Name: Horseradish Sauce
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon olive oil or melted butter; 1 tablespoon prepared mustard; 2 tablespoons grated horseradish; 1 tablespoon vinegar; 1 teaspoon sugar; ¼ teaspoon salt

Why it works: Mustard and horseradish 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 ↓

Horseradish Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

In a bowl, combine olive oil or melted butter, prepared mustard, grated horseradish, vinegar, sugar, and salt.
Stir and beat the mixture until thoroughly mixed.

Serve and store

Serve with cold meats.
If made with oil or melted butter, it will keep for 2-3 days.

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.

Mustard + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,832 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,950 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,297 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Olive + horseradishtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together475 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Olive oil or melted butter: Provides fat that gives the sauce a smooth, rich body and carries flavor.
Prepared mustard: Adds sharp flavor and helps bind the oil into a smoother mixture.
Grated horseradish: Supplies the sharp, pungent heat that defines the sauce.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the richness.
Sugar: Adds a little sweetness that softens the sharpness of the horseradish and vinegar.