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Sauce

Savory Mustard Sauce

A quick mustard-based sauce for steak or pork.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 859 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Savory Mustard Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Heat olive oil in a large sloped-sided skillet over medium-high heat.

  2. Add shallot and sauté until golden.

  3. Meanwhile, combine broth and starch and set aside.

  4. Add mustard, salt, and pepper to the pan and decrease heat to medium-low.

  5. Add the broth mixture, whisking continuously until the sauce just below a simmer thickens slightly.

  6. Whisk in butter 1 tablespoon at a time, waiting for the previous butter to fully melt before adding another.

  7. Once all butter has been used, remove the sauce from heat.

Serve

  1. Serve with steak or pork tenderloin, or use as a grilling baste.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

857Calories
45 gProtein
30 gFat
98 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Chicken100g cooked165
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Shallot1 tbsp minced (10g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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. Mustard + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together859 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Chicken + olivetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,888 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid hexyl ester (sweet, green).

  4. Olive + shallottop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,659 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Dijon mustard
Provides the main sharp, tangy flavour of the sauce.
Cornstarch
Thickens the broth so the sauce becomes smooth and glossy.
Chicken broth
Forms the liquid base that the starch thickens into the sauce.
Unsalted butter
Adds richness and a silky, emulsified texture when whisked in at the end.
Shallot
Adds a mild, sweet aromatic onion flavour after being sautéed.

The step that matters

Whisking in the butter. Adding butter too fast or while the sauce is too hot can cause it to separate instead of forming a smooth emulsion. Adding one tablespoon at a time and letting each melt fully keeps the sauce creamy and cohesive.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, chicken, pepper, olive, butter):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Shallotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, chicken, pepper, olive, butter. 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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