Name: Mustard for Table
Ingredients: ½ cup vinegar; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 tablespoon sugar; ½ cup Colman's mustard; cold vinegar (as needed)

Why it works: Vinegar and mustard 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 for Table

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the vinegar in a saucepan.
Add the butter, salt, and sugar to the boiling vinegar.
Mix the mustard with a little cold vinegar and add to the saucepan.
Stir until well combined and heated through.

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.

Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar + mustardtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,424 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Butter + mustardtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,003 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Mustard: Provides the main sharp, pungent flavour that defines the condiment.
Vinegar: Provides acidity that gives the mustard its tang and helps it keep its sharp flavour.
Sugar: Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard with a touch of sweetness.
Butter: Adds richness and a smoother, rounder mouthfeel to the sauce.

“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.