Name: To Prepare Mustard for Table Use
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon dry mustard; ½ teaspoon salt (or less to taste); ½ teaspoon sugar; water (or vinegar or milk)

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 for Table Use

Ingredients

1 tablespoon dry mustard
½ teaspoon salt (or less to taste)
½ teaspoon sugar
water (or vinegar or milk)

Directions

In a bowl, combine the dry mustard, salt, and sugar.
Mix in enough water to achieve your desired consistency.
Alternatively, use vinegar or milk instead of water for added flavor.

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.

Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Mustard + sugartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,424 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).