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To Mix English Mustard

A simple mustard paste made by mixing mustard powder with water, 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 English Mustard

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place mustard powder in a cup.

  2. Pour a few drops of boiling water over the mustard and mix rapidly to form a stiff paste.

  3. Add a few drops of vinegar to thin the paste.

  4. Stir in a good pinch of sugar and a little salt.

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

Mustard powder
Provides the sharp, pungent flavour and the body of the paste.
Boiling water
Hydrates the mustard powder so its flavour compounds develop into a paste.
Vinegar
Thins the paste and adds acidity that balances the heat.
Sugar
Adds a little sweetness that rounds out the sharpness.

The step that matters

Pour the boiling water and mix rapidly. Mustard's heat comes from enzyme reactions that start when the powder is wetted. Mixing quickly to a stiff paste distributes the water evenly and helps the flavour develop before it dulls.

“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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