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To Mix English Mustard

A mustard paste made from mustard flour, boiling 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. Combine the mustard flour with a few drops of boiling water and mix rapidly to form a stiff paste.

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

  3. 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. Mustard + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

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

  5. 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 flour
Provides the main body of the paste and the sharp, pungent flavour once moistened.
Boiling water
Hydrates the mustard flour so it forms a stiff, workable paste.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and thins the paste.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness and heat of the mustard.

The step that matters

Mixing the flour with the first few drops of water. Mustard's heat develops when enzymes in the flour react with moisture, and very hot water can deactivate those enzymes, leaving the mustard mild. Mixing rapidly into a stiff paste ensures even hydration before the vinegar thins it.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Mustardthe original
  2. Arrowrootfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Beetrootfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, vinegar, sugar. 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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