Name: Horseradish Sauce
Ingredients: ½ pint rich cream or new milk; 1 ounce finely grated horseradish; 1 pinch pounded loaf sugar; a little salt

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Horseradish Sauce

Ingredients

½ pint rich cream or new milk
1 ounce finely grated horseradish
1 pinch pounded loaf sugar
a little salt

Directions

Boil the cream or milk in a saucepan.
Add the grated horseradish, sugar, and salt, then stir well and serve.

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.

Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Cream + horseradishtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together483 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Horseradish + sugartop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,314 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Cream or milk: Forms the rich, smooth base that mellows the horseradish's sharp heat.
Horseradish: Supplies the pungent, sharp flavour that defines the sauce.
Sugar: Adds a little sweetness to balance the horseradish's bite.