Name: Boiled Beets with Horseradish
Ingredients: 2 cups sugar; 1 tablespoon salt; 1 teaspoon black pepper; ¼ teaspoon red pepper; 1 teacup grated horseradish; cold vinegar

Why it works: Pepper and horseradish are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,646 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Boiled Beets with Horseradish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beets

Boil beets until tender, then chop them finely.

Combine and store

In a bowl, combine sugar, salt, black pepper, red pepper, and grated horseradish.
Cover the mixture with cold vinegar.
Store in an airtight container to keep it from air exposure.

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.

Pepper + horseradishtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,646 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Horseradish + vinegartop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,609 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + horseradishtop 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

Sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the sharp heat of the horseradish and vinegar.
Grated horseradish: Provides the pungent, sharp heat that defines the relish.
Cold vinegar: Adds acidity and sharpness, and helps preserve the relish.