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Mustard Sauce

A sauce made from egg yolks, acid jelly, pepper, mustard, butter, vinegar, and ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mustard Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

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

  2. Mix in ½ cup acid jelly, 1 teaspoon black pepper, 1 tablespoon mixed mustard, 1 tablespoon butter, and 1 cup vinegar.

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

  4. Remove from heat and let it cool.

  5. Once cool, stir in ½ cup tomato 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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Mustard + tomatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,482 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they set during gentle cooking, giving it a smooth body.
Acid jelly
Adds sharp, sweet-sour flavour that balances the richness of the yolks.
Mixed mustard
Contributes pungent heat and a sharp flavour that stands out in the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat for a richer mouthfeel and smoother texture.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that sharpens the flavour and cuts through the richness.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat while stirring constantly. Egg yolks thicken as their proteins set, but high heat or stopping to stir can scramble them into lumps. Gentle, constant stirring keeps the sauce smooth as it thickens.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

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