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Fixe French Mustard

A mustard condiment made with yellow mustard, vinegar, water, salt, calamus root, flour, and honey.

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 ↓

Fixe French Mustard

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the paste

  1. Combine yellow mustard, vinegar, and water to make a thin paste.

  2. Add coarse sea salt and calamus root.

Cook

  1. Heat on the stove and stir in flour while boiling.

  2. Boil for 20 minutes, stirring constantly.

  3. Just before finishing, stir in honey.

Cool and bottle

  1. Cool and bottle tightly.

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. Vinegar + honeytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,586 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Mustard + honeytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together919 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Calamus + honeytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Yellow mustard
Provides the main mustard flavor and the body of the condiment.
Flour
Thickens the mixture as it boils, giving it a smoother, spreadable texture.
Vinegar
Adds sharpness and acidity that balances the mustard's heat.
Honey
Adds a touch of sweetness to balance the sharpness of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Boiling with constant stirring. Flour can scorch on the bottom of the pan or form lumps if not stirred constantly while boiling. Keeping the mixture moving ensures it thickens evenly and cooks through without a burnt taste.

Swap the calamus

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

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Calamusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, vinegar, flour, honey. 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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