Horseradish Sauce

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. Onion + horseradishtop 7% of all pairs
   Smell alikestrong
   Cooked together1,784 recipes

   Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together12,525 recipes

   Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

3. Horseradish + lemontop 9% of all pairs
   Smell alikestrong
   Cooked together1,155 recipes

   Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

4. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together42,912 recipes

   Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Onion

Softened by stewing to give the sauce a mild, sweet base flavour.

Butter

Melted in to enrich the sauce and give it a thicker, smoother body.

Essence of anchovies

Adds a salty, savoury depth that rounds out the sharp horseradish.

Lemon juice

Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and cuts its richness.

The step that matters

Swap the lemon

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

1. Avocadofits better
2. Plumfits about as well
3. Coconutfits about as well
4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, horseradish, butter, mushroom. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.