Name: Horseradish Sauce
Ingredients: 1 teacup grated horse-radish; 1 tablespoon ground mustard; 1 tablespoon sugar; 4 tablespoons vinegar; 1 tablespoon olive oil; pepper to taste; salt to taste

Why it works: Radish and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 297 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Horseradish Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

In a bowl, combine grated horse-radish, ground mustard, sugar, vinegar, and olive oil, and mix well until all ingredients are combined.
Season with pepper and salt to taste.

Serve

Serve as a condiment.

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.

Radish + mustardtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together297 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Horse + radishtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together529 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Horse + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together201 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,950 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Grated horse-radish: Provides the sharp, pungent heat that defines the sauce.
Ground mustard: Adds sharpness and pungency that complements the horseradish heat.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances its pungency.
Sugar: Adds a touch of sweetness that softens the sharp acidity and heat.
Olive oil: Adds fat that gives the sauce a smoother, rounder body.

Swap the radish

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (horse, mustard, sugar, vinegar, olive, pepper):

Radishthe original
Capsicumfits about as well
Broccolifits less well
Horseradishfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against horse, mustard, sugar, vinegar, olive, pepper. 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.