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Made Mustard

A homemade mustard condiment made with English mustard, oil, vinegar, salt, sugar, pepper, and garlic.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,053 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Made Mustard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mustard

  1. In a bowl, combine the mustard and salad oil, mixing with a spoon until absorbed.

  2. Add vinegar gradually to form a stiff paste.

  3. Stir in salt, pepper, sugar, and garlic, mixing thoroughly.

  4. Beat the mixture hard for five minutes until smooth.

Bottle and mellow

  1. Transfer to wide-mouthed bottles, pour a little oil on top, cork tightly.

  2. Store in a cool place.

  3. Let it mellow for a couple of days before using.

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 + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Vinegar + garlictop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

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

English mustard
Provides the main flavour and pungent heat that defines the condiment.
Salad oil
Adds smoothness and moisture, helping the mustard emulsify into a silky paste.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavour and mellows the mustard's heat when combined.
Garlic
Adds aromatic pungency that deepens the overall flavour.

The step that matters

Adding vinegar gradually. Pouring vinegar in all at once makes the mustard too thin or lumpy. Adding it slowly to a stiff paste lets the oil and mustard emulsify and gives a smooth, thick texture.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, sugar, vinegar, garlic. 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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