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Mustard Relish

A thickened mustard condiment made with egg yolks, spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Mustard Relish

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the yolks of two eggs.

  2. Stir in 3 tablespoons of mustard, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of black pepper, 1 teaspoon of sugar, and ½ teaspoon of cayenne pepper.

  3. Add ½ cup of sharp vinegar and cook until thickened to the consistency of cream.

  4. If the mixture is too thick, add more vinegar.

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 + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Sugar + vinegartop 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the relish as they cook, giving it a creamy body.
Mustard
Provides the sharp, pungent flavour that defines the relish.
Sharp vinegar
Adds acidity and thins the mixture to a pourable consistency.

The step that matters

Cooking until thickened. Egg yolks set when heated, but if they get too hot they can scramble into lumps. Cook gently and stop once the mixture reaches the consistency of cream, since it thickens further as it cools.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Cucumberfits less well
  4. Cabbagefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, sugar, vinegar. 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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