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Sauce

Table Mustard

A quick mustard sauce made with mustard, vinegar, sugar, egg, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Table Mustard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Mix the mustard and sugar in a bowl.

  2. Add the egg and beat well.

Cook the sauce

  1. Slowly stir in the vinegar while beating briskly until smooth, then add the salt.

  2. Set the mixture over low heat, stirring constantly, and cook for about five minutes.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Mustard + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Mustard + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,210 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Mustard
Gives the sauce its sharp, pungent flavour and helps hold the mixture together.
Egg
Thickens the sauce as it heats and gives it a smooth, rich body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Softens the sharpness of the mustard and vinegar for a rounder taste.

The step that matters

Cooking over low heat with constant stirring. Egg proteins thicken the sauce as they warm, but if the mixture gets too hot or is left unstirred, the egg can scramble and turn grainy. Gentle heat and constant stirring keep it smooth.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Mustardthe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Cucumberfits about as well
  4. Shallotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, egg. 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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