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Mustard Jelly for Meats, Etc

A mustard-based jelly thickened with flour, sugar, vinegar, and egg, used as a condiment for meats.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Mustard Jelly for Meats, Etc

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine mustard, sugar, flour, vinegar, and salt.

  2. Stir in the beaten egg.

  3. Place the bowl in a basin of boiling water.

  4. Cook while stirring continuously until the mixture thickens.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Mustard + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Thickens the mixture as it cooks and sets it into a smooth, spreadable jelly.
Flour
Helps thicken the mixture and gives it a stable, smooth body.
Sugar
Balances the sharp vinegar and mustard with sweetness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and cuts the richness of the egg.
Mustard
Provides the main pungent flavour of the jelly.

The step that matters

Cook while stirring continuously until the mixture thickens. Egg proteins can scramble if the mixture gets too hot or is left unstirred. Gentle, constant stirring over simmering water heats it evenly so the egg and flour thicken it smoothly rather than curdling.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, vinegar, egg):

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Arrowrootfits about as well
  4. Cucumberfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, vinegar, egg. 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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