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Sauce

Horseradish Sauce

A sauce made from grated horseradish, bouillon, butter, cream, and egg yolks, heated gently.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Horseradish Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Grate the horseradish.

  2. Mix the grated horseradish with a little bouillon.

  3. Fry the mixture in butter.

  4. Add several tablespoons of cream.

  5. Remove from heat and stir in the egg yolks.

  6. Warm the sauce again, but do not boil.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Horseradish + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together483 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  4. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Horseradish + eggtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together694 recipes

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

Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 flavour that defines the sauce.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce and give it a smooth, rich body when gently warmed.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, mellowing the sharpness of the horseradish.
Butter
Fat for frying the mixture, adding richness and a little browning flavour.

The step that matters

Remove from heat and stir in the egg yolks; warm again without boiling. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat. If the sauce boils, the yolks can scramble and curdle, leaving a grainy texture instead of a smooth sauce.

Swap the horseradish

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Horseradishthe original

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