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Made Mustard

A condiment made by mixing mustard with celery salt, sugar, salad oil, pepper, and vinegar to form a smooth paste.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Made Mustard

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine the mustard, celery salt, sugar, salad oil, and pepper.

  2. Add vinegar gradually until you achieve a smooth paste, then mix well to combine all ingredients.

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 + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mustard
Provides the main body and sharp, pungent flavor of the paste.
Vinegar
Thins the mustard into a smooth paste and adds tang.
Salad oil
Adds fat that gives the paste a smoother, less harsh mouthfeel.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the mustard and vinegar.

The step that matters

Add the vinegar gradually. Mustard's heat and flavor develop when its ground seed meets liquid. Adding vinegar slowly lets you control the thickness and keeps the paste from becoming too thin or runny.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Dillfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

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