Is it Cheaper to make or buy Tartar Sauce?
Tartar sauce is another one of those loved or hated condiments. It is commonly used on fried fish, but it can also be used with French fries, veggies, as sandwich spread, or even on baked potatoes.
When you buy tartar sauce at the grocery store, it usually not that expensive, but since the ingredients are pretty basic…..would it be cheaper to make my own tartar sauce? Let’s deep dive into the cost breakdown and find out!
How much does homemade tartar sauce cost?
For the homemade tartar sauce, we will be using a basic recipe from AllRecipes. For the full recipe, click here.
This recipe doesn’t require any fancy equipment and is really just mixing together a few ingredients in a bowl with a spatula. I love quick and easy recipes!
| Homemade Tartar Sauce Ingredients | Cost |
| 1 cup mayonnaise | $1.25 |
| 2 tsp sweet pickle relish | $0.02 |
| 1 tsp yellow mustard | $0.01 |
| 1 tsp lemon juice | $0.01 |
| Total Cost of Homemade Tartar sauce: $1.29 (makes about 1 cup) | Cost per 2 tbsp serving: $0.16 |
The cost to make a whole batch of tartar sauce comes out to about $1.29. If you break it down into a 2-tablespoon serving size, it costs about $0.16 a serving.
We priced out all the ingredients at our local Walmart, so your costs may vary. Thankfully most people already have most of these ingredients on hand, so your own cost may actually be lower if you don’t have to buy anything extra!
How much does tartar sauce cost at grocery store?
Now let’s head out and check some grocery stores for the price of premade tartar sauce. Due to the low cost of handmade tartar sauce, I am thinking it will cost more to buy it. Let’s find out!
| Brand of Tartar Sauce and Number of Servings | Store & Price | Cost per serving |
| Kraft 12oz bottle (12 servings) | Schnuck’s, $3.19 | $0.26 |
| Kurtz 12oz bottle (12 servings) | Save A Lot, $1.75 | $0.14 |
| Bookbinder’s 9.5 oz bottle (9.5 servings) | Gordon Food Service, $3.39 | $0.35 |
| Fresh Thyme 7.5oz bottle (7.5 servings) | Fresh Thyme Market, $3.79 | $0.50 |
| Burman’s 11.5oz bottle (11.5 servings) | Aldi, $1.45 | $0.12 |
| McCormick 8oz bottle (8 servings) | Harps Food Store, $3.09 | $0.38 |
| Kroger 12oz bottle (12 servings) | Fred Meyer, $2.19 | $0.18 |
| Marina 13oz bottle (13 servings) | Albertsons, $5.19 | $0.39 |
| Skipper 16oz bottle (17 servings) | Safeway, $6.59 | $0.38 |
| Average Cost Per Serving of Premade Tartar Sauce: | $0.30 |
The cost per serving of premade Tartar Sauce from the grocery store ranged anywhere from 0.12 to 0.50 per serving. The average cost per serving was about $0.30.
Making your own homemade tartar sauce for $0.16 per serving was much cheaper than buying it from the store!
Is homemade tartar sauce worth it?
Not only is homemade tartar sauce cheaper to make then buying it, but it is also really easy to make. Another benefit of homemade tartar sauce is that you can make it healthier than the stuff from the store!
If you are trying to watch your sodium intake, you can cut the amount of sodium almost in half by making tartar sauce yourself.
The tartar sauce in the grocery store ranged from 190mg to 250mg per serving. The homemade version depending on which mayonnaise you use, can be as low as 75mg per serving.
The FDA recommends only consuming 2,300mg of sodium a day, and the average American actually consumes closer to 3,400mg a day.
So, making your own tartar sauce at home is a nice compromise to have a tasty dip and not all the sodium!
For more cost breakdowns of making versus buying, check out “Is it Cheaper to buy Minced Garlic or Cloves?” and “Is it cheaper to buy Limes or Lime Juice?“
