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Sauce

To Prepare Mustard

A mustard-based sauce made with vinegar, olive oil, sugar, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

To Prepare Mustard

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix mustard and flour with a little cold vinegar until smooth.

  2. In a saucepan, combine vinegar, olive oil, sugar, salt, and pepper.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil while stirring constantly.

  4. Once boiling, pour it over the mustard mixture and stir well.

  5. Let it cool 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 + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  4. Vinegar + olivetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mustard
Provides the sharp, pungent flavor that defines the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as it heats, giving it body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the richness and sharpness of the mustard.
Olive oil
Adds fat that gives the sauce a smoother, rounder mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Bring the mixture to a boil while stirring constantly. Flour needs to reach a boil to fully thicken the sauce, and constant stirring prevents lumps and scorching on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Eggplantfits about as well
  4. Shallotfits about as well

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