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To Make Mustard

A homemade mustard condiment made with mustard, sugar, salt, butter, vinegar, egg, and olive oil.

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 ↓

To Make Mustard

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the vinegar.

  2. In a bowl, mix the mustard, sugar, and salt.

  3. Add the melted butter and mix well.

  4. Beat in the egg until smooth.

  5. Gradually add the vinegar, mixing until smooth.

Cook and finish

  1. Cook on the stove for 3-4 minutes, stirring constantly.

  2. When cool, stir in the olive oil until well combined.

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 + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Vinegar + olivetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  4. Butter + olivetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,887 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Binds the mixture and thickens it as it cooks, giving a smooth, rich body.
Mustard
Provides the main flavor and pungency of the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and loosens the mixture.
Melted butter
Adds fat for a richer, smoother texture.

The step that matters

Cook on the stove, stirring constantly. The egg can scramble if it overheats or sits still. Constant stirring over gentle heat lets the egg thicken the mixture evenly into a smooth sauce.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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