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Devil Sauce

A spicy mustard-based sauce with butter, cayenne, Worcestershire, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Devil Sauce

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 ↓

Devil Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix mustard, oiled butter, cayenne pepper, salt, Worcestershire sauce, and vinegar in a saucepan.

  2. Heat over low flame, stirring until combined.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool; the sauce will thicken as it cools.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

  3. Mustard + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,120 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that cuts through the richness of the butter.
Oiled butter
Provides fat and body, giving the sauce its smooth, rich texture.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savory depth and acidity to the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the sauce.

The step that matters

Heating over low flame while stirring. Butter can separate or scorch if overheated, and the sauce will not combine smoothly. Gentle heat with constant stirring keeps the emulsion-like mixture uniform and stops the mustard and vinegar from turning harsh.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Shallotfits less well
  4. Tomatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, sauce, 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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