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Horseradish Sauce

A creamy sauce made from grated horseradish, vinegar, cream, butter, egg yolk, sugar, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Horseradish Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the horseradish

  1. Boil the horseradish in enough water to cover it for 30 minutes.

  2. Drain the horseradish.

Make the sauce

  1. Add the vinegar, butter, salt, and sugar; mix thoroughly.

  2. Add the beaten egg yolk to the cream and mix well.

Serve

  1. Serve with oysters or fish.

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.

  1. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Horseradish + vinegartop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Horseradish
Provides the sharp, pungent heat that defines the sauce's flavour.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, giving the sauce a smooth, mild body.
Egg yolk
Its fat and proteins enrich the cream and help it hold together smoothly.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and cuts the richness of the cream.
Butter
Adds fat that rounds out the flavour and softens the sharpness.

The step that matters

Add the beaten egg yolk to the cream. Beaten yolk should be stirred in thoroughly so it blends evenly into the cream. Stirring well prevents lumps and keeps the sauce smooth.

Swap the horseradish

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Cucumberfits about as well
  4. Horseradishthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cider, vinegar, cream, butter, sugar. 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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