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Horseradish Sauce

A sauce made from grated moringa root, fish broth, egg yolks, tarragon vinegar, mustard, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 901 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Horseradish Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sauce base

  1. Grate the moringa root finely until you have a coffee cup full.

  2. Boil the grated moringa in the fish or giblet broth for 20 minutes.

Thicken and finish

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks with the tarragon vinegar.

  2. Thicken the broth over low heat by gradually adding the egg mixture.

  3. Stir in the mustard, and season with pepper and salt.

  4. Serve hot in a sauceboat.

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. Tarragon + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together901 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Tarragon + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Moringa root
Provides the main pungent, horseradish-like flavour of the sauce.
Egg yolks
Thicken the warm broth into a smooth, creamy sauce as they set gently.
Fish or giblet broth
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavour and is thickened into the sauce.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the richness of the yolks.
Made mustard
Adds sharpness and a sinus-clearing bite that complements the root's heat.

The step that matters

Thicken the broth over low heat by gradually adding the egg mixture. Egg yolks set at moderate temperatures and curdle if heated too fast or added all at once. Adding the mixture gradually over low heat lets it thicken smoothly.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (coffee, fish, egg, tarragon, vinegar, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Lettucefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against coffee, fish, egg, tarragon, vinegar, 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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