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To Make Mustard

A simple mustard made with wheat flour, turmeric, milk or cream, salt, and optional vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and turmeric are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,637 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

To Make Mustard

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine wheat flour and turmeric.

  2. Gradually blend in milk or cream until smooth.

  3. Add coarse sea salt to taste.

  4. For a spicier mustard, substitute vinegar or horseradish vinegar for the milk.

  5. Adjust consistency as needed.

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. Flour + turmerictop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,637 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  3. Wheat + turmerictop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together92 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Wheat flour
Starch thickens the liquid, giving the mustard a smooth, body-filled texture.
Turmeric
Provides the yellow colour and a mild, earthy flavour.
Milk or cream
Supplies the liquid that hydrates the flour and sets the mustard's richness and moisture.

The step that matters

Gradually blend in milk or cream until smooth. Flour lumps if liquid is added all at once, because outer starch hydrates and seals the inside. Adding liquid slowly while mixing separates the particles so each one hydrates evenly and the paste turns smooth.

Swap the turmeric

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Turmericthe original
  3. Jalapenofits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, flour, milk, 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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