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Sauce

Mustard Sauce

A thickened sauce made from eggs, mustard, vinegar, and ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Mustard Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs in a bowl.

  2. Mix in the acid jelly, black pepper, mixed mustard, butter, and vinegar.

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

Finish

  1. Remove from heat and let it cool.

  2. Once cool, stir in the ketchup.

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. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Mustard + ketchuptop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together331 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks thicken the sauce as they cook and give it a rich, creamy body.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich mouthfeel and helps the sauce stay glossy.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the richness of the yolks and butter.
Mixed mustard
Provides pungent flavor and a sharp, spicy bite.
Ketchup
Adds sweetness and tomato flavor to the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat while stirring constantly. Egg yolks begin to set around 160°F and can scramble if overheated or left unstirred. Gentle, constant stirring keeps the heat even so the sauce thickens smoothly instead of curdling.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Horseradishfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, butter, vinegar, ketchup. 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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