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Mixed Mustard

A thickened mustard sauce made with mustard, sugar, flour, vinegar, water, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Mixed Mustard

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 ↓

Mixed Mustard

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix mustard, sugar, and flour until smooth.

  2. Gradually add vinegar and water while stirring.

  3. Cook over medium heat until thickened, stirring constantly.

  4. Remove from heat and add butter.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Provides the main pungent flavor and the base of the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the mixture as it heats, giving the mustard body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the sweetness.
Butter
Stirred in off the heat to add richness and a smoother finish.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that rounds out the sharpness of the mustard and vinegar.

The step that matters

Cook until thickened, stirring constantly. Flour thickens only when the mixture heats enough for its starch to swell. Constant stirring prevents lumps and scorching on the bottom of the pan, giving a smooth, evenly thickened mustard.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Arrowrootfits about as well
  4. Beetrootfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, flour, butter. 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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