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Lenormand’s French Mustard

A mustard condiment made with mustard flour, herbs, anchovies, and wine vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Chervil and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 824 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Lenormand’s French Mustard

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the parsley, chervil, celery, tarragon, garlic, and anchovies finely.

  2. Combine all chopped ingredients with mustard flour and salt.

Make the mustard

  1. Add grape juice or sugar to sweeten.

  2. Gradually add water to form a thin paste, mixing well in a mortar.

Store

  1. When ready to store, briefly insert a red-hot iron into each pot and add a little wine vinegar.

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. Chervil + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together824 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Parsley + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Mustard + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together901 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Parsley + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together774 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 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

Mustard flour
Provides the pungent base and the body that the paste is built on.
Salt anchovies
Add savory depth and saltiness to the mustard.
Fresh parsley
Adds fresh, green herbal flavor to the paste.
Tarragon
Contributes a distinct aromatic, slightly anise-like flavor.

The step that matters

Gradually add water to form a thin paste. Mustard flavor develops when ground mustard is hydrated, and adding water slowly lets you control the consistency and keeps the paste from becoming lumpy or too thick to mix evenly.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, flour, parsley, chervil, celery, tarragon, garlic):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Fennelfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, flour, parsley, chervil, celery, tarragon, garlic. 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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