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Made Mustard

A condiment made from mustard powder, vinegar, salt, and optional egg yolk and oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Made Mustard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mustard base

  1. Pour boiling water over the mustard powder.

  2. Add the coarse sea salt and vinegar; mix well.

  3. Use immediately or let sit overnight for best flavor.

Make the mayonnaise

  1. For mayonnaise, combine made mustard and coarse sea salt.

  2. Add the raw egg yolk and slowly pour in sweet oil while mixing vigorously.

  3. Continue until the mixture is smooth; add vinegar to taste.

  4. If it curdles, mix in more mustard or vinegar.

  5. For added flavor, incorporate cayenne pepper with shrimp or oysters.

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. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Mustard + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,210 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Vinegar + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Vinegar and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,922 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

Mustard powder
Provides the sharp pungent flavor of the sauce once hydrated with boiling water.
Raw egg yolk
Emulsifies the oil and water into a thick, smooth mayonnaise-style base.
Sweet oil
Forms the body and richness of the mayonnaise as it is whisked into the yolk.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens flavor and helps stabilize the emulsion.

The step that matters

Adding the oil to the egg yolk. Oil must be poured slowly while mixing vigorously so it disperses into tiny droplets. Pouring too fast breaks the emulsion, causing the mixture to curdle.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, egg, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Cucumberfits about as well
  4. Cabbagefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, egg, pepper. 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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