Name: Anchovy Mustard
Ingredients: 10 lbs salted anchovies; mustard flour (quantity required); parsley (to taste); pepper (to taste); sugar (to taste); citric acid (to taste); nutmeg (to taste); garlic (to taste); vinegar (quantity required)

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Anchovy Mustard

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the anchovies

Remove the bones from the salted anchovies and chop finely.

Make the mustard

In a bowl, mix the chopped anchovies with mustard flour, parsley, pepper, sugar, citric acid, nutmeg, and garlic.
Gradually add vinegar until the desired consistency is reached.

Store

Store in a cool place and use as needed.

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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,062 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,308 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Mustard + garlictop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,053 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13,015 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

Salted anchovies: Provide the main savoury, salty flavour and the base of the paste.
Mustard flour: Supplies the sharp mustard pungency that defines the condiment.
Vinegar: Thins the paste to the desired consistency and adds acidity.

Swap the garlic

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

Allspicefits better
Tarragonfits better
Cinnamonfits better
Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, flour, parsley, pepper, sugar, nutmeg, vinegar. 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.