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Mustard Sauce

A thickened sauce made from mustard, egg yolks, vinegar, brown sugar, butter, cayenne pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Mustard Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix mustard, egg yolks, vinegar, brown sugar, butter, cayenne pepper, and salt in a saucepan.

  2. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly to prevent scorching, until the mixture thickens.

  3. Store in a sealed container; it will keep for a year.

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. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they cook and set, giving it a rich, smooth body.
Butter
Adds fat for a silky texture and richness that carries the mustard flavour.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the sweetness and richness.
Mustard
Supplies the main sharp, pungent flavour of the sauce.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a hint of molasses flavour to balance the vinegar and mustard.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat, stirring constantly. Egg yolks can scramble or scorch if heated too fast. Gentle heat and constant stirring let the yolks thicken the sauce smoothly without curdling.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, vinegar, sugar, butter, 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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