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Prepared Mustard

A condiment made from ground mustard, flour, sugar, boiling water, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Prepared Mustard

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine the ground mustard, flour, and sugar.

  2. Pour boiling water over the mixture and stir until smooth and thick.

  3. Allow the mixture to cool, then add vinegar to achieve your desired 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.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Mustard + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. 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

Ground mustard
Provides the main flavor and pungent heat of the condiment.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the mixture as it absorbs hot water and gelatinizes.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness and bitterness of the mustard with sweetness.
Boiling water
Hydrates the mustard and flour so the mixture becomes smooth and thick.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and softens the mustard's heat.

The step that matters

Add the vinegar after cooling. Mustard's heat develops when ground mustard meets water, and acid mellows it. Adding vinegar after the mixture cools lets you judge both heat and consistency, since vinegar added early reduces the pungency before you can taste the result.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Mustardthe original
  2. Arrowrootfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Beetrootfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, 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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