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Horseradish Vinegar

A preserved horseradish vinegar condiment made with salt, horseradish, garlic, ginger, chillies, and malt vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Horseradish Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a dry bottle with a wide neck, add the salt.

  2. Add the bruised horseradish, ginger, and other ingredients.

  3. Moisten the ingredients with a little cold vinegar before pouring.

Infuse

  1. Boil the vinegar and pour it over the mixture once it cools slightly.

  2. Tie down the bottle and leave it in a warm place for 36 hours.

Bottle

  1. Strain the mixture and pour it into small bottles, adding a chilli to each.

  2. Cork the bottles securely once they are completely cool.

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. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Horse + radishtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together529 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  3. Radish + garlictop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together199 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Garlic + gingertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Radish + gingertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together172 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 heat that gives the vinegar its character.
Malt vinegar
Acts as the liquid base that extracts flavour from the other ingredients and preserves the mixture.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the horseradish and helps preserve the mixture.
Chillies
Add pungent heat and extra aroma to the vinegar.

The step that matters

Let the bottle cool before corking. Sealing hot liquid traps steam and creates pressure, which can force the cork out or spoil the flavour. Waiting until the bottles are completely cool keeps the seal safe.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (horse, radish, garlic, ginger, malt, vinegar):

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Allspicefits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Cinnamonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against horse, radish, garlic, ginger, malt, vinegar. 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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