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Sardine Mustard

A spread made from sardines, egg yolks, shallot, mustard, vinegar, oil, salt, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 859 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Sardine Mustard

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Remove the bones from the sardines.

  2. Pound the sardine flesh with the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs.

  3. Mix in the minced shallot.

  4. Add the mustard, vinegar, salad oil, salt, and cayenne pepper.

  5. Work the mixture until smooth.

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. Shallot + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together859 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

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

  5. Shallot + vinegartop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Sardines
Provide the main body and savoury, oily flavour of the spread.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Add richness and a creamy, smooth texture when pounded.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that cuts through the richness of the fish and yolks.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the oil.
Salad oil
Adds fat that helps the mixture emulsify into a smooth, spreadable paste.

The step that matters

Work the mixture until smooth. Pounding the flesh and yolks thoroughly breaks the solids down finely, and slowly adding the oil lets it emulsify, so the spread holds together rather than separating or looking grainy.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Shallotthe original
  4. Lettucefits about as well

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