Name: Horseradish Pickle
Ingredients: 2 ½ ounces finely scraped horseradish; 2 ounces eschalots or 1 ½ ounces garlic; 6 small lemons; 3 ounces coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); 1 ½ pints boiling vinegar; ½ ounce bruised ginger; ¼ ounce whole white pepper; 2 blades of mace

Why it works: Lemon and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Horseradish Pickle

Ingredients

2 ½ ounces finely scraped horseradish
2 ounces eschalots or 1 ½ ounces garlic
6 small lemons
3 ounces coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')
1 ½ pints boiling vinegar
½ ounce bruised ginger
¼ ounce whole white pepper
2 blades of mace

Directions

Let the mixture stand for 8 days in a warm place.
Combine horseradish, eschalots (or garlic), and lemons with their juice in a stone jar.
Pour 1 ½ pints of boiling vinegar over the mixture.
Simmer ginger, white pepper, and mace in the vinegar for 2–3 minutes before adding.
Let the pickle sit for 2–3 months before using, but it can stand for up to 4–5 months before straining.

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.

Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,154 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Horseradish + garlictop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together719 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Garlic + gingertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,402 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Horseradish + lemontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,155 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Garlic + lemontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,893 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Horseradish: Provides the sharp, pungent heat that defines the pickle.
Lemons: Add acidity and juice that help balance and preserve the pickle.
Vinegar: Provides acidity that preserves the mixture and extracts flavour from the solids.
Eschalots or garlic: Add a savoury, aromatic onion-like flavour to the pickle.

The step that matters

Leaving the pickle to mature before straining. Flavours from the horseradish, lemon and spices mellow and blend over months as the acid slowly infuses them. Straining too early gives a harsher, less rounded result, so the full resting period matters.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (horseradish, garlic, lemon, vinegar, ginger, white pepper):

Turmericfits better
Dillfits better
Tarragonfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against horseradish, garlic, lemon, vinegar, ginger, white 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.

Lemon Sauce236 recipes

Horseradish Sauce17 recipes

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Brown Bread461 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Horseradish Pickle