Skip to main content
Sauce

Fine Horseradish Sauce

A sauce combining grated horseradish, butter, vinegar, eggs, lemon juice, parsley, pepper, salt, cayenne, flour, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Fine Horseradish Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the horseradish

  1. Wash, wipe, and scrape the horseradish root free of outer skin, then grate it finely on a bright grater to a pulp.

  2. Combine 2 heaped tablespoons of grated horseradish, 1 moderate teaspoon of salt, 4 tablespoons of rich cream, and 3 dessertspoons of good vinegar; stir vinegar briskly into the mixture in small portions.

  3. Add a few drops of garlic or shallot vinegar if desired.

Make the sauce

  1. For the cold maître d’hôtel sauce, mix 2–3 ounces of good butter, some pepper, salt, minced parsley, and the strained juice of a lemon until perfectly blended.

  2. For the 2‑oz butter version, combine 2 ounces butter, 1 heaped teaspoon of young minced parsley, juice of 1 lemon, 1 small saltspoonful salt, and white pepper.

  3. For the cold Dutch or American sauce, put 3 ounces of good butter blended with a small teaspoon of flour into a saucepan; add a large wineglassful of cold water, half as much sharp vinegar (or fresh lemon juice), a saltspoonful of salt, and half as much cayenne powder.

  4. Shake or stir the mixture over a clear fire until it forms a smooth sauce and boils rapidly.

  5. Quickly stir the hot sauce into the beaten yolks of four fresh eggs, which will give the sauce custard consistency.

Chill and serve

  1. Pour the hot sauce over the salad, then place it on ice or in a very cool larder until it is quite cold.

  2. Optionally mix in a dessertspoonful of parsley or tarragon, or other flavorings.

  3. Use the sauce to dress salt fish, sliced potatoes, hard eggs, or other salads.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

201Calories
7 gProtein
17 gFat
5 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Eggs1 large egg (50g)78
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Eliza Acton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Lemon + vinegartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,334 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Lemon and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the sauce and gives it a smooth, rich body when blended.
Eggs
Beaten yolks thicken the hot sauce into a custard-like consistency.
Horseradish (in the method)
Provides the sharp, pungent flavor that defines the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the richness.
Flour (in the method)
Helps thicken the butter and water base into a smooth sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the hot sauce to the eggs. If the sauce is too hot or added too slowly, the egg yolks can scramble instead of thickening smoothly. Stirring the hot sauce in quickly and steadily keeps the yolks evenly warmed so they set into a smooth custard.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Strawberryfits about as well
  2. Currantfits about as well
  3. Raspberryfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, 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.

More horseradish sauce recipes

Hot 21Russian 6Cream 3 See all 297 →

You might also like

Hot Lemon Cream SauceHot Lemon Cream Sauce11 recipesWine Sauce (for stewed fruit)Wine Sauce (for stewed fruit)186 recipesCaper SauceCaper Sauce180 recipesBrown SauceBrown Sauce141 recipes