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Sauce

Mustard Sauce

A thickened sauce made from egg yolks, vinegar, jelly, mustard, butter, and salt.

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

Mustard Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine egg yolks and vinegar.

  2. Add jelly, mustard, butter, and salt.

  3. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until thick.

Cool and serve

  1. Allow to cool before using.

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Mustard + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,003 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Vinegar + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as their proteins set gently during slow cooking.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the richness of the butter and yolks.
Jelly
Adds sweetness and fruity body to offset the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard.
Mustard
Provides the pungent, tangy flavour that defines the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich mouthfeel and glossier texture.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat, stirring constantly. Egg yolk proteins set gently as they warm and thicken the sauce. Too much heat or a pause in stirring can overcook the yolks in spots, leaving them scrambled and grainy instead of smooth.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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