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To Mix Mustard

A simple mustard condiment made by mixing ground mustard with vinegar, salt, and sugar.

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 Mix Mustard

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix the ground mustard with enough cold vinegar to form a paste.

  2. Add the salt and sugar, and mix well.

  3. Thin the mixture with scalding hot vinegar to avoid a raw taste.

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. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

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

Ground mustard
Provides the main body and sharp flavor of the condiment.
Vinegar
Adds acidity and moisture, forming the paste and thinning the mixture.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the mustard and vinegar with sweetness.

The step that matters

Thin with scalding hot vinegar. Heating the vinegar helps mellow the sharp, raw bite of ground mustard, so the mixture tastes smoother. Adding it too cold would leave the raw taste the step is meant to avoid.

“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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