Name: Horseradish Sauce
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon olive oil; 1 tablespoon powdered mustard; 1 tablespoon vinegar; 2 tablespoons grated horse-radish; 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt

Why it works: Mustard and radish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 297 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Horseradish Sauce

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon powdered mustard
1 tablespoon vinegar
2 tablespoons grated horse-radish
1 tablespoon coarse sea salt

Directions

In a bowl, combine olive oil, powdered mustard, vinegar, grated horse-radish, and coarse sea salt. Mix well until all ingredients are thoroughly combined.

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.

Mustard + radishtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together297 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Horse + radishtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together529 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Mustard + horsetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together201 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,950 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

Grated horse-radish: Provides the sharp, pungent heat that defines the sauce.
Powdered mustard: Adds sharpness and helps emulsify and thicken the sauce.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens flavor and balances the heat.
Olive oil: Adds fat that gives the sauce a smooth, rounded texture.

“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.