The Tartar Tradition

• Created from mayonnaise and various pickled ingredients, briny tarter is a frequent battered fish condiment. You'll find jars of the chunky sauce for sale, but home versions are more economical and come together quickly. Whip up your own mayonnaise if you're feeling ambitious; however, commercial mayo is fine. Blend about 1 part mayonnaise with 1 part mixed pickled ingredients and fresh aromatics. These can include relish, chopped dill, chopped parsley, diced sweet or dill pickles and grated onions. Drizzling a small amount of juice from the pickle or relish jar into the mix adds extra tartness.

A Creamy Concoction

• If you're weary of tartar sauce but like a creamy sauce for taming rough-textured fried halibut, you needn't be locked into using tartar ingredients. Instead of making that pickle-based condiment, use mayonnaise as a building block for other sauces. For example, a drizzle of malt vinegar and handful of chopped tarragon lends a new dimension to creamy haddock sauce. Alternatively, blend 2 parts mayo with 1 part chopped, drained capers, then spike the topping with smoked paprika.

An Asian Occasion

• Asian-style dipping sauces take a little longer to prepare than quick-whisk tartar, but you'll likely find their concentrated sweetness and thick consistency worth a few extra steps. A simple sweet and sour sauce is achieved by heating 3 parts rice vinegar with 2 parts sugar, along with a few spoonfuls of aromatics such as pepper flakes and chopped garlic. Boil these ingredients together for about 10 minutes until the dipping sauce becomes honey-like in its consistency. A slightly more complex sauce comes from reducing pineapple juice and vinegar in a saucepan, along with aromatics such as ginger, lemon peel and julienned hot peppers.

The Tangy Treat

• When you cook your battered halibut in the form of strips or nuggets, a sweet mustard sauce is a welcome addition to the dipping platter. Maple syrup or honey provide the sweet component, while a good-quality Dijon lends sophistication to the mustard element. Whisk together equal parts honey or maple syrup with the Dijon, or use a 3-to-2 ratio of sweet-to-pungent or pungent-to-sweet ingredients, depending on your preference. For a bit of heat, spike the dipping sauce with a dash of Tabasco.