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Horseradish Vinegar

A vinegar infused with grated horse-radish and cayenne pepper, steeped for a week.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Horse and radish work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 529 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

Horseradish Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Scrape the horse-radish and measure 5 tablespoons.

  2. Add 1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper to the horse-radish, mix well, and pour the mixture over 1 quart of vinegar.

  3. Let it stand for a week before using as a relish for cold meats.

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. Horse + radishtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together529 recipes

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

  2. Radish + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together508 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Radish + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together382 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Horse + vinegartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together331 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Horseradish (in the method)
Supplies the sharp, pungent heat that flavours the vinegar.
Cayenne pepper
Adds additional heat and a sharper, spicy bite to the relish.
Vinegar
Acts as the liquid base that extracts and carries the horseradish and pepper flavours.

The step that matters

Letting it stand for a week. Flavour compounds from the horseradish and pepper need time to dissolve into the vinegar. Using it early gives a weaker, harsher relish than the steeping period produces.

Swap the radish

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

  1. Radishthe original
  2. Mustardfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits less well
  4. Cabbagefits less well

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