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Indian Mustard

A mustard-based condiment made with flour, salt, shallots, vinegar, mushroom ketchup, and anchovy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Ketchup and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Indian Mustard

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mustard paste

  1. In a bowl, mix the mustard, flour, and salt into a smooth paste with hot water.

Make the sauce

  1. Boil the shallots with the vinegar, mushroom ketchup, and anchovy sauce for about 10 minutes.

  2. Add the blended flour mixture and stir, simmering gently for a few minutes.

Bottle and store

  1. Once cool, pour the mixture into small bottles, cork tightly, and store in a cool, dry place.

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. Ketchup + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Mustard + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together859 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Ketchup + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together479 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Mustard
Provides the sharp, pungent flavour that defines the condiment.
Flour
Thickens the mixture into a smooth, spoonable paste.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavour and helps preserve the sauce.
Shallots
Contribute mild sweetness and savoury aromatic depth when boiled.
Anchovy sauce
Adds salty, savoury depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmering after adding the flour mixture. Flour must be stirred in and simmered gently to cook out its raw taste and thicken evenly; boiling hard or leaving it unstirred can cause lumps or scorching.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, shallot, vinegar, mushroom, ketchup, anchovy, sauce):

  1. Horseradishfits about as well
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, shallot, vinegar, mushroom, ketchup, anchovy, sauce. 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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