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Prepared Mustard for Cold Meats

A mustard condiment made with Coleman's mustard, salt, sugar, vinegar, egg yolks, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Prepared Mustard for Cold Meats

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the mustard, salt, sugar, and boiling vinegar in a saucepan.

  2. Add the egg yolks and cayenne pepper.

  3. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens.

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

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

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  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

Coleman's mustard
Provides the main mustard flavour and pungency of the condiment.
Egg yolks
Thicken the mixture as they cook, giving it a smooth, creamy body.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard with sweetness.
Boiling vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavour and helps keep the condiment tangy.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat, stirring constantly. Egg yolks thicken gently, but if they get too hot they scramble into lumps. Low heat and constant stirring keep the mixture smooth as it thickens.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Cucumberfits less well
  4. Cabbagefits less well

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