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Sauce

Mustard Sauce

A sauce made with butter, stock, French mustard, vinegar, dry English mustard, salt, sugar, cayenne, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Ronald · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Mustard Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Make a roux of one tablespoonful of butter and one teaspoonful of flour.

  2. Add to it 1 cupful of stock, 1 tablespoonful of French mustard, 1 tablespoonful of vinegar, a dash of cayenne, 1 teaspoonful of dry English mustard, 1/2 teaspoonful salt, and 1 teaspoonful of sugar.

  3. Cook slowly for ten minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

618Calories
14 gProtein
13 gFat
109 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
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.

By Mary Ronald. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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 + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Fat that cooks with the flour to form the roux, giving the sauce body and a rich mouthfeel.
Flour
Starch that thickens the stock into a smooth, pourable sauce as it cooks.
Stock
Liquid base that forms the body of the sauce.
French mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour and a tangy character to the sauce.
Dry english mustard
Contributes concentrated heat and a sharper mustard bite to the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness and richness.

The step that matters

Cook slowly for ten minutes. Gentle cooking lets the flour fully cook out its raw taste and thickens the sauce evenly. Hot, fast cooking can scorch the roux or leave the sauce lumpy and floury.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, vinegar, sugar, flour):

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Arrowrootfits about as well
  4. Beetrootfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, vinegar, sugar, flour. 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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