Skip to main content

Pickled Horseradish

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,800 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pickled Horseradish

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Clean and scrape the horseradish.

  2. Place the horseradish into clean, sterilized jars.

  3. Boil enough vinegar to cover the horseradish.

  4. Add chillies, whole peppers, and a small piece of whole ginger to the vinegar.

  5. Pour the hot vinegar mixture over the horseradish and seal the jars tightly.

  6. Let it sit for 14 days before using.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Horseradish + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,646 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Horseradish + gingertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together676 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Horseradish + vinegartop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (horseradish, vinegar, pepper):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against horseradish, vinegar, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

You might also like

Raspberry VinegarRaspberry Vinegar214 recipesGinger PopGinger Pop22 recipesSugar VinegarSugar Vinegar20 recipesGinger WineGinger Wine12 recipes