality decision: smooth Dijon reads French, coarse Creole mustard reads New Orleans, and the rest of the seasoning follows that choice.
How do you make remoulade?
- Chop the capers, cornichons, and scallion fine, remoulade should read as a sauce, not a relish.
- Whisk everything into the mayonnaise until evenly tinted.
- Rest at least an hour refrigerated, the mustard and garlic need the time to settle in.
- Taste against what it will sauce: it should be sharper than seems polite on the spoon.
- Keeps five days refrigerated in a sealed jar.
What should you know before making remoulade?
- Rest it. Remoulade mixed and served in the same ten minutes tastes like mayonnaise with gravel in it, an hour turns it into one sauce.
- For shrimp remoulade, thin the Louisiana version with a spoonful of lemon juice so it coats instead of clumps.
- The French version is the best thing that ever happened to a leftover roast beef sandwich.
Where did remoulade come from?
Remoulade belongs to the French cold-sauce family that Escoffier codified, a mayonnaise finished with mustard, capers, gherkins, and herbs. French and Creole cooking carried it to Louisiana, where New Orleans kitchens rebuilt it around Creole mustard, paprika, and cayenne, and shrimp remoulade became a standing first course of the city's restaurants.
Drawn from the public-domain text of Auguste Escoffier, Le Guide Culinaire (1903).
What can you make from remoulade?
Common questions.
What is the difference between French and Louisiana remoulade?
The base is the same, mayonnaise with mustard, capers, and pickles. The French version stays pale and adds herbs like tarragon. The Louisiana version turns red with paprika, and adds horseradish, hot sauce, scallion, and garlic.
What do you eat remoulade with?
The red version belongs with boiled shrimp, po'boys, crab cakes, and fried anything. The pale version dresses celery root, cold roast meats, and fried fish. Both work as a fry dip.
Is remoulade just fancy tartar sauce?
They are cousins, both mayonnaise plus pickles and capers. Tartar sauce stops there. Remoulade adds mustard as a second pillar, and the Louisiana version adds a whole percussion section of paprika, horseradish, and hot sauce.