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Prepared Mustard

A mustard condiment made by boiling vinegar and mixing with mustard paste, seasoned with salt, pepper, and curry powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and mustard 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 ↓

Prepared Mustard

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mustard

  1. Boil the vinegar in a pot.

  2. Mix the yellow mustard with enough cold water to make a smooth paste.

  3. Season the mustard paste with salt, pepper, and India curry powder.

Thicken and cook

  1. Thicken the boiling vinegar with the mustard mixture.

  2. Cook for 15 minutes, then it's ready for use.

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Yellow mustard
Provides the main body, sharp pungency and flavour of the condiment.
Vinegar
Adds acidity and sharpness that balances the mustard's heat.

The step that matters

Thickening the boiling vinegar with the mustard paste. Adding the paste to boiling liquid can cause lumps if it is not blended in evenly. The 15-minute cook time lets the mixture thicken smoothly and mellows the raw, sharp heat of the mustard.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper. 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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