Cajun Remoulade and is one of my favorite types of mayonnaise based sauce and is that perfect accompaniment to seafood, like these crab cakes, I recently posted and a necessity for crab Louie, which I’ll post later this week.

What is Cajun Remoulade?

Cajun Remoulade is a complex mayonnaise-based sauce with what seems like a long list of ingredients, but ones usually found in most pantries. It’s creamy, but sharp with the acid driven by the hot sauce, pickle juice and lemon juice. Capers plus two mustards including a stone ground mustard help to bring a bland mayonnaise to life.

I have always loved cajun remoulade sauce with seafood, but knew very little about its history. It is thought to have originated in France (as most sauces seem to) making its way to America in Cajun or Creole cooking in Louisiana. In fact, you don’t have to go more than a few feet to find a remoulade sauce in New Orleans.

Like most evolving recipes, remoulade sauce varies from chef to chef, cook to cook, and everyone probably thinks their recipe is the only true remoulade. This means that you can make this your own. While the following ingredients make a delicious remoulade, you can tinker as you see fit. Many recipes have chopped celery, but that’s not an ingredients I easily have on hand, and I didn’t miss it.

What are the Ingredients in Cajun Remoulade Sauce?

Mayonnaise
Dijon Mustard
Stone Ground Mustard
Smoked or Sweet Paprika
Pickle Juice
Worcestershire Sauce
Capers
Hot sauce
Garlic Powder or Fresh Cloves
Parsley
Scallions

This might seem like a lot of ingredients but most of these are probably in your pantry. The most important thing is driving these flavors, though, is taking the time to refrigerate the sauce to meld the flavors. You need at least an hour, but I like to refrigerate this sauce for several hours before eating.

You can also use your left over remoulade to make remoulade deviled eggs. Simply mix with yolks. Go here for how to make perfect hard boiled eggs.