Name: Horseradish Sauce
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons grated horseradish; 1 tablespoon vinegar; 1 cup drawn butter

Why it works: Horseradish and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,609 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Horseradish Sauce

Ingredients

2 tablespoons grated horseradish
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 cup drawn butter

Directions

Stir the grated horseradish and vinegar into the drawn butter until it resembles white cream.
If using horseradish preserved in vinegar, omit 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.

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 + vinegartop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,609 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Vinegar + buttertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,513 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Horseradish + buttertop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together947 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Grated horseradish: Provides the sharp, pungent heat that defines the sauce.
Drawn butter: Forms the rich fat base that carries the flavour and gives the sauce its creamy body.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens the horseradish flavour and balances the richness of the butter.