Name: Pepper Sauce
Ingredients: 25 peppers, seeds removed, finely chopped; more than double the quantity of cabbage, shredded; 1 root of horseradish, grated; 1 handful coarse sea salt; 1 tablespoon mustard seed; 1 tablespoon cloves; 1 tablespoon ground allspice; vinegar, enough to cover

Why it works: Horseradish and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Pepper Sauce

Ingredients

25 peppers, seeds removed, finely chopped
more than double the quantity of cabbage, shredded
1 root of horseradish, grated
1 handful coarse sea salt
1 tablespoon mustard seed
1 tablespoon cloves
1 tablespoon ground allspice
vinegar, enough to cover

Directions

Prepare

Finely chop the peppers and remove the seeds.
Shred the cabbage.
Grate the horseradish.

Combine and pickle

In a large bowl, combine the peppers, cabbage, horseradish, salt, mustard seed, cloves, and allspice.
Simmer enough vinegar to cover the mixture, then pour it over the ingredients.
Mix everything well to combine.

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.

Horseradish + mustardtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,832 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cabbage + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together481 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,928 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Peppers: Provide the main heat and bulk of the sauce's flavour.
Cabbage: Adds bulk and a mild, crisp texture to the mixture.
Horseradish: Contributes sharp pungency that mellows during preserving.
Vinegar: Provides acidity that preserves the mixture and sharpens its flavour.

Swap the cabbage

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

Shallotfits better
Radishfits better
Broccolifits better
Cabbagethe original

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

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.