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Horse Radish Sauce

A sauce made from finely grated horse radish root, salt, cream, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Horse Radish Sauce

Why it works: Horse and radish work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 529 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

Horse Radish Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Grate the horse radish root very fine.

  2. In a bowl, mix the grated horse radish with salt and cream.

  3. Stir briskly and gradually add the vinegar.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Horse + radishtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together529 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  2. Radish + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together508 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Horse + vinegartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together331 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Horse + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together87 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Cream + vinegartop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,064 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Horseradish (in the method)
Supplies the sharp, pungent heat that defines the sauce.
Cream
Adds richness and softens the sharp heat into a smoother texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and helps keep the sauce bright.

The step that matters

Adding the vinegar gradually while stirring briskly. Acid poured in quickly into cream can curdle or separate it, leaving a grainy sauce. Adding the vinegar slowly while stirring spreads it evenly, keeping the cream smooth and the sauce uniform.

Swap the radish

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

  1. Radishthe original
  2. Mustardfits about as well
  3. Cucumberfits less well
  4. Horseradishfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against horse, cream, 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.

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