Name: Made Mustard Dressing
Ingredients: 4 tablespoons English mustard; 2 teaspoons salt; 2 teaspoons salad oil; 2 teaspoons white sugar; 1 teaspoon pepper; Vinegar (to make a smooth paste, preferably from celery or onion pickles)

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 ↓

Made Mustard Dressing

Ingredients

4 tablespoons English mustard
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons salad oil
2 teaspoons white sugar
1 teaspoon pepper
Vinegar (to make a smooth paste, preferably from celery or onion pickles)

Directions

In a bowl, combine the mustard, oil, sugar, pepper, and salt.
Gradually add vinegar while mixing until you achieve a smooth paste.
Beat vigorously at the end to ensure proper consistency.

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).
Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

English mustard: Provides the sharp, pungent flavour that defines the dressing.
Salad oil: Adds fat that emulsifies with the vinegar and gives the dressing a smooth body.
White sugar: Balances the sharpness of the mustard and vinegar with a touch of sweetness.
Vinegar: Adds acidity and thins the mustard into a smooth, pourable paste.

The step that matters

Adding the vinegar gradually. Mustard, oil and vinegar form an emulsion only when vinegar is added slowly while mixing. Pouring it in all at once can cause the oil to separate, leaving a grainy, broken dressing.

Swap the mustard

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

Capsicumfits better
Mustardthe original
Cabbagefits less well
Cucumberfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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Made Mustard Dressing