Name: Horseradish Sauce
Ingredients: ¼ cup grated horseradish; ½ cup whipped cream; 2 teaspoons vinegar; 1 teaspoon sugar; 1 teaspoon salt; ½ teaspoon mustard

Why it works: Horseradish and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Horseradish Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

Combine grated horseradish, whipped cream, vinegar, sugar, salt, and mustard in a bowl.
Beat the mixture thoroughly until well combined.
Chill the sauce before serving.

Serve

Serve with roast beef.

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 + mustardtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,832 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Horseradish + vinegartop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,609 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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

Grated horseradish: Supplies the sharp, pungent heat that gives the sauce its character.
Whipped cream: Adds richness and a mild, creamy texture that softens the horseradish bite.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and keeps the sauce bright.
Sugar: Adds a touch of sweetness that balances the sharpness of the heat and acidity.