Name: Horsu Radish Sauces
Ingredients: 1 stick of horse-radish; ½ cup vinegar; 2 teaspoons sugar; ¼ teaspoon salt

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 ↓

Horsu Radish Sauces

Ingredients

1 stick of horse-radish
½ cup vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
¼ teaspoon salt

Directions

Grate the horse-radish.
Mix the grated horse-radish with vinegar until covered.
Add sugar and salt, and stir well.

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.

Horse + radishtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together529 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Radish + vinegartop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together508 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Horse + vinegartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together331 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Horse + sugartop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together146 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Horse-radish: Provides the sharp, pungent heat that defines the sauce.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and stabilizes the grated horseradish's pungency.
Sugar: Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and horseradish with mild sweetness.