Name: Mustard, and Its Aduxteeations
Ingredients: 2 ½ ounces cayenne pepper; 1 ½ pounds coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); 8 pounds mustard flour; 1 ½ pounds wheat flour; water (as needed)

Why it works: Pepper and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,430 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mustard, and Its Aduxteeations

Ingredients

2 ½ ounces cayenne pepper
1 ½ pounds coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')
8 pounds mustard flour
1 ½ pounds wheat flour
water (as needed)

Directions

Prepare

Dissolve the coarse sea salt in a small amount of water.
In a large bowl, combine the mustard flour, wheat flour, and cayenne pepper.

Make the paste

Add the dissolved salt water gradually to the dry ingredients, mixing until a stiff paste forms.

Store

Store the prepared mustard in pots for later 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.

Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mustard + wheattop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together134 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Mustard + flourtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,066 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + wheattop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together984 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Mustard flour: Provides the main body and the sharp pungent flavor of the paste.
Wheat flour: Adds bulk and helps the mixture hold together as a stiff paste.
Cayenne pepper: Adds heat and a sharp, spicy flavor.
Coarse sea salt: Seasons the paste and adds savory flavor.

The step that matters

Adding the salt water gradually. Mustard's pungent heat comes from compounds released when mustard flour is moistened, and this develops over time. Adding water all at once can leave dry pockets and uneven texture, so pouring slowly and mixing until the paste is evenly stiff gives a consistent result.

Swap the mustard

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

Spinachfits better
Capsicumfits better
Arrowrootfits better
Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, flour, wheat. 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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Mustard, and Its Aduxteeations