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Benton Sauce, for Hot or Cold Roast Beef

A horseradish-based sauce with mustard, sugar, and vinegar for roast beef.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 ↓

Benton Sauce, for Hot or Cold Roast Beef

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Grate or scrape the horseradish very fine.

  2. In a bowl, combine the grated horseradish, mustard, sugar, and vinegar, then mix well and serve in a saucer.

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. Horseradish + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Horseradish + vinegartop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Mustard + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh horseradish
Provides the sharp, pungent heat that defines the sauce.
Prepared mustard
Adds sharpness and helps emulsify the sauce for a smoother texture.
Powdered white sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and horseradish with mild sweetness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and mellows the horseradish's bite.

The step that matters

Grate or scrape the horseradish very fine. Finer horseradish releases more of its pungent compounds and blends evenly into the sauce. Coarse pieces give uneven heat and a gritty texture.

“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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