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For Cold Meats

A sauce made from beaten eggs, mustard, butter, salt, pepper, and vinegar, cooked until thickened.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

For Cold Meats

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the eggs well in a bowl.

  2. Add mustard, butter, salt, pepper, and vinegar; mix thoroughly.

  3. Cook the mixture over boiling water until it thickens, stirring constantly.

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 + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken and set the sauce as they cook, giving it body and richness.
Butter
Adds fat for smoothness and a rounder, richer mouthfeel.
Sharp vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the richness of the eggs and butter.
Mixed mustard
Adds sharpness and aroma that give the sauce its characteristic bite.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture over boiling water until it thickens, stirring constantly.. Egg proteins set gently with heat, so constant stirring over simmering water keeps the mixture even and smooth. If it gets too hot or sits still, the eggs can scramble and curdle.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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