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Horseradish Sauce

A sauce made from grated horseradish, milk, butter, flour, nutmeg, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the horseradish

  1. Wash and peel a stick of horseradish, then grate it finely.

  2. Boil half a teacup of grated horseradish with just enough water to cook it for about 15 minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan, then stir the flour into the melted butter.

  2. Add the milk and bring to a boil.

  3. Stir in the cooked horseradish and a grate of nutmeg, then boil for 5 minutes.

  4. Add salt to taste and serve hot.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Radish + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together65 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Radish + flourtop 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

Horseradish (in the method)
Provides the sharp, pungent flavour that defines the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour through the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the melted butter and milk into a smooth, cohesive sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce and gives it creamy body.

The step that matters

Stir the flour into the melted butter before adding the milk. Cooking flour in fat forms a roux that is thickened evenly; adding flour to liquid without this step can leave lumps and a floury taste.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Turmericfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against horse, radish, milk, butter, flour. 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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