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Incomparable Keeping Mustard

A preserved mustard condiment made with horse-radish, vinegar, wine, sugar, and mustard flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Radish and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 297 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Incomparable Keeping Mustard

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil a sufficient quantity of horse-radish in white wine vinegar.

  2. Add half as much mountain or good raisin wine and a little double-refined sugar.

  3. Mix in Durham flour of mustard to achieve a proper consistency.

  4. Seal the mixture tightly, and it will keep for years.

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. Radish + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together297 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Horse + radishtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together529 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  4. Horse + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together201 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  5. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Horse-radish
Provides the sharp, pungent heat that defines the relish.
White wine vinegar
Adds acidity and carries the horseradish heat while softening its harshness.
Durham flour of mustard
Thickens the mixture to a proper consistency and adds mustard pungency.
Double-refined sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar and horseradish.

The step that matters

Boil the horse-radish in white wine vinegar. Heating horseradish releases and changes its pungent compounds, so the boil sets the sharpness and flavour of the relish. Sealing the jar tightly limits air and microbes, which helps it keep.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (horse, radish, white wine, vinegar, sugar, flour, mustard):

  1. Lemonfits about as well
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Avocadofits about as well
  4. Limefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against horse, radish, white wine, vinegar, sugar, flour, mustard. 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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