Name: Prepared Mustard
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons mustard; 1 teaspoon sugar; ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); boiling water (enough to mix); 1 tablespoon salad oil; vinegar (enough to thin)

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

2 tablespoons mustard
1 teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')
boiling water (enough to mix)
1 tablespoon salad oil
vinegar (enough to thin)

Directions

In a bowl, combine mustard, sugar, and coarse sea salt.
Add boiling water gradually to mix until smooth.
Once cooled, stir in salad oil and vinegar to achieve 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.

Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

Mustard: Supplies the sharp, pungent flavor that defines the condiment.
Sugar: Softens the sharpness of the mustard with a touch of sweetness.
Salad oil: Adds fat that gives the finished mustard a smoother, rounder body.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that thins the paste and brightens its flavor.

“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.