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Horseradish Sauce for Boiled Fresh Beef

A sauce made with butter, flour, beef bouillon, horseradish, salt, and pepper for boiled fresh beef.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 Sauce for Boiled Fresh Beef

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Stir in the flour to make a roux, cooking for 1-2 minutes.

  3. Gradually add the beef bouillon, stirring constantly until thickened.

  4. Season with salt and pepper, then stir in the grated horse-radish to taste.

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. Beef + horsetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Flour + radishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together119 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

Butter
Melted fat that forms the base of the roux with the flour.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the sauce when cooked with butter into a roux and bouillon is added.
Beef bouillon
Liquid that hydrates the roux and becomes the savoury body of the sauce.
Grated horse-radish
Supplies the sharp, pungent heat that gives the sauce its character.

The step that matters

Adding the bouillon to the roux. Adding liquid gradually while stirring constantly keeps the starch dispersed, so the sauce thickens smoothly without lumps.

Swap the radish

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, flour, horse, pepper. 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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