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Homemade Mustard

A simple mustard condiment made by mixing vinegar, eggs, mustard, cream, and salt, then boiling until thick.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and mustard 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 ↓

Homemade Mustard

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat together the vinegar, eggs, mustard, cream, and salt.

  2. Pour the mixture into boiling vinegar.

  3. Let it boil until thick like cream.

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Vinegar + creamtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,064 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Mustard + creamtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,935 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Egg + mustardtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,210 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Eggs
Thicken the mixture as they set with heat, giving body to the sauce.
Mustard
Supplies the sharp, pungent flavor that defines the condiment.
Cream
Adds richness and softens the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides acidity and the tangy bite characteristic of mustard.

The step that matters

Pouring into boiling vinegar. Egg proteins can scramble if heated too fast or unevenly. Adding the mixture to boiling liquid while stirring keeps the eggs from curdling and lets the sauce thicken smoothly.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Horseradishfits about as well
  2. Cucumberfits about as well
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, egg, cream. 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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