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To Make Mustard

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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.

Cook and finish

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

  2. Let it cool, then stir in the olive oil until smooth.

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

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

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Mustard + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Mustard + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,003 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Mustard
Supplies the main sharp, pungent flavor of the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the sauce its tangy bite.
Butter
Adds fat that rounds the flavor and softens the texture.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture on the stove for 3-4 minutes, stirring constantly.. Constant stirring spreads heat evenly so the mixture does not scorch on the bottom of the pan or form lumps while it thickens. Stopping early leaves the sauce thin, and overheating can make the butter separate.

“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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