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SAUCES

Spicy Cajun Remoulade

The Gulf Coast's answer to tartar sauce -- Creole mustard, Louisiana hot sauce, smoked paprika and grated raw garlic whisked into mayonnaise until it is sharp enough to cut fried anything.

Used in Cajun Tuna Burgers

OriginLouisiana Creole
Active5 min
Total5 min
EquipmentSmall bowl, whisk, fine grater
Yield
1/2cup
Sauces 4 burgers, both cut faces
Whisk
2min
Until smooth and uniformly orange-flecked
Keeps
3days
Airtight in the fridge -- raw garlic sets the limit
1 · WHISK
1/3 cup ≈ 79 mL mayonnaise Base for everything else. Whisk the rest in until smooth.1
1 tbsp ≈ 15 mL Creole or whole-grain mustard Whisk in with the mayo.2
1 tsp ≈ 5 mL hot sauce (Crystal or Louisiana-style) Whisk in; taste and adjust for heat.
1/2 tsp ≈ 2.5 mL smoked paprika Whisk in. Does most of the color and all of the smoke.
pinch cayenne Whisk in. A pinch -- the hot sauce is already doing this job.
1 tsp ≈ 5 mL lemon juice Whisk in. Thins the mayo enough to spread and keeps it from tasting flat.
1 small garlic clove, grated Grate on a microplane straight into the bowl3
  1. mayonnaise · WHISK Refrigerate until the moment you build.
  2. Creole or whole-grain mustard · WHISK Creole if you have it, whole-grain if you do not -- both bring the seed texture.
  3. garlic clove, grated · WHISK Minced leaves chunks that read as raw garlic instead of dissolving in.
Protein
Produce
Dairy & Egg
Pantry & Grain
Spice & Seasoning
Liquid & Fat

Notes

Grate the garlic, do not mince it. A microplane turns the clove into a pulp that disappears into the mayo. Minced garlic stays in pieces you bite into, and raw garlic in a cold sauce is unpleasant in chunks.
Three days, and the garlic is why. Mayonnaise alone would hold longer, but raw garlic in a cold acidic base turns sharp and slightly bitter past about day three. Make it fresh; it takes five minutes.
Crystal over Tabasco if you can find it. Crystal and other Louisiana-style sauces are milder and more vinegar-forward, so a full teaspoon adds acidity and flavor rather than just heat. With Tabasco, start with half.
Dial the heat for kids. Drop the hot sauce and the cayenne entirely -- the smoked paprika and Creole mustard still carry the flavor, and it stays recognizably remoulade.
Where this came from. Built as the sauce for Cajun Tuna Burgers, but it is the standard partner to fried shrimp, crab cakes, and any fried fish sandwich.
Adapted Adapted from the standard Louisiana white remoulade formula (mayonnaise, Creole mustard, hot sauce, lemon, garlic). Developed for this project, August 2026, as the sauce for a Cajun tuna burger; split into its own card September 7, 2026.