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Aromatic Mustard

A condiment made from ground mustard, sugar, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Aromatic Mustard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mustard

  1. In a bowl, mix the ground mustard, sugar, black pepper, salt, cloves, and cinnamon.

  2. Gradually add boiling vinegar (or olive oil or water) to the mixture, stirring until smooth.

Rest

  1. Let the mustard stand for several hours before using.

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.

  1. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Mustard + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mustard + clovetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,829 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Ground mustard
Provides the bulk and the sharp, pungent flavor of the mustard.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and turns the powder into a spreadable paste.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the mustard and vinegar.
Ground cloves
Adds warm, aromatic spice notes to the finished mustard.
Ground cinnamon
Adds sweet, woody aroma that rounds out the spice blend.

The step that matters

Adding the boiling liquid gradually while stirring. Dry mustard powder clumps when liquid is poured in quickly, so adding it slowly and stirring keeps the mixture smooth and evenly wetted.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vinegar, pepper, clove, cinnamon):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Sweet potatofits less well
  4. Carrotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, pepper, clove, cinnamon. 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.

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