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German Prepared Mustard

A mustard paste made by boiling vinegar, adding mustard flour, spices, and salted cucumbers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

German Prepared Mustard

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Use French process mustard flour.

  2. Boil the vinegar.

Make the mustard

  1. Add the mustard flour and spices to the boiling vinegar.

  2. Add the salted cucumbers.

  3. Crush the mixture into a liquid paste.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Mustard + cucumbertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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 sharp pungency of the mustard once it meets liquid.
Vinegar
Adds acidity and sharpness that balance the heat of the mustard.
Ground pepper
Adds sharp, aromatic heat to the paste.
Cloves
Adds warm, aromatic spice notes.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet aroma.
Nutmeg
Adds warm, aromatic depth.

The step that matters

Add the mustard flour and spices to the boiling vinegar.. Dry flour added to hot liquid can clump, so it must be mixed in evenly. Mustard heat develops when the flour meets liquid, so the vinegar's temperature and acidity both shape the final sharpness.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, flour, vinegar, pepper, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Arrowrootfits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, flour, vinegar, pepper, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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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