Why it works: Mustard and radish 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 ↓
Mustard
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the seeds
Soak the mustard seeds in water for 2 days, changing the water once or twice.
Dry the seeds in the sun.
Bruise the dried seeds with a grinding stone and remove the husks using a winnowing fan.
Make the mustard
In a mortar, mix the flour of mustard with vinegar, white wine, or cold water (with boiled horseradish) until smooth.
Make only as much mustard as you will use in a day or two.
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.
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Mustard + radishtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together297 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Horse + radishtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together529 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
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Mustard + horsetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together201 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
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Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Vinegar + radishtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together508 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
- Mustard seeds
- Provide the pungent flavour and the bulk of the mustard once ground.
- Vinegar, white wine, or cold water
- Liquid that hydrates the mustard flour and makes it a smooth paste.
- Horse-radish
- Adds sharp, pungent heat to the paste.
The step that matters
Make only as much mustard as you will use in a day or two.. Once mixed with liquid, mustard loses its pungency over time as its volatile compounds dissipate and fade, so a freshly made batch tastes sharper.
“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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