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Mustard Sauce for Ham

A mustard-based sauce with egg, sugar, water, vinegar, and olive oil, cooked to a custard-like consistency.

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 Sauce for Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a bowl, mix the mustard, beaten egg, and sugar.

  2. Cook the mixture over hot water.

  3. Slowly add the water and vinegar.

  4. Continue cooking until it thickens to a custard consistency.

  5. Remove from heat.

  6. Stir in the olive oil.

Serve

  1. Serve the sauce hot or cold.

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 + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Vinegar + olivetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

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

  5. Mustard + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Thickens the sauce as it cooks, giving a custard-like body.
Mustard
Provides the main sharp flavour of the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the richness and sweetness.
Olive oil
Adds fat that makes the sauce smoother and richer.

The step that matters

Cooking over hot water until custard consistency. Egg proteins thicken gently with indirect heat. Too much heat can scramble the egg, leaving lumps, so the sauce should be cooked slowly and stirred until it coats a spoon.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Cucumberfits about as well
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Asparagusfits less well

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