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Sauce for Steaks, Chops, Etc

A mushroom ketchup-based sauce with pickled shallots, horseradish, allspice, black pepper, and coarse sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 376 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Sauce for Steaks, Chops, Etc

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pound the shallots and horseradish until smooth in a mortar.

  2. Add the mushroom ketchup (or walnut pickle), allspice, black pepper, and coarse sea salt.

Steep and bottle

  1. Cover the mixture tightly and let it stand for 14 days.

  2. Strain the sauce into small bottles, cork, and seal securely.

  3. Store the sauce for use.

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. Shallot + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together376 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Horseradish + allspicetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together654 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Shallot + allspicetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together386 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

Mushroom ketchup or walnut pickle
Provides the savory, deep umami base that defines the sauce's flavor.
Pickled shallots
Adds a sharp, tangy acidity that brightens the rich base.
Grated horseradish
Contributes a pungent, sharp heat that fades somewhat during standing.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice notes that round out the sauce.

The step that matters

Covering and standing for 14 days. The sauce needs the full standing time so the flavors from the shallots, horseradish and spices can blend into the base. Keeping the mixture tightly covered limits contact with air, which helps preserve flavor and prevents spoilage while it steeps.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, shallot, horseradish, pepper):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, shallot, horseradish, 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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