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French Mustard

A condiment made by steeping onion in vinegar, then adding spices and mustard paste, boiled and bottled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,259 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

French Mustard

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Slice the onion and place it in a bowl.

  2. Cover the onion with vinegar and let it stand for two days.

  3. Pour off the vinegar and add pepper, salt, and sugar.

  4. Stir in enough ground mustard to form a paste.

  5. Heat the mixture on the stove, stirring until it boils.

  6. Beat well and bottle for use.

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. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  2. Vinegar + mustardtop 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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Onion
Releases flavour into the vinegar during the two-day soak, adding savoury depth to the mustard.
Vinegar
Softens the onion and provides the acidity that gives the mustard its sharp taste.
Ground mustard
Supplies the pungent heat and bulk that form the paste.
White sugar
Adds a little sweetness to balance the vinegar's sharpness.

The step that matters

Heating until it boils. Heating the mixture until it boils helps set the paste and cook off harsh raw mustard heat, so the flavour stays stable once bottled. Stir to avoid scorching.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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