Name: To Make Mustard
Ingredients: best flour of mustard; cold water; a little salt; a very little sifted loaf-sugar

Why it works: Flour and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,066 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

To Make Mustard

Ingredients

best flour of mustard
cold water
a little salt
a very little sifted loaf-sugar

Directions

Mix the mustard flour with cold water until smooth.
Add a pinch of salt and a small amount of sifted sugar.
Store in a small jar and cover tightly to keep fresh.
Alternatively, mix with milk instead of water, but it won't keep as long.

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.

Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,066 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Mustard + sugartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,424 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).